IRELAND joined more than 130 countries when the Dáil passed unopposed a Sinn Féin motion in early December to recognise the state of Palestine. Free article

BEFORE becoming a Member of the European Parliament in 2009 I practised as a psychoanalyst and my approach to politics has been greatly influenced by my former profession, which closely observes the use of language. So it is with great interest that I have observed Fine Gael and Labour since they took office in 2011. Premium service article

ICTU's David Begg says "The 1919 Democratic Programme represented the trade union movement’s contribution to the shaping of the new state. That moment may be on us again" Premium service article

2015 is an important year for republicanism; it could be crucial. Not only are there Westminster elections happening in May but there will possibly be a snap Dáil election this year if the Fine Gael/Labour Coalition doesn’t hang on until the last possible moment in 2016. And, of course, 2016 marks the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Free article

ON Monday 29 December, the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle met in Dublin to discuss the recommendation from the party’s negotiations team that the Stormont House Agreement concluded in Belfast on 23 December (“the Eve of Christmas Eve”, as the media called it) be ratified by the national leadership. Free article

THE AGREEMENT reached at Stormont Houes on 23 December (and endorsed by the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle on 29 December) represents progress on a number of fronts Free article

THE tens of thousands of people who gathered outside Government Buildings in Dublin on 10 December had a very clear and simple message for Fine Gael and Labour: ‘We aren’t going away until domestic water charges are scrapped.’ Free article

‘The Israeli strategy is to talk about a two-state solution but every day they seek to destroy and undermine it’ Free article

“IT’S a very dangerous development” is how Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy describes attempts to include a mechanism in a free trade deal between the US and the EU that would allow private companies to sue national governments and force them to change their laws in the favour of big business. Free article

Sinn Féin MLA Chris Hazzard responds to May Blood’s article in An Phoblacht on integrated education Free article

THE BLIND – and indeed ignorant – subservience of the Irish Government and the main opinion-formers to all things European (including the ill-fated euro currency and its strong nexus with the US dollar) risks leaving our country outside the new dynamic focus of global economics as the major developing nations create a challenge to the domination of the dollar in world affairs. Premium service article

ARRESTED when he was just 17, Ibrahim Halawa has been held in prison in Egypt since August 2013 on trumped-up charges. He could face the death penalty if convicted. Free article