IRISH REPUBLICAN NEWS: Archives

On the 40th anniversary of the paratroopers’ massacre in Derry, it is remarkable how much Britain has exploited this event to its advantage.

No Oscars for Margaret Thatcher’s Irish legacy

The recent publication of British government papers from 1981 have reminded many people of the negative role played by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher at that time.

Unionists most to gain in Scottish ‘devo max’

It is going to happen. Slowly, slowly catchee monkee. Just watch Alex Salmond walking the naive and intemperate Cameran into his elephant trap.

Enough generalities

It's a long way from the Village area of Belfast to Stormont, but two simple actions would help considerably to tackle sectarianism.

Thatcher’s stance shown to be intransigent, duplicitous

Papers released under the 30-year rule reveal a prime minister refusing to deal with the substance of the Irish prison protests, writes Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams TD.

NIO unionists vetoed hunger strike deal

The recently-released British state papers from 1981 are certainly not infallible nor full accounts, but they do reveal the mindset that the prisoners, their families and supporters had to overcome.

All changed utterly in electoral revolution

A remarkable year in politics north and south - remarkable not least because for once there was more ‘Sturm und Drang’ south of the border than north of it.

Detention of pardoned Price an abuse of power

The slogan says ’Free Marion Price’. Tens of thousands of motorists see it every day. It’s doubtful if any of them pay any attention. They should.

Free Marian Price now

The continuing imprisonment of Marian Price in Maghaberry is a scandal and would be seen more widely in this light were it not for her politics.

DUP bluster can’t stop SF’s winds of change

Belfast’s Lord Mayor Niall O Donnghaile has done more in his six months in office to promote peace and reconciliation between the citizens of Belfast than his unionist critics have done in a lifetime.

Important work ahead for the Irish diaspora

The Irish scattered around the world have a vital contribution to make as we seek to reshape and re-imagine Ireland in the 21st century.

An opportunity missed, or thrown away?

Now that the dust has settled on the election of the ninth President of Ireland, it is time to look back on the positives and negatives of that campaign for Irish republicans.

Partisan poppy serves to exclude nationalists

The decision by the new leader of the SDLP, Alasdair McDonnell, not to wear a poppy on Remembrance Sunday will be welcomed by the vast majority of northern nationalists.

President promoted a new inclusive Ireland

It was entirely consistent with President Mary McAleese’s 14 years as president of Ireland that one of her last engagements was to open a gallery named after the Falls Road-born painter Gerard Dillon in Belfast’s Culturlann.

Reflections on an election

Martin McGuinness is a trail blazer. That much must be clear. Even to his detractors.

All go at Gallagher

Gallagher is part of the Fianna Fail machine even if the tracks of his party membership have been covered with a floor mat upon the face of which ‘independent’ is brightly stencilled.

An absence of decency

At the very least you would have expected Cameron to reflect in his attitude and demeanour the reality that in front of him was a grieving family whose father and husband was killed by those in the British government's pay.

The past and the present

Two contrasting views about how republicans can attempt to come to terms with political change.

Hypocrites’ house of cards risks collapse

A carefully constructed a narrative about the origins of the 26-County state is being challenged.

Ireland owes much to the IRA’s willingness to fight

The IRA is an intrinsic part of this nation’s history; of its political evolution.

Sinn Fein can displace Fianna Fail

The events of the past week suggest the party is over for Fianna Fail.

The peoples’ president

Martin McGuinness has been my friend for almost 40 years. He is a remarkable and gifted human being and a great leader and a patriot. It will be a great honour for me to propose Martin McGuinness to contest Presidential election on a broad, republican, citizen-centred platform. He will make an excellent President of Ireland.

Loathing and absence in Belfast Crown Court

To risk being pedantic: if no other good comes from the supergrass trial that began in Belfast yesterday, at least the practice of referring to informers as ‘informants’ will have been dropped.

Every day Hutchinson hangs on does damage

The question is, why is he still there? After two official reports tore to shreds his management of the Police Ombudsman’s Office and its core functions and exposed the shambles that the office has been for the past two years, Al Hutchinson should have been booted out immediately.

Citizens trapped in a two-state nightmare

The people of the 26-County State seem dazed and confused, unable to come to terms with what is happening to them, writes Fintan O’Toole

The return to internment

A British cabinet minister has appointed a secret commission with the power to revoke the parole of political prisoners just for being accused.

Vengeful, vindictive, violent

Without street pressure and political lobbying the Justice Ministry would have kept Brendan Lillis hidden deep within the bowels of the British penal establishment.

Riot response driven by right-wing agenda

As the figure for arrests heads towards 3,000 and the British media follow the progress through the courts of the people charged, David Cameron has seized on the rioting, murder and arson as a golden opportunity to advance his personal agenda.

