Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin described the publication of the Minimum Wage Bill on Wednesday, 26 January, as welcome but long overdue. Deputy Ó Caoláin said: Free article

It took Sinn Féin's Joe Coughlan just a few months on the Tullamore UDC to challenge what must, on any account, be gross illegality by the Midland Health Board (MHB) and the UDC, who have turned a blind eye to deplorable conditions in some private rented accommodation. Free article

If there was an award for ministers who don't just court controversy but actively stir it up, January's winner would have to be 26-County Public Enterprise minister Mary O'Rourke. Free article

After last week's news that Peter Mandelson was in favour of the lifting of the ban preventing Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness from using the Westminster facilities to which elected MPs are entitled, Ulster Unionist Security Spokesman Ken Maginnis threw the matter into some confusion with his claim that he had been told by the Secretary of State that no motion would be brought forward and no such facilities will be made available unless decommissioning takes place. Free article

A Dublin Sinn Féin Workshop on gay, lesbian and bisexual affairs, held on Wednesday night in Dubl;in, was told that Sinn Féin members must go beyond party policy and ensure that they practice equality in their daily lives. Free article

Derek Warfield of the world famous ballad group the Wolfe Tones delivered the Annual Feargal O'Hanlon Memorial Lecture in Monaghan town on 16 January. Volunteer Feargal O'Hanlon of Monaghan, with his comrade Seán Sabhat of Limerick City, gave his young life in the cause of Irish Freedom on 1 January 1957. The lecture was attended by relatives of Feargal O'Hanlon and by Wicklow Sinn Féin's Gerry O'Neill, whose great grandfather was a brother of Fenian soldier John O'Neill, whose exploits in the Fenian invasion of Canada were the subject of the lecture. Free article

The Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional for RTE to allocate referendum broadcasts on an unequal basis between the political parties and other groups, such that one side of the Yes/No division can be significantly advantaged over the other. Free article

Irish Overseas Aid should be increased to the United Nations target of 0.7% of GNP, urged Sinn Féin Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin when he qustioned the Taoiseach in the Dáil this week. Free article

The Sinn Féin candidate for the 2 February Antrim Borough Council by-election is a quiet person. But no one is fooled. Pauline Davey-Kennedy is a thinker, a strategist and, most of all, offers the best voice for the nationalist people in the Toome and Randalstown region. Free article

Ellie Dorris agus Sonny Peavoy Free article