5 June 2008 Edition

Lisbon - reduction in voting strength bad for Ireland

5 June 2008

The Referendum Commission in the 26 Counties issued a statement on Wednesday in which it offered clarification to voters on a number of issues that have been raised in the debate on the Lisbon Treaty. Speaking after the statement from the Chairperson of the Commission, Judge Iarfhlaith O'Neill, Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty said: Free article

A&E crisis has not gone away - Ó Caoláin

5 June 2008

Sinn Féin Health & Children spokesperson Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD has said new figures show the failure of the Government and the HSE, one year on from the publication of the Emergency Department Task Force Report, to reduce the numbers of patients waiting on trolleys in A&E departments in some of the largest hospitals in the State. Free article

Anger at BNP leafleting by Antrim loyalists

5 June 2008

SINN FÉIN Councillor Billy Leonard says there is great anger in Portballintrae at loyalists, allegedly including a known paramilitary leader, who have been distributing British National Party leaflets opposing immigration. The leaflet drop follows a recent incident in which a car belonging to Bulgarian people was set alight in the town. Local residents responded by staging an anti-racism rally. Free article

Ruane 'right' to fund Derry bunscoil

5 June 2008

THE Council for Irish medium schools, Comhairle na Gaelscolieanna, has said that it supports a decision by the North's Education Minister, Sinn Féin's Caitríona Ruane, to authorise funding for a third bunscoil in Derry. This follows criticism of the decision to approve funding for Gaelscoil na Daroige in Ballymagroarty on the grounds that it could damage the city's existing bunscoileanna. But Sean Ó Coinn, Comhairle na Gaelscoileanna chief executive says that a comprehensive blueprint for the development of Irish-medium education had been drawn up on the basis of detailed analysis of demographic trends. Free article

Durkan challenged over SDLP support for detention laws

5 June 2008

SDLP LEADER Mark Durkan has been challenged to explain his claim that voting in support of an increase in the time a person can be held in custody without charge from seven to 28 days is a good tactic to prevent even longer periods of detention now stands up to the imminent introduction of 42-day detentions. Free article

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Ó Caoláin challenges Cowen on US military

5 June 2008

THE Irish Government has admitted in the Dáil - under questioning from Sinn Féin - that it still accepts without question the assurances of the US Government that flights to Iraq carry neither munitions nor prisoners. Amnesty International last week again challenged the Fianna Fáil/PD/Green Party administration's acceptance of simply the word of US agencies. At Taoiseach's Questions in the Dáil on 27 May, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caolain asked the Taoiseach if an Irish Government inter-departmental group on state security, set up after the 9/11 atrocities in the US, had discussed the implications of the ongoing accommodation of US military flights at Shannon. Free article

Justice Minister blocks Ombudsman probe into policing Shell to Sea

5 June 2008

NEW Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has refused a Sinn Féin call to allow a request by the Garda Ombudsman to investigate the controversial way in which the Shell to Sea protest in County Mayo is being policed. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh TD pushed the issue during Dáil question time last week because the Garda superintendent in charge of the operator at Bellinaboy openly admitted in Garda Review magazine that the police strategy was not to arrest protestors because the authorities do not want to "create martyrs" for the environmental cause. Free article

Commemorating Caledon and civil rights, 1968

5 June 2008

THE Caledon/Coalisland 1968 Group has been working over the past several months to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 'Caledon Squatting' and the first Civil Rights march from Coalisland to Dungannon. Throughout the history of the Northern state there existed housing conditions of extreme poverty. Communities struggled in vain to get adequate good-quality homes for families. The system of house construction and allocation was riddled with injustice and discrimination. It is almost impossible, 40 years on in 2008, to imagine the terrible living and housing conditions that so many families endured at that time, conditions from which there was so little hope of escape. Free article

Nuacht na nOibrithe BY STEPHANIE LORD

5 June 2008

Nurses win shorter working week and Government opposes union recognition Free article

Hunger strike martyr Raymond McCreesh remembered

5 June 2008

THE commemoration of the 27th anniversary of the death of H-Block hunger striker Raymond McCreesh was held in Camloch on Sunday, attended by several hundred people. Newry and Armagh Sinn Féin MP Conor Murphy, who gave the main oration, said that the presence of such a large crowd clearly shows that the hunger strikers continue to hold a special place in the hearts of many people. Free article


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