1980 had been a tough year. I had spent much of it visiting prisoners in Armagh and the H-Blocks, mostly Mairead Farrell and Bobby Sands, in the build-up to the Hunger Strike. Now, the Hunger Strike was over but instead of taking the opportunity to resolve the crisis (which is what the Catholic Hierarchy and the SDLP, amongst others, claimed would happen if only the prisoners... Free article

LAWYERS Madden & Finucane, which represents up to 10 Bloody Sunday families, have confirmed they have submitted files calling for the British paratroopers behind the 1972 killings be prosecuted.
Peter Madden, speaking for the Belfast law firm said “files requesting that the authorities should prosecute those responsible for the murders and attempted murders” on Bloody Sunday were... Free article

Offences fall under Good Friday Agreement, says Sinn Féin

THE conviction of Tyrone man Gerry McGeough on Friday 18th February of attempting to kill a UDR soldier in June 1981 has been criticised by Sinn Féin.
Sinn Féin said the offences fell under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement and Gerry McGeough should be released.
Gerry McGeough, who was arrested in 2007, was also... Free article

WEST BELFAST community worker Seamus Finucane has been warned by the PSNI of a serious threat to his life from the self-styled ‘Óglaigh na hÉireann’ group.
The PSNI informed Finucane on Thursday 17 February that there is “a serious threat” against him because of his work in the community.
In their threat the micro group warned that anyone involved in what they called “acts of... Free article

The birth of a republican

‘THE BIRTH of a republican: from a nationalist ghetto to the battlefield of H-Block’, by hunger-striker Bobby Sands,  was first published anonymously in Republican News on December 16th 1978. It was reprinted in An Phoblacht/Republican News on April 4th 1981, after Bobby had been on hunger strike for one month.
The smuggled-out article, introduced as... Free article

McGurk’s Bar Bombing: The Police Ombudsman’s Report

PSNI chief at odds over faults of RUC

WOULDN’T YOU imagine that coming from a fundamentalist Protestant evangelical background PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott would be concerned with the truth. Yet his pronouncement on the 1971 bombing of McGurk’s Bar appears to indicate that he is at odds with the revised report of the... Free article

FRANK STAGG’S SISTER, Rose, and her two daughters were among the special guests at the very first Dublin ’81 Committee commemorative meeting of 2011 on Saturday 12th February, the exact anniversary 35 years ago of the death on hunger strike of this brave IRA Volunteer in an English prison.
The event in the Ballybough Community Centre, attended by almost 200 people and honouring... Free article

THE WONDERS of the modern newspaper industry being what they are, I have to write this before polling day and you’ll be reading if afterwards. By now you’ll know how well Sinn Féin did and how badly Fianna Fáil dropped. We’ll all know whether Fine Gael has accomplished the previously thought impossible and formed a single-party government.
At which point Pa Carney has sworn he... Free article

THE success of our colleagues in the 26 Counties will undoubtedly have a positive impact on Sinn Féin’s electoral performance in the month of May in the Six Counties, Taoiseach.
As you know, there will be Assembly elections and district council elections in the North on the 30th anniversary of Bobby Sands’s death on hunger strike. Will Fine Gael or Labour – or Fianna Fáil for that... Free article

BA é Breandán Ó Béacháin a dúirt, tráth, gurb é an chéad rud ar chlár aon ghrúpa nó pháirtí in Éirinn ná an scoilt. Is dócha go raibh Fianna Fáil ag fanacht le tamall ar a scoilt féin ach sna toghcháin seo tá an scoilt i ndiaidh tarlú cheana féin idir an méid damáiste a rinne Fianna Fáil thar na blianta agus gliceas na niarrthóirí atá ann anois, ag maíomh nach raibh baint ar bith... Free article