Bridge of Sighs

To the extent that the British move at all it is invariably sideways. In dealing with prisoners their attitude has always been one of ‘as late as, as little as.’

On the bridge of peace

In recent days, largely as a result of the persistence of his indefatigable partner Roisin, the case of Brendan Lillis has at last managed to break into the mainstream media.

PSNI pawns in grant application game

The distinction between ‘legal’ union flags and ‘illegal’ loyalist flags, as raised by the Ballyclare riots, is a pure Orange herring.

Running out of time

The humanitarian grounds for releasing Brendan Lillis far outweigh the political considerations that are feeding into his ongoing imprisonment.

Pumping up the volume

The ongoing detention of the republican activist Marian Price two months after her arrest raises serious concerns about how life sentence licenses are being used as a weapon of political policing.

Sinn Fein, wreath-laying and the unionist response

On Saturday, the Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast laid a laurel wreath at the City Hall cenotaph, to the annoyance of unionists.

Sinister forces still at work

No-one in any part of the political or police system should take peace for granted.

Where was Special Branch in Loughinisland massacre?

If the Police Ombudsman’s report into the McGurk’s Bar attrocity highlighted his reluctance to grapple with collusion, his report into Loughinisland is startling by its absence of another crucial piece of the picture: the role of Special Branch both before and after the massacre.

Debt freakshow run by phoney lion tamers

This week, the Government marked 100 days in office and zero days in power.

Republican ex-prisoners not second-class citizens

The joint first minister Martin McGuinness was absolutely right when he said that his heart went out to the Travers family over the IRA killing of their daughter Mary but that he could not agree with Ann Travers when she called for Mary McArdle to be removed as a special adviser to minister Caral Ni Chuilin.

What do governments fear most? They fear us

The establishment's efforts to censor and spin the Wikileaks cables relating to Ireland have been unprecedented. Harry Browne (for Counterpunch) looks at how a torrent of information on US involvement in Irish politics became a trickle.

Mayor is the product of community’s resistance

When I first heard the news that Sinn Fein councillor Niall O’Donnghaile was elected Mayor of Belfast, the word that struck me immediately was “homecoming”.

The day eirigi saved Dublin

The ‘Dublin Lockdown of 2011’ didn’t go unnoticed by that city’s citizens, but was notable for how casually it was imposed.

A bad week for Irish journalism

Now that the Windsor visit is over, what are the benefits and what exactly has changed as a result?

Building a better future

The visit by the Queen of England to this part of Ireland has to be seen as part of a journey.

Commentators strike a geyser

I'm not a man readily given to exclamation marks but WHAT A GUSHFEST!

IRA founder condemns Adams/McGuinness leadership

The first leader of the Provisional IRA, Billy McKee, has strongly criticised the current Sinn Fein leadership in an open letter.

Thirty years on, Bobby Sands’s stature has only grown

Over a period of seven months nine other men followed Bobby, dying on a hunger strike that Thatcher described as “the IRA’s last card”. How wrong she was.

The flame of freedom

This year Irish republicans mark 95 years since the Easter Rising. It is also the 30th anniversary of the 1981 Hunger Strike. Each event was a seminal moment in the struggle for Irish freedom, and each changed the course of Irish history for the better.

Two failed states, one big problem

There are now two political elites in Ireland and two dysfunctional regimes in the statelets they claim the right to govern.

Republican vision still valid

On Easter Sunday all over Ireland, republicans gather in tribute to those who died in Ireland’s struggle for independence. This Easter republicans have much to be proud of and much to be concerned about.

The Old Firm, tit for tat and Glasgow city blues

If it hadn't been for four or five asthma seizures, I'd probably be talking with a Glasgow accent and voting Scot Nat.

It’s time to stop

Sinn Fein believes that the conditions which in the past led to republican armed actions have fundamentally changed.

Omagh, my town

On Sunday, The News of the World, Martin McGuinness and a number of others politicians said the people who killed young Kerr were completely out of touch with reality. It depends on how you see reality.

Bombing Omagh

The death of a PSNI member will be a source of consolation to only the fundamentalist few.

To impunity and beyond

The most potent force for revelation in Irish politics is the man whom Charles Haughey, with all the emotion conjured by the receipt of huge bank drafts, affectionately called “Big Fella”, Ben Dunne.

SF photocall shows its a party without borders

There was powerful symbolism when Sinn Fein brought together the party’s TDs and MLAs at Stormont this week.

My name is Jude, and I’m a wrong-thinker

I wish I wasn’t but I’m afraid I am. Twist and turn, duck and weave, in the end the brutal truth confronts me: I am a wrong-thinking person. How do I know? Because when people start a sentence with “All right-thinking people will...” I end up disagreeing with them.

