SINN FÉIN President Gerry Adams has called on the Orange Order to reroute a small number of contentious parades, including the one that passed through Ardoyne on Monday night and led to rioting. Adams was speaking after rioting by a number of nationalist youths in the wake of a contentious Orange parade in north Belfast on Monday night. Twelfth parades took place a day late because 12 July fell on a Sunday this year. Free article

TWENTY years ago, Gerry Adams's voice was banned from British airwaves and he was prohibited from travelling to Britain. On Tuesday evening, in Westminster Hall's Grand Committee Room in the British House of Commons, he delivered a keynote address emphasising that Irish unity not only makes social, political and economic sense but that it is also achievable, sooner rather than later. Free article

CONFUSION reigns as the Fianna Fáil/Green Party Coalition serially leak key parts of the delayed report from the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes (nicknamed 'An Bord Snip Nua') with its 500 proposals and government spending cutbacks of over €5 billion. The Coalition are already planning spending cuts of €1.5 billion and new tax hikes of €1.75 billion for the 2010 budget. Free article

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen and Health Minister Mary Harney were centrally involved in the decision to axe all acute services at Monaghan General Hospital and transfer them to the already over-stretched Cavan General Hospital from 22 July, revealed Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin when speaking in a Dáil adjournment debate on the issue. Ó Caoláin said: "I have been reliably informed from within the HSE that the Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Health & Children Mary Harney were closely involved in the decision to axe these services on 22 July. Free article

COLERAINE Sinn Féin Cllr Billy Leonard has said "there will be even greater community concerns and tensions" in the Coleraine area because of a statement by the UDA-linked Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) which claimed that they were withdrawing their support for the police and political institutions. Free article

TYRONE will host this year's National Hunger Strike Commemoration weekend. The annual event has previously been held in Derry and Belfast. This year will see its first visit to County Tyrone. The venue for the main parade on Sunday 16 August will be Galbally, the birthplace of the sixth hunger striker to die, Martin Hurson. Martin died on 13 July 1981 after 46 days of hunger strike. His death had a profound impact on the local community and the wider Tyrone area. Free article

SPEAKING on Tuesday after a Seanad debate with the Taoiseach and representatives from all parties, Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty criticised other parties for fearing to speak of a united Ireland. The Donegal senator pointed out that a British MP was due to chair a debate on Irish unity the same evening in the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons at Westminster while, in the Seanad, a whole host of Irish politicians could not even bring themselves to mention the words Irish unity in a debate on the North. Free article