26 March 2009 Edition

Trade unionists speak at Sinn Féin rally to save jobs

26 March 2009

THE NEED to save existing jobs and create new jobs is at the heart of Sinn Féin's key public awareness campaign on employment and last week saw a public meeting held in Dublin under the slogan "Unemployment Out of Control - Time for Action." The meeting took place ahead of this week's launch of Sinn Féin's job retention and creation strategy, Getting Ireland Back to Work. Platform speakers alongside Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald were Brendan Ogle, Regional Organiser of Unite the Union, one of the biggest trade unions in Ireland and Britain; and Matt McCormack, an engineer with threatened Dublin Airport aircraft maintenance firm SR Technics, where 1,135 workers face losing their jobs on 31 March. Free article

Morgan calls for CAB to investigate Irish Nationwide

26 March 2009

DELIVERING Sinn Féin's pre-Budget statement in the Dáil on Tuesday, Finance spokesperson Arthur Morgan TD called for state intervention to save private sector jobs and a Criminal Assets Bureau investigation into Irish Nationwide building society. Morgan stressed that the economic crisis has been caused not by international factors but by the policies pursued by Fianna Fáil-led governments for over a decade. Free article

Derry Launch of Annual Easter Lily Campaign

26 March 2009

SINN FÉIN Foyle MLA Raymond McCartney launched the annual Easter Lily campaign in Derry this week McCartney said that he was very pleased to have been asked by the Derry Republican Graves Association to launch the annual distribution of the Easter Lily throughout the city Free article

Report of Consultative Group on the Past deeply flawed - Adams

26 March 2009

SINN FÉIN President Gerry Adams has said that the recent process unveiled by the Consultative Group on the Past is deeply flawed and incapable of establishing an Independent International Truth Commission that Sinn Féin believes is necessary. He said he believed that the proposal for a legacy commission, included in the Eames-Bradley report released earlier this year, "fell far short of what was required". Free article

Mary Robinson joins New York tribute to Rosemary Nelson

26 March 2009

THE tenth anniversary of the assassination of Lurgan civil rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson on 15 March was marked in New York with an anniversary Mass by the Brehon Law Society and the Irish community in St Patrick's Cathedral. The Mass was celebrated by Monsignor Thomas Leonard, Pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Manhattan, and there was a scripture reading by civil rights activist Brendan Fay in Irish and in English by Fr Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and anti-apartheid leader from South Africa. A survivor of a would-be assassin's bomb, Fr Lapsley did lose both hands and an eye in the attack because of his fight for justice in South Africa. He is internationally known for his work in post-conflict peace and reconciliation and he spoke about Rosemary Nelson's legacy in human rights work. Free article

International : Another left-wing election win in Central America

26 March 2009

FOR 12 years between, 1980 and 1992, the streets and hills of El Salvador in Central America ran red with blood as it endured a vicious civil war that claimed 75,000 lives and displaced thousands more. On 15 March last, its towns and villages were once again submerged in red, but this time it was the crimson banners, flags and T-shirts of the FMLN that provided the colour. Free article

Changes in party structure see 'step change' at leadership level

26 March 2009

INCE the extensive internal consultation process carried out by Sinn Féin in 2007 a range of structural changes have been implemented across the party, particularly at local and regional level. The changes are part of a process that has been described as creating an overall party organisation which is "fit for purpose". In recent months Sinn Féin's National Officer Board has looked at the party's Head Office and party management structures. A detailed paper was put to the Ard Chomhairle in February and many of the recommendations agreed there involve what is being described as "a step change" in the operation of the national leadership. Free article

Fógraí bháis: Billy Kelly

26 March 2009

THE republican community in north Belfast, and much farther afield, were shocked to hear of the sudden death on 28 February of Billy Kelly, a republican activist of 50 years' standing. Billy, from the New Lodge area, can truly be called a lifelong republican. From a strongly republican family, his mother was an assistant to James Connolly, while an uncle was Connolly's agent. Free article


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