The Tribulations of Brendan Lillis

The Life Sentence Review Board is said to consider the case of Brendan Lillis on the 22nd of March. If it fails to act humanely and release him the West Belfast man may well end his days in prison.

When oppressed overcome fear it doesn’t come back

When I see popular uprisings like those that have been happening across the Middle East over the last month I am brought back in time to my teenage years and the streets of Belfast circa 1968.

Tipping point

I was never quite sure what the phrase ‘tipping point’ meant until my experience last Friday of trying to motivate people to come out and vote for Sean Crowe in the constituency of Dublin West.

Radical change is what we really need

When there’s overwhelming agreement about anything in Irish politics, it is usually wrong.

Two ‘outsiders’

You don’t normally hear opponents come out and say “We don’t like you, Adams – you’re from the north”. It’s more often slipped in obliquely.

Poll could turn out to be electoral revolution

This election is like no other in living memory.

One small island

The last exodus prompted a campaign for emigrant voting rights in the 1990s. The same is happening again.

The fight-back is just beginning

The general election in the Twenty-Six Counties is being fought against the backdrop of two momentous events: the greatest economic crisis to face the statelet since its foundation, and the surrendering of what was left of economic sovereignty to the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

Representative policing?

The phasing out of 50:50 recruitment provisions would reduce the number of Catholics joining the PSNI and impact badly on the need to ensure that the PSNI reflects the society it polices.

How the Markets fell in love with Prince Charles

Sometimes I feel ashamed to be a Catholic and one such occasion happened last week.

Bombers unite community

There are still individuals stuck in the trench in Belfast.

No civil rights without national rights

The narrative of an out-of-control regiment running amok might have more credibility if Bloody Sunday was an isolated incident.

Political pantomime now a circus of despair

It’s almost impossible to know where to begin any commentary this week - the Dail circus may see a few more surreal performances before the citizens finally move in and close it down.

Fianna Fail split down the middle by dithering

There’s an eerie congruence between Brian Cowen and Gordon Brown.

The end of Fianna Fail?

The final session of the 30th Dail began with further indignity being piled on the head of a dying government.

Adams didn’t trade lives for votes

How could Gerry Adams have known what mileage there was in the electoral route for republicans?

The Tragedy of 1980

The state papers of most interest to me concern the build-up to the 1980 hunger strike, the communications within government and agencies during it, and whether the republican leadership’s analysis and depiction of what was happening has subsequently proved correct

Has anything really changed?

As 2010 draws to a close, has it been a momentous year for Irish Republicans in the Occupied Six Counties, or is it more of the same?

Tell us the truth about Pat Finucane

For real reconciliation, we need acknowledgement of British security services’ relationship with loyalism during the conflict

The appalling vista of two elections

Any day now I’m expecting to see a headline saying ‘Kitchen sink narrowly misses Gerry Adams’.

A new type of politics

The general election, when it comes, will be the most important in recent decades.

UUP looks like its about to self-destruct

Tom Elliott supplied the denial headline without even the public accusation - “Elliott denies he’s a political dinosaur,”.

National debasement disguised as a rescue plan

The Programme of Financial Support for Ireland will be subject to three-month reviews “of conditionality”, observance of “quantitative performance criteria” and “respect for EU Council decisions and recommendations”.

Donegal may be start of much greater upheaval

It is too early to estimate the size of the earthquake on the political Richter scale but suffice to say in its wake it has upended a political system that is now sitting on the edge of the precipice and could topple any minute.

Scale of the catastrophe has not hit us yet

We didn’t need Ajai Chopra, our IMF minder, to tell the junta (ie, what is left of the Government) and the mandarins that the “sensible” solution to our crisis was to inflict further misery on those already victimised by the policies of the junta and the mandarins.

Government’s destruction of Ireland is complete

The spin, the lies, the denials, the delusions, the conceit and the arrogance added insult to ignominy.

The declaration of dependence

A satire on the 1916 Proclamation of the Republic in response to the arrival in Dublin this week of IMF and ECB officials.

Running in Louth: how big a gamble?

In retrospect, it was an obvious move. So obvious that none of the pundits even sniffed it

Austerity plan must be resisted

The Dublin government last week published its much anticipated declaration of war on the working class.

Moving the money around

The problem of unbalance in the North's economy was not one of inability or “troubles”, it was one of a British policy of inhibiting local initiative and filling up the gaps - for stability’s sake.

Harney deserving of special shame

Step forward Mary Harney, to a position of lonely eminence: the worse tanaiste ever.

A timetable for withdrawal

Fergal Moore sets out the approach of Republican Sinn Féin to the possibility of talks with the British Government.

Free Conor Casey

The recent internment of Conor Casey at the behest of the British establishment is nothing short of a disgrace.

