Top Issue 1-2024

1 August 2017 Edition

Government parties leave public high and dry in Irish Water crisis

1 August 2017

THE collapse of Drogheda’s public water supply system that left tens of thousands of families and businesses in the south Louth and east Meath region without water for a week is more evidence of the failure of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour, the Green Party and Independents in government to invest in this essential public service. Free article

New Taoiseach stands by Old Guard

1 August 2017

LEO VARADKAR has “failed in his duties as Taoiseach” to act decisively to deal with the litany of scandals that has engulfed An Garda Síochhána, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald TD has said. She was speaking after the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee’s first report into financial misconduct in the Garda Training College at Templemore was published on 19 July. Free article

Conservative-DUP pact is making Stormont resolution difficult

1 August 2017

Tory minister who denounced Good Friday Agreement as ‘mortal stain’ pulls out of meeting Sinn Féin but poses with DUP MPs Free article

Sinn Féin Bill to outlaw tactical insolvencies gets green light

1 August 2017

THE Dáil has agreed to allow to proceed to committee a Sinn Féin Bill I have tabled that will make tactical insolvencies a fraud on employees and therefore illegal. Free article

From Civil Rights to power-sharing – the DUP still doesn’t get it

1 August 2017

PEADAR WHELAN casts a critical eye over how the political landscape of the North has – and hasn’t – changed since the foundation of the Civil Rights movement in 1967 to demand equality and fair treatment. Free article

Unsettling silence from unionism on messages from the bonfires

1 August 2017

THE FAILURE of those at the very top of the Democratic Unionist Party in particular and the Ulster Unionist Party as well as the Orange Order to show leadership during the Eleventh Night bonfires associated with the Twelfth has been stark and is addressed elsewhere in this issue by Gerry Adams and Declan Kearney. Free article

Why do some nationalists copy loyalist bonfires?

1 August 2017

WHY do some elements within the nationalist community copy the behaviour of the Eleventh Night bonfire builders who do so much damage to their cause? Free article

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What celebration should be about

1 August 2017

FOR thousands of people in the North, August means Féile an Phobail and a celebration of what is good, positive and welcoming in west Belfast – “The heart of modern Belfast, where our communities are increasingly multilingual and multicultural,” says Féile Director Kevin Gamble. Free article

British have not met obligations – Relatives for Justice

1 August 2017

RELATIVES FOR JUSTICE (RFJ) has accused British Secretary of State James Brokenshire and his government of not meeting their obligations to victims and survivors of the conflict. Free article

The First Hunger Striker

1 August 2017

THE first Irishman to die on hunger strike was Thomas Ashe, who died at the age of 32 on 25 September 1917 as a result of being forcibly fed in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. Free article

In am Beart de Réir Briathar don Ghaeilge!

1 August 2017

TÁ FRUSTRACHAS mór ar na dreamanna atá ag plé leis na pleananna teanga sa Ghaeltacht nach bhfuil an Rialtas ag cur dóthain acmhainní ar fáil chun an obair a chur i gcrích agus gur cur i gcéill atá ar bun acu i ndáiríre. Free article

Big Four audit firms ‘promote secrecy, aid tax avoidance’

1 August 2017

THE first-ever major report looking into the secretive workings of the Big Four accountancy firms that assist individuals and companies to dodge taxes has been released in Dublin by Sinn Féin MEP Carthy and colleagues from the European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) European Parliament Group. Free article

The privatisation of the Irish state’s social welfare system

1 August 2017

SINCE the winding-down of the discredited JobBridge programme – which saw unemployed people being exploited to work full-time for a paltry €50 on top of their dole – a new ‘job activation’ scheme has slowly been rolled out across the state. Free article


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