The differences between Irish republicans and Gerry Fitt, who died on 26 August aged 79 years were many and profound. From the days when he won the West Belfast parliamentary seat as a Republican Labour candidate, unveiled a memorial to James Connolly on the Falls Road and sustained a very public beating at the hands of the RUC, Fitt was to stride further and further east - politically and geographically - into the very heart of the state he had originally opposed. Free article

It seemed a curious choice, the word love, used this week to launch the latest campaign by rejectionist unionism against any kind of historic compromise with their nationalist neighbours. Free article

Last week Sinn Féin published a major new report detailing the horrific reality of unionist paramilitary activity. The dossier, published on 18 August, details attacks carried out by unionist paramilitary gangs in the period since June of this year. Although by no means comprehensive, due to the fact that so many such attacks go unreported, it still offers a chilling picture of orchestrated sectarian intimidation, particularly in areas where there is a vulnerable nationalist minority. Free article

Nuclear power is having a busy summer. In Britain last week the cabinet was discussing proposals for selling off British Nuclear Group, the nuclear clean up arm of British Nuclear Fuels. Free article

The fifth annual Kieran Doherty commemoration took place last Sunday in Ballyconnell, County Cavan. August 2 marked the 24th anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Doherty who, was elected TD for Cavan/Monaghan in June 1981. Free article

It was the best of festivals, it was the worst of festivals. The Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures last weekend managed to combine two very distinct elements. The first and the worst was centred around the Craft Fair where white, middle-class Guardian readers showed how open they were to world culture by perusing the trinkets and bracelets made by indigenous people around the world. Thankfully their bourgeois idyll was not shattered by having to deal with the actual people who crafted these pieces as a majority of the stalls were manned by white middle-class Guardian readers. Free article

Recently a number of Sinn Féin activists, writing in this paper on the way forward for the party in the 26 Counties, have touched on the thorny question of coalition. Writing in a personal capacity Cathal O Murchú suggests that while it may be a problematic issue, the coalition question is something which republicans will need to engage with in the time ahead one way or the other. Free article

Bhí an t-ádh orm freastal ar Fhleá Cheoil na hÉireann i Leitir Ceanainn, Tír Chonaill ag deireadh na seachtaine. Rith sé liom go raibh na mílte i láthair ag an ócáid seo agus de réir tuairiscí éagsúla, thaisteal suas le leath-mhilliúin duine le bheith ann don phléisiúr. Free article

The republican funnies page Free article

Remembering the Past - At eight o clock on Friday evening 28 April 1916, with the GPO engulfed in flames, the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic and IRA men and women retreated from the building and endeavoured to make there way to the Four Courts' Garrison. They left the GPO by the side entrance in Henry Street and made there way under constant sniper fire to Moore Lane. Free article