For your community – act now

That, on the day an ailing Margaret Thatcher was being treated in a private hospital, British Tory chancellor George Osborne was rising at Westminster to wield his ideological axe was highly ironic.

Politicians content to let us wait in the dark

The ineptitude of our current masters is nowhere as clear as in this: they can’t even give us the illusion of control.

Big stars, blood relatives and one guilty silence

Cork sports star Donal Óg Cusack has been mooted as a possible candidate for Sinn Féin at the next electio

Bombing Derry

It was entirely appropriate that Martin McGuinness’s condemnation of the IRA operation came from the Tory conference.

Derry bomb desecrates October 5th

It was totally inappropriate that there should be a bombing in Derry on October 5th.

Is there anyone else who can run the country?

There is a sense of apprehension now about how our country is being run that I don’t recall having witnessed before.

Conjuring truth from the tricks of memory

I have known Gerry Adams for almost forty years and there is no way would I ever enter him for a ‘Memory Man’ competition.

Wright Inquiry and State collusion

Last week’s finding that there had been no State collusion in the killing of Billy Wright said more about the unwillingness of the British authorities to come clean about their own role than about the circumstances of Mr. Wright’s death.

Anti-Catholic prejudice encouraged during Pope’s visit

You would have thought the Pope represented a doctrine based on evil rather than one based on Christianity.

Occupied Ireland - No change

Much has changed since the days of ‘81 in the occupied six counties in the North of Ireland.

Peace comes dropping slow

The Middle East peace talks, which formally opened in Washington on Thursday, have been given one year. It’s a tall order.

Organising the fightback against the Tory assault

The attack on the welfare state in the Six Counties is out in the open.

Ardoyne riots

This summer’s Belfast riots must have been the most anticipated for some time, being widely predicted throughout politics and the media.

Facing up to the reality of an economic nightmare

As the country grinds to a halt, we should maintain some sense of decency and call a halt to the Anglo rescue.

Truth and justice for all

Elements in the intelligence agencies could be using a method of drip-feeding information into the media to undermine political progress.

Common criminals or political law-breakers?

There are ongoing attempts to criminalise Republicans still engaged in armed actions against the British state.

The framing of Gary Donnelly

The PSNI, MI5 and PPS displayed stunning myopia in relation to this prosecution of anti-Stormont Republican Gary Donnelly.

How my dad was murdered by the British state

Internment - indefinite imprisonment without trial - was reintroduced into the North of Ireland on August 9 1971 at 4am.

Prejudice must end against former political prisoners

Coiste na nlarchimi is a national organisation dedicated to upholding the rights of former political prisoners and ensuring that society’s institutions do not discriminate formally or informally against ex-political prisoners.

Why label disillusioned Republicans as criminals?

Those who pretend dissident Republicans are unimportant, dismiss them as criminals, ignore them or expect Sinn Fein to control them, have badly miscalculated.

SDLP displaced by Sinn Fein

You can discern a real shift in the position of the SDLP.

Sinn Fein grip on the ghettoes loosens

A number of explanations have been put forward for the sustained outbreak of rioting across the North of Ireland following the Orange marches

Gerald Donaghey, Saville and the nail bombs

The Saville Report devotes more space to Gerald Donaghey - 17 years-old when shot dead on Bloody Sunday - than to any other individual.

WikiLeaks and British lies in Ireland

The British army's role in the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan will come as no surprise to the people of Ireland.

Resolving contentious orange marches

It is the obstinate insistence by the loyal orders to march through Catholic areas, and their refusal to talk, that is at the heart of the perennial violence that marks the marching season.

Reflecting on Saville

While welcoming the Saville verdict of unalloyed innocence I was dismayed by the lack of clarity in relation to the guilty.

Men of no property

No one spoke to the Ardoyne protestors to find out why they saw fit to block the road.

The twelfth

The Orange marching season always provides its fair share of problems.

Orange marches and pigswill

It's absolutely unbelievable what happens here over the Twelfth period.

Hunger striker helped others laugh through tough times

It does not happen very often that the publication of this column coincides with the anniversary of one of the 10 men who died on hunger strike in the H-Blocks in 1981.

Why we can’t let parade rules trample over civil rights

There will be a civil rights march in Derry on October 5.

Robinson ditched by NIO and DUP will follow suit

As a political figure Peter Robinson has been terminally weakened.

Bloody Sunday’s architects

The Saville report has underscored the difficulty of “truth and reconciliation” inquiries.

Saville missed the failures of leadership

The Bloody Sunday operation emerged at the intersection between the political and the military, in a grey space which left plenty of room for manoeuvre by individuals.

Not a bad day for the British army

Derry is still dizzy from the eruption of joy which greeted the Saville report’s recognition on Tuesday that all of the Bloody Sunday wounded and dead were unarmed civilians gunned down by British paratroopers for no good or legitimate reason.

