After a decade of election growth, the Local and European results in the south were disappointing. I want to pay tribute to all the candidates and activists who put in the long hours and the hard yards. Due to your work Sinn Féin is the third largest party in the 26 Counties, the second largest party across the island and the largest party organised on an all-Ireland basis. This is some achievement in just a few short decades. Free article

The takeover of the Tory government by hard right Brexiteers led by Boris Johnson has deepened both the Brexit impasse and the difficulties in restoring the Executive and Assembly in the Six Counties. The new regime was only a few days in office when there was talk of full direct rule being imposed in the event of a no-deal Brexit, a development that would fundamentally undermine the Good Friday Agreement. Free article

Late last year Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o spoke at the LÍON, Limerick and Languages: Revival, resurgence and new beginnings conference in Mary Immaculate College, an event organized as part of Bliain na Gaeilge. Luke Callinan of An Phoblacht spoke to Ngũgĩ about the importance of language and culture in the context of a struggle for national liberation and self-determination. Free article

Melbourne’s eight-hour day monument stands opposite the Trades Hall – reputedly the oldest trade union building in the world. I found myself there tracing the footsteps of my granduncle Gus, a trade union activist in the city from the 1930s to 1960s. The monument honours the world’s first successful battle to secure an eight-hour working day in 1856. Its design symbolises the demand, first associated with textile manufacturer and social reformer Robert Owen, for “Eight hours labour. Eight hours recreation. Eight hours rest.” Free article

Sinn Féin Senator Paul Gavan’s Protection of Employee Tips Bill has won majority support in the Seanad and Dáil, despite the attempts of Fine Gael to undermine the legislation, which now heads back to committee stage. SIPTU Organiser Clement Shevlin, outlines the origins of the bill and the work of the One Galway movement campaigning for hospitality workers’ rights. Free article

Kevin McKenna was a quiet and unassuming man to meet. He was also a man who displayed huge strength of character, determination, personal courage, leadership and political wisdom at times of great challenge in our country’s history. Born into a farming family in Co Tyrone on 20th July 1944, Kevin McKenna grew up in the Brantry at a time when nationalists in the North of Ireland were treated as second-class citizens and the Orange state faced little effective challenge. Free article

Sinn Féin had a spectacular result in the European election in 2014, electing 4 MEPs – the first time any single party had ever been elected to represent every part of Ireland in the European Parliament. Five years on it’s useful to recall this fact – not by way of diverting from disappointment about the 2019 result, but in order to provide a bit of context. Free article

Easpa Acht Gaeilge, Na Míbhuntáistí do Pháistí an Ghaeloideachais Sna Sé Chontae agus Rialtas a Chothaíonn An Bac – Dearcadh Príomhoide Gaelscoile Free article