THE North's deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness, was in Iraq at the weekend where he addressed a conference on national reconciliation which brought together representatives of various political, ethnic and religious communities in Iraq. Free article

"THIS is the time for the South. This is the time for us to believe in ourselves," Gerry Adams told Sinn Féin activists from all over Ireland meeting in Dublin last Saturday. Free article

IN the North, Sinn Féin Education Minister Caitríona Ruane is battling against elitist vested interests and a hostile media to transform the exam-based education system into a more equitable one where children are no longer effectively classed as failures at just 11 years old simply because they have not passed one exam, the 11-Plus. Free article

CUTBACKS in health spending and in aid for poor countries will form part of government plans to save money in the wake of the downturn in the Irish economy. Free article

A BILL OF RIGHTS for the North remains one of the most important undelivered aspects of the Good Friday Agreement. Ten years on, members of the Human Rights Consortium gathered at a Belfast conference to analyse recent developments and establish what is now required for 'Getting the Bill Right'. Free article

HUNDREDS of people last Sunday took part in a commemoration for Irish republicans James Crossan and Patrick McManus, who were killed in 1958. The 50th anniversary was marked by a lecture, the publication of a booklet and Sunday's commemoration which attracted people from across the border counties and beyond. Free article

An inquest jury has criticised the British Army over the 1996 killing of Derryman Dermot McShane. Free article