56 YEARS after its first performance, The New Theatre pays tribute to Brendan Behan, Alan Simpson and Carolyn Swift (founders of The Pike Theatre) with this re-staging of Behan’s seminal theatrical work.

Set in Mountjoy Prison on the day and night before the unnamed Quare Fellow is to be hanged, the play portrays the prisoners’ drab existence as they argue, laugh and struggle in... Free article

THE possible axing of subsidised flights for cancer patients from Donegal to Dublin to save money has been contrasted by Donegal Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty with the cost of what ministers spend in flying around the country in the Government jet.

Senator Doherty has called on Letterkenny General Hospital to give assurances that local cancer patients will continue to get... Free article

COUNCILLOR Jonathan O’Brien has been unanimously selected to contest the constituency of Cork North Central at the next general election.

He was nominated by Councillor Thomas Gould and seconded by Councillor Chris O’Leary.
Accepting the nomination, Jonathan O’Brien said:

Never before has politics in this country been so obviously bankrupt. There is a crying need for... Free article

RESPONDING to developments in Britain and Minister for Children Barry Andrews's suggestion that Child Benefit be withdrawn from some children, Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh called on the Government to maintain Child Benefit as a universal payment and tax high-earners more.

He said:

Moves by the Government to cut or restrict eligibility for Child Benefit would in fact be a... Free article

MARTIN McGUINNESS putting a strong challenge to Tory Secretary of State Owen Patterson on the question of the scale of cuts threatened.

At the 'Ulster fry' breakfast at Tory conference in Birmingham he  argued that to renege on former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s promise that spending levels to the Six Counties over 10 years would be hugely damaging

Martin McGuinness also said... Free article

WHAT next for Bartholmew Ahern? He has moonlighted as a TV soccer pundit, a chat-show host and has held the part-time positions of a city councillor and Dublin’s Lord Mayor in 1986.

The ‘official day job’ was then as a TD, then Minister for Labour, Minister for Finance, and finally Taoiseach. So now he has the pension waiting but enjoys the taxpayer-funded driver, limo and office.... Free article

THE TAOISEACH’S PERK paid for by taxpayers which provides two salaried secretaries to former taoisigh, including Bertie Ahern, should be ended Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said after the former Taoiseach’s TV ad for his News of the World column.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh added that Mr Ahern is still a TD, takes advantage of an author's tax breaks and gets a state car and driver.

The... Free article

THE British Government has to honour its commitment to a ten-year capital programme for the North of Ireland, deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MP said before he headed to a Conservative Party Conference fringe meeting in Birmingham on Tuesday.

Martin McGuinness reaffirmed Sinn Féin’s commitment to opposing the “unfair and unjust cuts” proposed by the British... Free article

WEEKEND media reports that the Fianna Fáil-led Government is planning a flat-rate water tax on families show Brian Cowen’s and Brian Lenihan’s “determination to keeping tapping the pockets of low-income and middle-income earners”, Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh said.

This tax has nothing to do with water conservation.

The Government needs to shore up revenue from somewhere... Free article

TODAY marks the first anniversary of the passing of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish people. Leading 'No' campaigner Mary Lou McDonald today said:

One year on from the passing of the Lisbon Treaty, the Government, Fine Gael and Labour’s promise that a 'Yes' vote would deliver ‘jobs and investment’ have been exposed for the sham that they were.

These parties joined forces... Free article