Saville’s truth brings hope

A thumbs-up sign, shortly after 3.30pm, squeezed through the narrowest of gaps in an upstairs window in Derry’s Guildhall, was the first indication in almost 40 years that something of huge significance was happening for the relatives of those murdered on Bloody Sunday.

A 38-year wait for the truth

On Tuesday, the Bloody Sunday Inquiry will publish its 5,000-page report into the mass killing of protesters in 1972, an event that was unique among Troubles atrocities and that changed the North profoundly.

Freedom flotilla

The Flotilla was an heroic effort to highlight the imprisonment of one and a half million people by the Israeli state and the humanitarian crisis that the siege has created.

Double standards and simple solutions

Has any politician - unionist, nationalist or republican - stood up and said UVF decommissioning was clearly a fraud?

Prison lessons have not been learnt

Prison reform which was painfully won by people, most of whom in normal society would not have been in prison at all, must not have to be struggled for again because of the unwillingness of those in authority to recognise reality inside prisons, or out of them.

The unhappy fate of unionist leaders

The disintegration of British union supporters in Ireland has come not from their opponents outside but from their friends inside.

Maghaberry And David Ford

A conversation came back to me on learning of the visit by British micro-minister for Justice David Ford to Maghaberry Prison

New proconsul has much to learn

We have had some pretty ropey proconsuls here in the last thirty-eight years. The signals from the latest one are not good.

Release Saville report now

It is crucial that the new Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson ensures that the Saville Inquiry findings into Bloody Sunday are published without any further delay.

It was just like the old days in Fermanagh/South Tyrone

To help Bobby Sands, republicans came in from all over Ireland; they did the same for Michelle Gildernew.

Things may never be the same again

The British electorate has not so much spoken as seemingly held its political nose, by delivering its most remarkable election result since 1929.

More guns than votes

Each time a republican activist is labelled a criminal, particularly by those who were republicans in the era of Bobby Sands, it is a sleight on the enormous sacrifice made by him and his comrades.

Making it quite clear

Sometimes a politician says something and an issue that’s been swirling around in the public consciousness suddenly takes on a clear, sharp form.

Tactical voting is part of the electoral landscape

Tactical voting is part of the electoral landscape of the six counties and when done for progressive reasons it strengthens the nationalist democratic forces for progress and weakens the undemocratic forces of unionism.

Ireland is ripe for an alternative

Imagine, for a moment, that we are in the 1890s. It is not as big a stretch as it might seem.

Tactical voting will have a ripple effect

If, as a result of vote-splitting or diffused voting, a disproportionate number of unionist MPs are elected you can be sure that this will be flaunted to demoralise the nationalist people.

Nothing but a date

It cannot be easy being a republican political prisoner in the North these days.

Acrobatics will win no new votes for Sir Reg

Elections here always throw up the worst excesses of tribalism among unionists.

Violence and after

The bomb that went off near the MI5 headquarters in Holywood last night didn’t do much damage but it does bring into focus a number of issues.

McKee floored puny Robinson

For years at election time Robinson was the DUP’s Wizard of Oz. Now, when the party needs him most he’s exposed as a diminutive political figure behind a curtain.

A time to remember with pride

I too, this Sunday, will remember with pride those IRA members I knew who died young so that we could live in a united and free country.

Culture of ‘moving on’ sets us back years

Every single aspect of State policy, every red cent of available cash and of discretionary borrowing, is shaped by a demented, obsessive drive to save banks, at least two of which are beyond saving.

Truth & Justice: Foreign concepts to the 6-County state

While nationalist politicians are proclaiming desperately the dawn of yet another new beginning in the affairs of the Six County state, their touted future justice minister, the British government and its police force are quietly going about the work of solidifying the status quo in occupied Ireland

People can become the architects of the future

it is precisely at the point when all seems lost that people, about to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task facing them, are liberated by their own strength and that of others.

No political home for advocates of a just society

All the parties in the Dail are willing to go into government with either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, knowing one or other of these parties will be the major party of government and will set the agenda for that government.

Trial of Gerry McGeough brings back echoes of the old days

The trial of Gerry “McGeough raises a number of issues.

A moment to savour for Sinn Fein

A crucial juncture has been reached by Sinn Fein, amazingly in partnership with the DUP.

Why MI5 is free to operate here

Once devolution is complete, the north, as far as accountability is concerned, will be a limbo-land for spooks to cavort in.

Crossing the line

If you are going to invoke a tragedy on the scale of the famine to flog your products, why stop at Ireland's greatest one?

Cooking the Bloody Sunday report

The British government's attempts to change the findings of a judge in order to conceal evidence of its security services’ wrongdoing has ramifications for the victims of the Bloody Sunday massacre and their families.

