LIZ GILLIS meets me in The Patriots Inn, which sits in the shadow of Kilmainham Jail, on the south bank of the River Liffey. Free article

THE scourge of fuel poverty continues to affect all levels of society, particularly the old and infirm. Free article

THE RAFTERS of the historic Mansion House in Dublin were ringing on 23 October with fighting words from Irish and North American trade union leaders at a rally organised by Sinn Féin to mark the 1913 Lockout under the banner ‘In Common Cause Against Austerity, 1913-2013’. Free article

ANNE MARIE FITZGERALD has made history for Sinn Féin in Mid Tyrone by being elected first citizen of the Omagh District. And more history was made on Omagh District Council at the meeting when it elected two female councillors to the top two posts — Anne Marie as Chairperson and Omagh Town representative Sorcha McAnespy as Vice-Chair. Premium service article

LIVING in this part of the Empire or the north-eastern counties of Ireland was, in the early 1990s, a very daunting experience. Our jails were full of young men and women serving long and dreary prison sentences in a truly vindictive prison regime. The forces of ‘law and order’ were busy declining to comment on issues of national security while skulking in the corner as they no doubt planned to secure the ‘democratic wish’ of their paymasters in London by bold action against bolder citizens. The place was in many ways at a crossroads. The war, for want of a better word, was at a stalemate and 4,000 souls were in their graves, the vast bulk from working-class backgrounds while it became clear to those who really mattered that this level of ‘acceptable violence’ could be maintained in perpetuity. Free article

IN OCTOBER 2011, I sat with a resident in one of the doomed Priory Hall apartments discussing the need for a public campaign in support of the families who were at that moment being evacuated from their homes. Free article

THE OLD ADAGE of ‘Ask a silly question, get a silly answer’ should be writ large across recent media opinion polls in the North. Premium service article

ANOIS agus mé ag tabhairt aghaidh ar feachtas mar an MEP candidate do Sinn Féin san Deisceart, reality is setting in and the logistics of how to cover nine Counties is somewhat of a challenge. Free article

ARMED SPANISH POLICE SQUADS were smashing in the doors of Basque NGOs and priosners’ rights activists as a delegation of Basque political activists was arriving in Ireland to give an update on the peace process to Irish politicians. Premium service article

THE FOUNDING of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913 was a momentous event that would help determine the course of Irish history for decades to come. Yet the circumstances which brought about the birth of the Volunteers were very particular to the time and they arose out of the immediate political crisis around Home Rule for Ireland. Free article