Top Issue 1-2024

5 February 2009 Edition

Memories of Kathleen Largey: Singer, republican and comrade

5 February 2009

WHEN Miriam Makeba, the legendary South African singer, died in November last year, the world lost a great singer. The South African nation's collective heart missed a beat as the woman, known as 'Mama Afrika', passed away. Stilled was the voice that gave expression to the South African people's struggle for freedom over four decades. Free article

The Mary Nelis Column

5 February 2009

IN 1915, Pádraig Pearse, in a pamphlet entitled The Murder Machine, described the British system of education in Ireland as grotesque and a violation of human rights. He concluded that it reduced children and people to "mere things". In the Assembly on Monday, Education Minister Caitríona Ruane announced her intention to abolish the 'educational murder machine' in the North, the 11-Plus, and replace it with a system of academic and vocational opportunity to enable children to reach their full potential in personal development and choice of careers. Free article

Interview: Le Chéile International honourees: Rosie and Eddie Caughey

5 February 2009

ROSIE AND EDDIE CAUGHEY are the International honourees for this year's Le Chéile event. It was a team effort as the couple, along with their eight children, played a vital part in the republican struggle in the very hostile atmosphere of England right throughout the 1970s and since. Although Eddie was the public face of the family's political activism, Rosie was the backbone of the team who enabled the family to participate in the struggle. They talk to ELLA O'DWYER about the nature of that participation and the particular difficulties that went with being an Irish republican living in England. Free article

This news feature is funded by the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)

5 February 2009

Dublin Bus cuts 'incomprehensible' - McDonald, MEP flags up EU's proposed Economic Recovery Plan, 'Progressive London' conference hears de Brún and A Brief history of the EU Free article

Media View BY FRANK FARRELL

5 February 2009

THE five main Sunday newspapers in the Irish market, including Irish editions of British titles - the Tribune, Business Post, Independent, Times and Mail - all ran editorials screaming for pay cuts in the public service last weekend. The British ones had that extra edge to them with the Times stating that the unions "should have been dumped last summer" and that it was now time to "part company" with them and simply impose pay cuts. The Little Englanders of the Mail described Irish public service workers as "bureaucrats" whose "bloated payroll costs are sending the country into debt at the rate of €57m a day" (a straight-out lie). Free article

Another View BY EOIN Ó BROIN

5 February 2009

YOU heard it here first, folks: I challenge Michael O'Leary to a public debate on the Lisbon Treaty, anytime, anywhere, with any audience. Speaking to the Irish Examiner in December last, the Ryanair boss had a few things to say about Sinn Féin and our opposition to the Lisbon Treaty. Free article

Cúlchaint LE EOGHAN Mac CORMAIC

5 February 2009

Tá an culú eacnamaíochta seo ag cur isteach orm. Cúlú eacnamaíochta arsa an bhean, an ndéanfaimis rud éigin faoi. Mar, mar shampla, a deirim, an raibh aon moltaí ar leith agat? Is maith liom moltaí. An rud is fearr atá ann faoi mholtaí go ndéanann siad an difear idir clamhsán san fhásach agus an chéad chéim i dtreo réiteach faidhbe (gan a bheith ag déanamh tagairte ar dheireadh a chur le comhrá nach raibh mé ag iarraidh a bheith agam sa chéad dul síos). Cúlú eacnamaíochta, ar sí arís - moltaí a dúirt mé arís. Free article

More than a game BY MATT TREACY

5 February 2009

ONE of the interesting things highlighted by the 125th anniversary of the GAA has been the number of former players who went on to make their mark at other sports. In recent times there has been a plethora of professional soccer players who played for their county, including Steve Staunton, the former Irish international and manager who played under-21 for Louth. Free article

Remembering the Past

5 February 2009

IT HAS been sung at socialist and trade union gatherings for over one hundred years but it is only in recent years that its author has become more widely known. The song is The Red Flag and the author was Jim Connell, an Irish republican from County Meath. Jim Connell was born in 1852 in Kilskyre, County Meath. His earliest political involvement was as a teenager when he joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and became involved in land agitation. These were the years when the Fenians were at the height of their popularity and there were the first stirrings of what would become the Irish Land War. Free article

The Fifth Column

5 February 2009

An Phoblacht's famous weekly satirical column. Free article


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