Orange Order must stop being aloof from change

The Orange Order acts as if it has no responsibility for the decades of conflict, as if it is as harmless an organisation as the girl guides or the boy scouts.

SF jumped through DUP’s hoops and fell short

The long-awaited Hillsborough Agreement is a sham with grave consequences for the nationalist community.

The Johnstons and the McKinneys - and the Paras

In taking the side of the Paras in relation to Bloody Sunday, Unionist leaders facilitated the killing by the same force of some they will have regarded as their own.

Cosy assumptions challenged by unionist pact

The recent coming together by unionists with the purpose of denying government to anyone but themselves has publicly called the equality bluff.

New beginning?

Almost a decade later, it is now abundantly clear that, instead of delivering a ‘new beginning’, the PSNI has simply continued with the same failed anti-working class and anti-republican agenda of the RUC and Royal Irish Constabulary before them.

Time for Robinson to show leadership

It’s too early to claim that the Hillsborough Agreement is a done deal.

Made in Ulster?

A week is a long time in politics. This week, and a wee bit more, has been a long time coming.

Pirouetting on the cliff-edge

Sinn Fein need to be careful their electorate doesn't conclude that so-called power-sharing hasn;t resulted in little beyond the amused contempt of the DUP.

Reaching for the Orange card

It is important to factor the context into the current crisis gripping power-sharing.

Unionists now puppets in Cameron’s political game

Unionists never learn do they?

DUP puts party before peace process

It is not easy being a democrat because you have to accept the will of the people at an election even when you do not like the result.

Ruling greeted by the sound of silence

The British government contemptuously announced after the Strasbourg judgment that the discredited and unlawful Section 44 powers will remain in use.

Time for abuse inquiry

The Stormont administration needs to exercise its responsibility for protection of children and young people.

Robinson now a prisoner

Peter Robinson is now the prisoner of his party’s hardliners. They are keeping him in custody until they can agree a method of disposing of his political carcass.

Abuse of political power is real issue

Peter Robinson performed a sleight of hand trick brilliantly last week.

Power-sharing in North now hanging by a thread

It is very tempting to ridicule the extraordinary state of affairs that has crashed down on the Robinson family.

Partition argument central

There has never been a time in the history of Irish republicanism when republicans were not faced with challenges in terms of bringing about an independent and a united Ireland.

Still waiting for the new beginning

It is clear that we are still waiting for the new beginning to policing and justice that was promised.

Beannacht

I thought I might deal with some of the events in the life of my clan and in my own life. Events which are now in the media. But on reflection it’s too near Christmas for all that.

Two angry men and a Taoiseach

Limavady wasn’t the way it was supposed to be, all handshakes and chuckles.

Step low

Pretty much as low as we are likely to find this side of Christmas. A lender repossessed the home of a Waterford couple which they shared with their special needs child.

An insidious budget

The budget says a lot about the economics and media commentators who have praised it for grappling with the fiscal crisis, while remaining indifferent to the social consequences.

Groundhog Day

Martin McGuinness has promised “serious consequences” and “a full-blown crisis” if a date for devolving policing and justice powers to the north is not agreed before Christmas and it won’t be.

Don’t blame the DUP

Unfortunately, in sport as in politics, resentment isn’t always directed at the right target.

Still a distance to travel to establish equality

Even though there is still a distance to travel to establish equality in the six counties it has to be acknowledged that we have travelled a long way from Craig’s ‘Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People’.

Long way down from London

There are few things that sum up the failure of the Provisional IRA campaign more definitively than the recent call by one of its former leaders for people to inform on those republicans still wedded to the notion of armed struggle.

More strikes needed

The best and sure fire way to victory is an indefinite general strike where public and private sector workers unite in a common battle to save jobs and protect our services.

Section 44

Police harassment is still a fact of life on the streets of working class communities.

Ireland and the Berlin Wall

The celebrations for the Fall of the Wall dividing Berlin were spectacular and understandable. Not so understandable was some Irish politicians joining in.

Workers standing up to defend jobs and services

In recent times it has become increasingly clear that the Irish government intends pursuing an economic strategy which is essentially ignoring the advice from the unions and appears to be on a collision course which could result in widespread industrial action.

Selling out for queen’s head is second nature for DUP

The 20 million pounds that’s going to be shovelled into the families of the former part-time RUC reserve is a profoundly dishonourable deal and not just because it’s so obviously a bribe.

If Libya pays out, then why shouldn’t the British?

Well-informed sources in the North were suggesting last week that a large compensation package from Libya for the victims of the troubles may soon become available.

The Basque fight is a European fight

The arrest in the past two weeks of Arnaldo Otegi and nine of his comrades from the ‘outlawed’ Batasuna party and the pro-independence trade union LAB is another sign of the oppressive methods being employed the Spanish government to stamp out the Basque nationalist left.

