TALKS are currently underway at Stormont to try and find a resolution to the current challenges facing the political institutions and to secure a workable budget for the Executive. Free article

‘For all of us with an interest in promoting peace and reconciliation across these islands, ‘Uncomfortable Conversations’ should be required reading’ – British Ambassador to Ireland, Dominick Chilcott Free article

HER JUST-RELEASED debut crime novel With Our Blessing is flying off the shelves in the shops. An Phoblacht’s MARK MOLONEY caught up with top Irish author JO SPAIN, not just in the Top Ten in TV’s Richard & Judy “Search for a Bestseller” but a former Sinn Féin Dáil election candidate – and An Phoblacht journalist! Premium service article

DÚINNE, Éireannaigh a rugadh is a tóigeadh i Sasana, níl sa tír sin ach tír chiníoch, tir impireachta is tir a chuireann bac roimh fhorbairt an chine dhaonna ar fud na cruinne. Free article

THE Stormont House Agreement is a promise to society that we will at last make a concerted effort to deal with our painful past and address outstanding matters for victims of conflict. Free article

WHEN, in 1994, the then leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Jim Molyneaux responded to the news of the IRA’s cessation of military operations with the remark that the IRA decision “is the greatest threat to the Union in 50 years” and one of the most destabilising events since partition he exposed unionism’s split personality. Premium service article

THE recent track record of Irish governments in supporting and protecting asylum seekers is shameful considering our unique history of emigration. Free article

AS AN PHOBLACHT goes to print, the Dáil is debating a motion of confidence in the Taoiseach. The debate came about after Fine Gael and Labour moved to derail attempts by both Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil to submit motions of “no confidence” in the Taoiseach amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the Fennelly interim report into the dramatic resignation of former Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan in March 2014. Premium service article

WITH A THIRD (33%) of those using the food banks working in low-paid jobs and dependent on family tax credit, Tory claims that only ‘the feckless’ and those who don’t want to work need these charities is exposed for the anti-working-class rhetoric that it is. Premium service article

CONSTERNATION, bewilderment and anger has been evident among members of SIPTU – and the general public – when a banner endorsing Labour in the European and local elections was hung from Liberty Hall in the centre of Dublin. Free article

JEREMY CORBYN’S ELECTION as British Labour Party leader was, by almost universal agreement, a political earthquake of historic proportions. Not only did he go from rank outsider to odds-on favourite in the space of a few short months, he did it with an unparalleled majority, with almost 60% of the vote – surpassing even Tony Blair’s vote of 57% when he was elected. And in this election Jeremy Corbyn won more than a quarter of a million votes of members and supporters, with around half a million taking part, winning a majority in every section. Free article

WRITING on news investigative website The Detail in April of this year, Steven McCaffery argued that progress in the North’s Peace Process has been delayed “by rows over what is arguably a phony culture war” with “the recurring battles over loyal order parades and around the Irish language” as good examples of this phoney culture war. Free article