LOYAL ORDER LEADERS have been urged once again by North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly to engage in talks with elected representatives and representative community groups around the small number of contentious parades after sustained rioting in Ardoyne and other areas around Orange Order marches on The Twelfth.
The largest outbreak of trouble occurred in Ardoyne in North... Free article

Emergency – Hospitals in danger

» BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA

PEOPLE from across the West of Ireland served by Roscommon County Hospital rallied outside the Dáil on 6th July to protest at the axing of the hospital’s Emergency Department (ED). The rally coincided with the Dáil debate on a Sinn Féin motion calling on Government TDs to fulfil their election commitments to retain... Free article

Attorney General orders new inquest into murder organised by top British Army agent in UDA

» BY PEADAR WHELAN

THE FAMILY of west Belfast nationalist Gerard Slane have achieved a major breakthrough in their fight for justice with the ordering by the Attorney General of a fresh inquest into his killing in 1988.
The development has come after the lawyer acting for the family,... Free article

A Turning Point in History

» BY JAYNE FISHER

MARKING the 30th anniversary of the Hunger Strike, one of the most important and courageous struggles to have taken place anywhere in history, anywhere in the world, saw London’s Irish Centre packed on June 18th at a conference to mark this turning point in history. The event was organised by Sinn Féin to remember the Hunger Strike and... Free article

AS the new Fine Gael/Labour Government took office at the end of June 1981, Joe McDonnell was facing death in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh. He died on July 8th after 61 days on the Hunger Strike. He was 29 years old.
He was the fifth Hunger Striker to lose his life in the struggle for the restoration of political status.
Less than three hours after Joe died, 16-year-old Fianna boy... Free article

The Siege of Short Strand

BY PEADAR WHELAN

» BY PEADAR WHELAN

IN the dark of night of Monday 20th June, more than 100 masked loyalists, wearing surgical gloves, attacked nationalist homes in the Short Strand area of east Belfast.
The highly-organised and orchestrated attack was as unprovoked as it was unexpected.
Dozens of homes in the Short Strand along the Mountpottinger and... Free article

SECOND ANNUAL SINN FÉIN SUMMER SCHOOL | SCOIL SHAMHRAIDH NA SAOIRSE

» BY DES O’GRADY

» BY DES O’GRADY

THE second annual Sinn Féin Summer School, Scoil Shamhraidh Na Saoirse, was held over two days at the Mills Inn, Baile Bhúirne, County Cork, on the weekend of 8th and 9th of July. This year the event drew a capacity audience from the four corners of Ireland as well as from... Free article

‘UNITING IRELAND’ EVENTS IN DUBLIN AND CORK | ‘I DTREO POBLACHT NUA - TOWARDS A NEW REPUBLIC’

» BY BRENDAN KERR

WHILE Independent TD Shane Ross was busy telling listeners on RTÉ’s Marian Finucane Show that “not even Sinn Féin talks much about a united Ireland any more”, Sinn Féin was actually hosting two very successful conferences on that very theme in Dublin and Cork City -... Free article

THIS POEM is being carried because it is written by someone who has personally endured the horror and brutality of being force-fed while on hunger strike.
Gerry Kelly, Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Belfast, was sentenced in London in November 1973 for his part in the IRA bombing of the Old Bailey.
He and a number of other prisoners immediately went on hunger strike for... Free article

The Hunger Strike and Fleet Street’s graveyard of truth

» BY ROY GREENSLADE

THIRTY YEARS ON from the hunger strike in which 10 died, consider the pitiless, dishonest way it was reported
Thirty years ago, eight men were on hunger strike in the Maze Prison [Long Kesh]. Four of their Irish republican comrades had already fasted themselves to death, and a further six would do so in... Free article