Was there a deal?

The hunger strikers were never dupes but could only make decisions on the basis of the information they had.

Protecting the fat cats

The revised programme for government in the Twenty-Six Counties offers nothing to the thousands who have lost their jobs over the last 12 months and face losing their homes.

It does matter if no-one likes you

No-one likes us - we don’t care.’ The Millwall football club’s chant which came to wider public attention when Millwall reached the 2004 FA final could equally apply to the DUP.

Death in custody

When an Irish republican dies in British police custody it is certain to give rise to an atmosphere of suspicion and recrimination.

There was no deal

The final article by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams for the Irish News on the recent controversy over the 1981 hunger strike.

Leading from the front is only way forward

Peter Robinson is facing what every single leader of unionism has faced since at least the late 1960s.

Lisbon passed, democracy damaged

When the ruling class in the Twenty-Six Counties wants something bad enough it will do pretty much anything to get it.

Lisbon - Vote early and often

If you have a vote on Lisbon, use it to support democracy and freedom and VOTE NO.

Stature of ten men unassailed

Out of the five demands the only thing the British were offering to the hunger strikers after four men had died was that they could wear ordinary clothes, “provided these clothes were approved by the prison authorities.”

New SDLP leader must heal division with Sinn Fein

There is only one certainty to emerge from several days of media interviews with Mark Durkan about his leadership of the SDLP and that is he does not want to continue to lead the party.

A plank in the DUP election platform

Peter Robinson made a speech last week calling for decisions to be taken by a weighted-majority vote in Stormont.

Might Sinn Fein merge with Labour?

Gerry Adams would be well advised to seek a much closer formal alliance with the Irish Labour Party rather than move away from Left politics.

The true cost of violence in Ireland

They talk about the violence of the past 40 years - as if what people suffered in Ireland’s northeast before the 1960s was not violence.

A message to the elites

There are plenty of good reasons to vote ‘No’, again, on Lisbon - far more than there are reasons to vote ‘Yes’.

Three good reasons to spurn Lisbon once again

The deceivers and manipulators are out again.

Baggott’s reputation will quickly be put to the test

The past, present and future of policing in the six counties emerged unexpectedly in the north’s media last week.

Pushing back regressive policing

When Suzanne Breen wrote after the verdict in her case, declaring it a triumph for press freedom across Europe, it can hardly be said she was exaggerating.

Final solution is no longer possible

Forty years after the attacks on homes and people in 1969, we are hearing new descriptions of what happened.

Craven Commission again fails to protect the weak

The Parades Commission’s decision to allow Friday’s Orange Order march through Rasharkin without restriction was disgraceful.

A decadent police

A new residents group has been set up to ‘give support to a community who have suffered ongoing abuse from the police.&rsquo

Unionist wild men played a part in starting Troubles

Few people know that about a fortnight before the Battle of the Bogside the RUC’s Belfast Commissioner requested that British troops be deployed against unionist mobs on the Shankill Road.

9th of August

Anthony McIntyre on internment morning, 38 years ago.

A revealing glimpse into Dodds’s world

´A statement this week is a revealing glimpse into Dawdsland, a place of denial and distorting mirrors.

Felon setting

Tony Catney believes he is the victim of a smear campaign being orchestrated by his former colleagues in Sinn Fein.

Emergency surgery to save an economic Frankenstein

The time is fast approaching when working class people will need to stand up and fight for a better society.

Order must change how it conducts its affairs

The one organisation that cannot escape a major share of responsibility for the outbreak of violence in Belfast’s Ardoyne on Monday night past is the Orange Order.

Reshuffle magnifies shortage of political talent

The most obvious conclusion of Peter Robinson's reshuffle is the astonishing mediocrity of the personnel available in the DUP assembly party.

Spot the difference

At one level, the north of Ireland has changed markedly over the past ten years. But for real change, you need to look deeper.

‘Clarified’ Lisbon Treaty the very same

Despite the predictable media hype, and bogus claims of doing down the Brits, nothing has changed in terms of the Lisbon Treaty, writes Aengus O Snodaigh, Sinn Féin Dail spokesman on European affairs.

Time for a realignment in Irish politics

Almost one-third-of-a-million people voted for Sinn Féin candidates across Ireland in the recent EU elections - the exact figure, 331,797 people.

Time for DUP to tell their people the truth

The current DUP position where they work with Sinn Féin, or profess to work alongside them, while saying they are smashing them, simply invites ridicule.

Electorate assesses value of its vote

This Thursday and Friday the people of Ireland go to the polls in a rare all-Ireland plebiscite - an election to the European parliament.

