Larkin, the King and Croke Park

ON the North Strand on an afternoon that actually felt finally like spring has arrived, it is not hard to find Mary Lou McDonald and her canvass team.
Their yellow jackets emblazoned with “Vote Number 1 Mary Lou McDonald” can be seen from the Five Lamps. And the redoubtable Nicola’s tasteful(!) choice of music plays from her flag-bedecked car.

If you’re young, go for it

KATHRYN REILLY was one of the new faces in Election 2011 and one of the youngest (at 22) but she also attracted attention because she was one of the most articulate of the newcomers and promises much as a young woman and future TD.
SORCHA BERRY spoke to Kathryn in a short break on the canvass trail.

What inspired you to get into republican politics?
I... Free article

Man of the match Mac Lochlainn

BY MARK MULLAN

THE sports hall in Letterkenny’s Aura centre has no doubt seen a few intriguing contests in it’s time but few can have been as clear-cut as Pádraig Mac Lochlainn’s triumph in Donegal North-East on Saturday.
This has always been a fixture that Sinn Féin had hoped to win but few would have expected the compelling nature of Pádraig’s... Free article

Seeking justice for Ballymurphy and Manus Deery

“BLOODY SUNDAY,” Gerry Adams boomed across Guildhall Square in Derry on January 30th, “IS the defining story of the British Army in Ireland.”
The Sinn Féin president was addressing a crowd that numbered as many as 30,000 who turned out to remember the 14 killed and many more wounded on Bloody Sunday by soldiers from the British... Free article

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