British classical economist Adam Smith saw the creation of wealth as dependent upon an invisible hand, a mysterious autonomous force born out of individual choice, progression of the division of labour and a free market. The mystery at the heart of Smith's model was rigorously exposed by Karl Marx, who put power relations and human agency at the heart of his analysis. Free article

What do 37 million Americans, 1.7 million Iranians and 861,000 26-County citizens have in common? They are all deprived and enduring poverty and in the last week new poverty figures and studies have been published for each of these populations. They show poverty increasing in the US and Iran, while two new studies by the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin for the Combat Poverty Agency have shown regional disparities in poverty across Ireland. It says that 400,000 low-income Irish households are at risk of falling into severe poverty if the Irish economy wanes. Free article

If any recent event can sum up the contrast between two diametrically opposed and different societies that are the respective social systems of Cuba and of the United States, it would have to be their respective responses to the two powerful hurricanes that have struck these two counties in the last two months. Free article

IN JULY the IRA declared an end to its armed struggle and is about to re-engage with General de Chastelain's decommissioning body. Up and down the country Catholic schools, churches and houses are being attacked and burnt. A mini-civil war rages between loyalist paramilitaries, resulting in violent deaths, demoralising and depressing working-class loyalist districts. Masked gunmen parade the streets in 'shows of strength'; there is rioting, looting and burning on the Shankill. Free article

On Thursday and Friday 25-26 August, Coiste na nIarchimí, the national network for republican ex-prisoners, hosted its third annual Scoil Samhraidh at Tí Chulainn Heritage & Cultural Centre in South Armagh. Organised under Coiste's Processes of Nation Building programme, the theme of the school was Irish republicanism: Can it be militant without being militaristic? The premise could not have been more timely and lively discussion focused on the republican project and the next phase of the struggle ensued over the course of the next two days. Free article

The British Army is and has been engaged in a policy of systematic torture and abuse of civilians. That was the damning verdict made by a prominent human right's lawyer representing Iraqi civilians in legal action against the British Government in relation to the conduct of its armed forced in Iraq. Free article

On the 8 September 1921, 84 years ago, one of the most daring and successful IRA prison breaks took place. In 1921 over 1,300 IRA Volunteers were imprisoned in the Curragh Camp, County Kildare. The camp was sprawled over ten acres and the men were housed in 60 wooden army huts arranged in four rows, designated A,B,C and D. The compound was rectangular and entirely enclosed by barbed wire fences and at each corner of the compound stood a high tower on which machine guns were mounted and manned 24 hours a day. Powerful searchlights swept continuously once darkness fell, making sure no prisoner was out of his hut at night. Free article

Leathanach Grinn na bPoblachtánach - The republican funnies page Free article

It is very rarely that a football match involving any county other than Dublin has me totally absorbed until the final whistle. Even when games are close there is normally a degree of detachment where I can peer at supporters from the counties concerned and study their joy and pain with the curiosity of a Victorian collector of strange insects. Free article