Irish Catholics have for centuries suffered at the hands of those who had limitless and uncontrolled authority over their lives and liberties. While individual priests and bishops stood with the people in opposition to such authority, for the most part the Church leadership stood resolutely on the side of the politically and socially powerful - the 'nice people'. Free article

Here, two Irish priests, Tipperary man Fr Joe Cantwell and Fr Joe McVeigh from Fermanagh, talk to ELLA O'DWYER about their respective vocational journeys. The Tipperary man went on what, in the 1960s, was known parochially as 'the foreign missions', to countries like Nigeria and Kenya, to work with the poor and oppressed. The Fermanagh man worked in another region afflicted by injustice - the North of Ireland. Though these two men never met, they have much in common - they both challenged injustice and oppression. The two Joes are reading and acting from the same hymn sheet. Free article

Have the British government ever told the truth about the North or indeed the truth about atrocities carried out against defenceless people during their colonial exploits in many countries of the world? What are the chances they will come clean on the atrocity that was Bloody Sunday in Ireland, that they will tell the truth? Free article

Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman, an independent member of the PLO's Executive Committee and a founding member of the PFLP, was a keynote international speaker at the recent Sinn Féin Ard Fheis. He spoke to An Phoblacht's EMMA CLANCY about the need for the international community to act urgently to stop the colonisation of further swathes of Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem if a two-state solution is to have any prospect of being achieved. Free article

EASTER SUNDAY is the annual 'day in the sun' for republicans - though more often than not, the heavens will open and pour down on the belligerent gatherings. Regardless, it's still our day; solemn in its reminder of our republican dead, yet joyful in the sense of renewal and comradeship that comes with any type of republican gathering. Free article

Slowly but surely, the modern state of Mexico is collapsing, imploding under the weight of its own corruption and contradictions, awash with drug money and feuding drug empires. It has followed the bloody path taken by Colombia and become a 21st century 'narco-state'. The Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, in Texas. It is a major north-south transit point, with upwards of 60,000 people crossing the border daily. Free article

In the recent past we have witnessed corruption in public life in the 26 counties, from politicians taking bribes, fixing planning applications, and granting exploration licenses to multinational conglomerates at virtually no benefit to the people of Ireland. Free article

In the local government elections of January 1920 the Irish Republic, which had been declared independent by the first Dáil Éireann a year previously, received another massive endorsement, with Sinn Féin majorities in 172 of the 206 councils throughout the country. Free article

We can learn so much from our Chinese brothers and sisters. Clifford Coonan, the Irish Times man in Beijing, reported last week that Chinese journalists are to go on mandatory courses in Marxist theory. Free article