We are the drivers for change across the island of Ireland

SINN FÉIN Assembly leader John O’Dowd issued a rallying call to republicans across the island when he addressed the Cúige Uladh AGM in Toomebridge on Saturday 22nd January.

The task for republicans, John O’Dowd said, is to go out to work harder than we ever have to take a major step on the road to the Republic and... Free article

Winning people’s confidence

EVEN the most seasoned political observers were stunned by the political fiasco that has unfolded over the past weeks. The Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government imploded. An Taoiseach Brian Cowen stepped aside as leader of Fianna Fáil as part of an eleventh-hour political makeover in advance of the general election.
The Greens relocated to the Opposition... Free article

I DON’T NEED to tell An Phoblacht readers that these are dramatic times we are living in.
Politics is a rough trade. I’m sure Brian Cowen’s family are feeling sore and on a personal level I empathise with them and him - and with the hundreds of thousands of other families who have been impoverished and traumatised by this bad government.
The Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government... Free article

Family insists independent probe the way forward

SEAMUS FINUCANE, the brother of assassinated solicitor Pat Finucane, has reiterated the family’s demands for an independent inquiry into the events surrounding Pat’s murder in February 1989.

Seamus Finucane was speaking after it was disclosed that the British Government is to take a further two months to decide whether or not there... Free article

THE Unite trade union has urged people to vote to elect a left-wing government for the first time in Irish history. The union, the second largest in the state and a Labour Party affiliate, has also called on Labour to go into coalition with Sinn Féin and other Left parties and “progressive Independents” to make this happen.

“A vote for Fine Gael is a vote for more Fianna Fáil... Free article

LE TREVOR Ó CLOCHARTAIGH

TÁ RUD éigin iontach speisialta ag tarlú i nGaillimh ó thaobh Sinn Féin di. Le roinnt blianta bhí muid beagán trína chéile agus ní raibh an páirtí chomh haontaithe agus a d’fhéadfadh sé a bheith.

D’athraigh sé sin ar an Luan seo caite nuair a bhí coinbhinsiún ar siúl le hiarrthóir a roghnú do Ghaillimh Thiar san olltoghchán. Bhí slua mór millteach i... Free article

The truth has been brought home at last

THE 39th anniversary of Bloody Sunday takes place in an unprecedented atmosphere of celebration marking the successful culmination of a long and arduous campaign for truth and justice. Against all the odds, ordinary people have wrested an outstanding moral and legal victory over a state that murdered peaceful protesters and then told the... Free article

Budget aims to counter blow from Tory-led British Government

THE Assembly’s draft Budget released for public consultation on December 15th contains several measures aimed at countering the severe economic blow inflicted by the British Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition government.
In its October Comprehensive Spending Review, the British Government announced not only massive cuts... Free article

Finance & Famine

BY LAURA FRIEL

“I DON’T KNOW WHY, they must have just liked potatoes.” Speaking of what is known here as ‘The Great Hunger’ and elsewhere less accurately as ‘The Irish Famine’, a tour-guide expressed ignorant bewilderment.
Along with others, my daughter and I were in England on ‘The Shakespeare Trail’ and I can’t even remember why the potato blight came up. Aoife... Free article

WITH the temporary stay of execution granted on Brian Cowen’s leadership of Fianna Fáil after his vote of confidence move, the election campaign can begin (of course, that’s if the whole House of Cards hasn’t collapsed between me typing this and it rolling off the press over 24 hours). But it’s not the posters, leaflets, canvasses of shopping malls, church gates, GAA clubs, I’m... Free article