As part of An Phoblacht's coverage on the 50th anniversary of the IRA's 1950s Border Campaign, ELLA O'DWYER interviews lifelong republican SEAMUS GRAHAM who joined the IRA in 1953. Free article

From conversations and contacts that I have had with people from all walks of life - business, social, political and academic - all are agreed that the biggest barrier to building a sustainable economy in the North is the fact that fiscal policy, taxation and public expenditure are all determined in London. All are agreed that that must change and in the recent Assembly elections the electorate voted emphatically to send British Ministers home in order that a local administration could make the decisions that affect our daily lives. The people voted for a new era in politics. Free article

A bad summer? Well, don't expect too much better in the future. And if you recently purchased a property overseas in order to avail of sunnier climes be aware you may soon be holidaying in the European equivalent of the Sahara, as desertification threatens the southern reaches of the continent, while all to the North will continue to suffer excessive rainfall. Ironically, one region of the globe where rainfall has already declined is the perpetually wet and damp Equator. Free article

Agus má ag bladaráil liom, tá an Ghréig trí thine agus Stiofán Staunton ag foghlaim conas Béarla a labhairt os comhair na gceamaraí. Free article

It is astounding to think that Joe Canning of Galway will be eligible to play under 21 for another two years. To date he has already won two minor All Irelands and an under 21 last Sunday, but he is not unique in that as so too have Kerril Wade, Paul Loughnane, Ciaran O'Donovan, Andrew Keary and Keith Kilkenny, and several more were on the panel in two of the successful years. Free article

Hate to disagree with fellow columnists (as Matt Treacy will know) but the understandably deep antagonism to the establishment media of my comrade John O'Brien may have blunted his usually sensitive antennae to the central issue about Fr Michael Cleary and his child in Media View last week. Free article

Man Utd legend versus the IRA

Paddy Crerand, the tough-tackling, tough- talking, Manchester United legend from Glasgow’s Gorbals who was the rock in the midfield that allowed the genius of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law and George Best to flourish and capture the imaginations of the world in the 1960s and 1970s, met his match when he came up against the IRA in Derry.
Paddy, whose parents... Free article

A week is a long time. Everyone knows that. The death of Pavarotti, since last we spoke. And Martin McGuinness named on RTÉ alongside you, Ian and the British Prime Minister as People of the Year. And tragically, the deaths of four young people who were active in sport, filling people with a sense of disbelief and loss. Free article