BEFORE becoming a Member of the European Parliament in 2009 I practised as a psychoanalyst and my approach to politics has been greatly influenced by my former profession, which closely observes the use of language. So it is with great interest that I have observed Fine Gael and Labour since they took office in 2011. Premium service article

ICTU's David Begg says "The 1919 Democratic Programme represented the trade union movement’s contribution to the shaping of the new state. That moment may be on us again" Premium service article

WILLIAM ‘PLUM’ SMITH’S BOOK, Inside Man: Loyalists of Long Kesh – The Untold Story, gives a personal account of his imprisonment as a young man from the Shankill Road. Free article

They’ve supported Madness and The Wailers and played Electric Picnic . . . Bionic Rats frontman Derek Clabby talks to An Phoblacht Free article

ON Monday 29 December, the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle met in Dublin to discuss the recommendation from the party’s negotiations team that the Stormont House Agreement concluded in Belfast on 23 December (“the Eve of Christmas Eve”, as the media called it) be ratified by the national leadership. Free article

THE AGREEMENT reached at Stormont Houes on 23 December (and endorsed by the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle on 29 December) represents progress on a number of fronts Free article

TÁ AN TURCAÍ ite agus na bronntanais roinnte agus muid ag tabhairt aghaidh arís eile ar chúrsaí polaitíochta mar is ceart agus gach seans gur bliain corrach a bheidh ann. Free article

Peadar Whelan talks to Declan McLaughlin about the new Hi-Flats CD Free article

SOMETIMES it is because churches are places of such beauty or history that silence is the only appropriate response. Sometimes – but not always. Free article

GERRY ADAMS recently referred to the fact that Ulster Unionists have a big problem with equality. The question must therefore be asked, why? Free article