Dessie can do it

BY JOHN HEDGES

DESSIE ELLIS is organised. Very organised. He has to be. His desk in his constituency office in Finglas (part of his house) is covered in constituents’ case forms.
They’re in neat, segregated piles, according to their type. I give up counting them when I reach 38. And that’s without those in working files on the desk behind him.
When I turned up... Free article

“GOD, what an uninspiring interview by Taoiseach this morning.” So began Simon Coveney’s September 14th tweet. By that evening, the Fine Gael spokesperson for Transport and the Marine had caused three separate media hurricanes: a debate about libel online, Ireland’s international reputation, and a full-scale leadership debate in Fianna Fáil.
First up was the libel issue.
Had... Free article

Sligo hunt for loan sharks

BY JOHN HEDGES

“PARASITICAL” and violent loan sharks preying on families struggling to make ends meet are being pursued by Sinn Féin Sligo County Councillor Seán MacManus. Seán has asked the council to back his motion urging the Government to crack down on illegal money-lenders charging interest rates anything up to 200%!
The long-standing Sinn Féin... Free article

SPEAKING at the opening of a GUE/NGL conference on the European Citizens’ Initiative with Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, Irish MEP Bairbre de Brún said that mobilising people to engage in decision-making should be at the heart of the Citizens’ Initiative.
Bairbre de Brún said:
“It is extremely important that the Citizens’ Initiative is as accessible as possible. This... Free article

ACTIVISTS from Ógra Shinn Féin, the SDLP, Green Party, Alliance Party, the Ulster Unionist Party and the DUP are working together on a sexual health policy for young people.
The group attended a weekend residential in St Columb’s Park House in Derry in September where they had the input from and discussions with a range of sexual health educators and medical staff working with... Free article

Evening Herald LIES about arrest in Robert Delany case

THE Dublin-based Evening Herald newspaper blatantly lied in a front-page splash story on September 6th claiming that what it termed a “Sinn Féin chief” had been arrested by gardaí in connection with the shooting of Dublin postal worker Robert Delany.
Robert has been in a coma since being shot in October 2008 in the home in... Free article

“UNIQUE, fascinating and engaging” was how several Ógra Shinn Féin activists described the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation’ Summer School, ‘Leadership for a New Generation – Power, Politics and Participation’, at the end of August.
Speakers included Indepen-dent MLA and former Progressive Unionist Party leader Dawn Purvis and the republican former prisoner and... Free article

Start mobilising for December 4th ‘Make a Stand - March Against Cuts’ 1:30pm, Saturday 4th December, Dublin

AS An Phoblacht goes to print, thousands will be supporting Irish Congress of Trade Unions protests in Dublin, Belfast, Derry and Galway.
On Saturday 4th December – before a Budget by Fianna Fáil predicted to punish the public to help bail out the bankers – people who want... Free article

The struggle is not over yet

‘Charlie McGlade was not afraid to take up arms to oppose the enemy but he was not a militarist. He had a social conscience and he understood that the struggle to end British rule and create a New Republic on this island required much more than just a change of flags, a lick of green paint on the post boxes and a series of self-serving conservative... Free article

AN PHOBLACHT columnist, author and Sinn Féin activist Eoin Ó Broin has been unanimously selected as the Sinn Féin general election candidate for Dublin Mid-West.

The sitting TDs are former Progressive Democrats leader and now Health Minister Mary Harney, controversial Green Party TD Paul Gogarty and Fianna Fáil Government Chief Whip John Curran, who has been in the forefront... Free article