December is traditionally prisoners' month - in solidarity with those republicans incarcerated across the world. It is a month to remember those who are locked up, but also the hundreds of people down through 30 years of struggle who, through their astonishing resistance, often became the cutting edge of the struggle. Free article

Last April, Irishmen Niall Connolly, Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley were cleared of all charges relating to training FARC guerrillas in Colombia. However, instead of being free to enjoy Christmas with their families, eight months later they are still in hiding and there is no sign of them being allowed to come home. Free article

Over 70 Sinn Féin members held a candlelit vigil along the length of the Strabane/Lifford Bridge last Friday to show their support for the four republican prisoners still held in Castlerea. Free article

Sinn Féin National Chairperson Mitchel McLaughlin, speaking at the launch of the party's response to the draft Six-County Budget and Priorities for 2005-'08 has said that the proposals are a betrayal of the direction, priorities and commitments agreed by local elected representatives in the Assembly and Executive. Free article

A British soldier opened fire on a motorist in South Armagh in the early hours of Saturday morning 11 December. In the incident, which occurred just south of Crossmaglen, the British soldier fired two shots at a car. Free article

Sinn Féin MEP Bairbre de Brún met with a number of community groups throughout County Donegal, including resource centres and youth projects, on Friday last. De Brún also met with staff members from the Irish language daily newspaper Lá at their offices in Gweedore. Free article

Minister of Justice Michael McDowell announced this week his decision that, after all, the non-national parents of Irish-born children are to be let re-apply for the right to remain in Ireland permanently. Free article

Commenting on a full-page advertisement placed in the national media on Monday by the National Roads Authority (NRA) in relation to the M3, Sinn Féin candidate for the Meath by-election, Joe Reilly accused the NRA of missing the point entirely. Free article

Sinn Féin's Aengus Ó Snodaigh says it is an outrage that women are still being paid less than men in Ireland in 2004. The Dublin TD was responding to a report published by the Central Statistics Office that outlined the gender inequalities that still exist in Irish society today. Free article

Former British soldier Mark Pilling, from Heron Way in the Waterside area of Derry City, was jailed for six years at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday 9 December on UDA related charges. Free article