Sinn Féin's education spokesperson Karen Mullan has called for action to tackle holiday hunger and support families. Free article

As the British government and its Unionist allies prepared to divide Ireland, and as they planned to put the UVF in uniform and arm them as the B Specials, the UVF was active along the emerging border. One of their victims was IRA Volunteer Michael Kelly, recalled here by Monaghan Sinn Féin activist Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, former Cavan-Monaghan TD. Free article

A once banned civil war based novel by Liam O’Flaherty has been republished after 87 years. Free article

Notorious for their sectarianism and inextricably linked with decades of Unionist one-party rule in ‘Northern Ireland’, the B Specials pre-dated the formal establishment of the Six-County state and their formation 100 years ago this month signalled the British government’s intention to impose Partition by force, while re-arming Unionism to subdue the nationalist minority. Free article

2 November 2020 marks the centenary of the execution of a brave young Irishman who refused to serve any longer in the British Army in protest at British Government terror in Ireland. It was soldiers of the Connaught Rangers who made that protest in India. Free article

“The only message I have for anybody is ‘Hold on and stick to the Republic.’” – Kevin Barry Free article

New research on the use of plastic bullets shows the premeditated decision to attack 1984 rally where Sean Downes died as a result of a plastic bullet fired at point blank range. Free article

Mary Doyle took part in the 1980 Hunger Strike as a POW in Armagh Jail. She looks back to the traumatic years of the 1980 and 1981 Hunger Strikes. Free article

Today marks the centenary of the death of Terence MacSwiney on hunger strike in Brixton Prison.

In normal times, we would gather today to commemorate and honour the legacy of a Republican icon, but these are not normal times. 

However, we can all still reflect today on MacSwiney's sacrifice and his contribution to the struggle for Irish freedom.

The mark that Terence MacSwiney left... Free article

The story of Terence MacSwiney’s hunger strike has been told many times, in the pages of An Phoblacht and elsewhere. That it still carries such power and resonates to this day shows what an epic struggle it was. One Irish political prisoner was alone in the heart of the British Empire and fighting that Empire with only his determination and his body as weapons. His death and the national and international response to it proved his own words that “not all the armies of all the Empires of earth can crush the spirit of one true man. And that one man will prevail.” Free article