Belfast Mayor Alex Maskey delivered the annual Ferghal O'Hanlon Memorial lecture in Monaghan on Sunday, 5 January. He took both governments to task over their stewardship of the Good Friday Agreement. While noting that the primary responsibility for the failure to implemtnthe Agreement lies with the British, he reminded the Dublin government of its shortcomings also. Free article

To coincide with the historic closure with the joint PSNI/ British Army Barracks in Carrickmore, over 200 people marched to the Barracks on Sunday afternoon last, 5 January. Free article

Ulster Unionist MP David Burnside has admitted that he went for the job as media spokesperson for the UDA in the mid 1970s. Free article

Sinn Féin TD for Cavan Monaghan and Dáil Group Leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin has welcomed comments from the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that Fianna Fáil is to consider organising on an all-Ireland basis and has urged other parties to follow suit. Free article

Sinn Féin Foyle Assembly member, Mitchel McLaughlin, says that according to Census figures, up to 200,000 people eligible to vote are missing from the Electoral Register. Free article

A Scots Guard who assaulted a colleague in a Limavady pub with a broken glass two years ago, leaving his victim requiring 26 stitches, is to be dismissed from the British Army after he was found guilty of the assault in Derry Court on Wednesday. Free article

The week before Christmas, Kerry TD Martin Ferris and I had the honour of representing Sinn Féin at the 51st national conference of the African National Congress, held on the campus of Stellenbosch University just outside Cape Town. Free article

The annual commemoration for Sean Sabhat took place in Limerick last Sunday. Up to 200 people attended and marched from Bedford Row, led by a local colour party and the Youghal republican flute band, to the republican plot at Mount St Laurence Cemetery. Free article

Following the recent lead of the Montreal Central Council of the Confederation des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) trade union federation, the Confederal Council of the CSN itself, representing 280,000 workers, voted in mid-December to bring pressure on Prime Minister Tony Blair to restore the Assembly. Free article

The three Irishmen facing charges in Colombia, Niall Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley, were moved on Saturday 22 December from La Modela Prison in Bogota to Combita Prison, 87 miles from the capital. The shift came despite assurances made by senior Colombia government representatives to Irish foreign minister Brian Cowen that the men would not be moved out of Bogota. Free article