THE Eames/Bradley Commission into dealing with the past is due to publish its report in the coming weeks. Sinn Féin has met the Eames/Bradley body on a number of occasions despite its reservations about the fact that it is established by and answerable to one of the protagonists to the conflict: the British Government. Free article

AENGUS Ó SNODAIGH, Dublin South Central TD and Sinn Féin spokesperson on International Affairs, last week confronted Israeli Ambassador and Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter over their defence of Israel's onslaught in Gaza at a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs. Since then, Shatter and the Israeli ambassador have distorted and misrepresented what Ó Snodaigh said. Shatter continued this week with an Opinion piece in The Irish Independent. Aengus has asked the Independent for a 'right of reply' to Shatter's article. We carry it here. Free article

AS THE Israel Defence Force withdrew soldiers from Gaza just in time for US President Barack Obama's inauguration on 20 January, the shell-shocked people of Gaza viewed the devastation left behind. Free article

150 New York lawyers met in Manhattan last week to remember slain Belfast human rights attorney Pat Finucane and press for a public inquiry on the 20th anniversary of his murder, which occurs next month. Free article

SIPTU said this week that the scale of the current global economic crisis has not been seen since the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and this has been caused by the neo-liberal, free-market policies pursued by the Irish Government which have left a gaping hole in public finances. Free article

OVER 200 people attended a special screening of Steve McQueen's award-winning film, Hunger, in Hackney, east London, on 17 January. The screening was followed by a discussion led by republican former political prisoner Seanna Walsh, who spent 21 years in Long Kesh between 1973 and 1998. Free article

SINN FÉIN activists in Belfast held a day of action last Saturday to raise money for Irish Medical Aid for Palestine, a registered charity with the belief that good health is a basic right, and access to appropriate health care is an integral element of that right - one being denied the Palestinians. Free article

Hospital staff expected to back strike action, Ferris wants action on job losses and Sinn Féin lashes IBEC's 'scrap pensions' Free article

PAT LYNCH, who joined an IRA Active Service Unit on the border in 1969 and was a former POW, passed away recently, and his passing was felt with great sadness amongst the communities of south Monaghan, south Armagh, north Louth and much further afield. Free article

SEVERAL HUNDRED mourners attended the funeral in County Down of former Sinn Féin Councillor Geraldine Ritchie, who passed away on 11 January following a long illness. Free article