THE Dáil this week debated a motion tabled jointly in the names of the Sinn Féin and Labour TDs noting the lack of urgency on the part of the Fianna Fáil/Green Government in the face of escalating job losses and calling for urgent action on unemployment. Opening the debate for Sinn Féin, the party's Economy spokesperson Arthur Morgan pointed out that figures released by the Central Statistics Office at the start of June reveal unemployment has surpassed 400,000. Free article

There was a loud buzz of anticipation in the hall as 800 Irish American activists gathered last Saturday afternoon in the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, in New York. Old friends who had campaigned together over many decades on a range of justice issues, from internment, through political status campaigns, the hunger strikes, collusion, plastic bullets and the MacBride Principles Campaign against discrimination, and many more, came together for a special one day conference organised by Sinn Féin. Free article

More than 100 Romanian immigrants have been forced to flee their homes in the Lisburn Road area of south Belfast following a week of violent attacks by far-right racist thugs. On Tuesday night 115 people, including a newborn baby and several young children, gathered their belongings and took refuge overnight in a church before being bussed to a leisure centre on Wednesday morning. Free article

ONE of the most emotional demonstrations ever seen on the streets of Dublin was witnessed in Ireland and beyond these shores last week. Thousands of people who had been abused as children in institutions run by Catholic religious orders and by the state walked from Parnell Square to Leinster House on the eve of the Dáil debate on the Ryan Report. Free article

IMPLOSION, free-for-all, blind panic - these are some of the words used by the media to describe the political state of play following last week's elections. The Democratic Unionist Party was putting on a brave face and promising changes after its candidate not only failed for the first time in 40 years to top the poll but also presided over a staggering 50% fall in the DUP's share of the vote. Five years ago, during the last European election, the DUP had polled just under 176,000 votes; this time it managed less than 89,000. Free article

Last Monday night, at Navan Town Council a majority of councillors elected Joe Reilly as Navan's first Sinn Féin Mayor in over 80 years. Sinn Féin, Labour and independents came together and implemented their mandate for change which saw Fianna Fáil moved from the positions of power on the council for the first time in a generation. Free article