Consigning Irish children to a regime of torture

The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse, published this week, left no one in any doubt that children in the Twenty-Six County state were never treated equally

Elections - an exercise in participatory democracy

Members of the small republican political party eirigi agreed at its annual conference to 'tactically contest elections at a time of our choosing'.

Bobby Sands and Margaret Thatcher

Two personalities from opposite ends of the political spectrum, who helped shape their respective worlds and are inextricably linked through decisions they took over 30 years ago had anniversaries last week.

Give them absolutely nothing

Would society really be better off had Suzanne Breen not spoken to the Real IRA?

Supergrasses: They’re Back!

The British state is increasing its erosion of civil liberties for Irish citizens.

Pseudo groups are locked into political fantasy world

Three very distinct and separate voices were heard across the Irish media last weekend.

‘Get off our backs’

Veteran Derry republican Gerry McCartney argues that the recent killings of two British soldiers and a PSNI officer by dissident republican groups will do nothing to achieve Irish unity.

Easter Sunday in Duleek

It is difficult not to feel a surge of emotion racing through the veins when reflecting on what the men and women of 1916 gave up in order to make a stand against a malign foreign power.

Force of argument is way forward

The 1916 Rising was the end product of more than a century of protest, largely peaceful, since the brutal suppression by the British government of the 1798 Rebellion.

Can intelligence services be trusted?

There is a connection between the civil action brought by relatives of Omagh bomb victims and the arrests in relation to the killing of the two soldiers in Antrim and the PSNI officer in Lurgan.

Intimidation of Shell to Sea campaigners

Over the course of recent weeks the state has intensified its intimidation of Shell to Sea campaigners.

Who is McGuinness to talk of treachery?

Many years ago I looked up to Martin McGuinness. Most within the ranks of the Provisional IRA did likewise.

A quantum shift

Anyone who is surprised that “the dissidents” are still actively fighting will have had their head in the sand for the past number of years. And, of course, they are certainly not reading this.

Society needs to make decisions about core values

The partition of Ireland not only divided the territorial integrity of the nation and its people, it also led to the underdevelopment of politics on a left-right axis.

UVF/PSNI collusion sentences fail to convey horror

Last week’s case demanded deterrent custodial sentences and not someone jauntily walking free making contemptuous gestures to cameramen.

Finucane an indictment of British collusion

Armed only with his sharpened legal brain Pat Finucane was a formidable obstacle for those in the British government and military.

Spat between unionists completely meaningless

You probably didn’t notice the little spat between the DUP and UUP about meeting loyalists, but it’s worth examining as a perfect example of the parallel universe unionists live in.

Suspicions well grounded over collusion in report

So far the British government has managed to protect itself and its agencies from those seeking to probe deeper into this sinister world.

1919-2009 - Compare and Contrast

Those who paraded themselves in the Mansion House on Tuesday past have little right to claim the inheritance of the revolutionary republicans and socialists who established the First Dail.

Much to be optimistic about

In the face of this economic crisis the argument for stronger not weaker government intervention in the economy needs to be heard.

Christmas has ended - so should Gaza siege

The reoccupation by Israel of the Gaza Strip and the slaughter of its Palestinian inhabitants form one of the most shameful episodes, among a long list of others, for the international community since the state of Israel was set up in 1948.

Hunger strikers’ contribution will endure

It is the contribution of the hunger strikers which will endure and make the difference to peace, justice and freedom - not that offered up by Cruise O’Brien.

A Cabinet that keeps hitting the panic button

The Dublin government's reaction to recent challenges shows it may be out of its depth.

Vilifying the dead

If the current enquiries are anything to go by, truth is not part of Britain's agenda.

Assassinating Rosemary Nelson’s character

It now appears that just as she was attacked by them in life, Rosemary Nelson is now to be attacked in death.

Another corner turned on road to new Ireland

A Six-County Department of Justice could be functioning by the early months of the new year.

V Day

The triumphalism of the British Army regiment on public display in the heart of Belfast punched yet another gaping hole in the approved narrative of the peace process.

Crucial that DPP role be scrutinised

As the families of those murdered on Bloody Sunday deal with the news that they must wait another full year to learn the outcome of the Saville Inquiry, the family of Robert Hamill must be bracing themselves for the start of the long-delayed inquiry into events surrounding his murder.

Army parade cannot airbrush murder legacy

The consequences for the people of this island - nationalist, unionist, republican and loyalist - of English interference in our affairs was the backdrop against which the centre of Belfast became a contested space last Sunday morning.

Idea that SF could ignore march is absurd

The idea that Sinn Féin could ignore a march through Belfast city centre by a regiment in the British army is patently absurd.

British soldiers not welcome on Irish streets

The Royal Irish Regiment’s mercenaries from the war against Afghanistan arrived in Belfast this month to a chorus of approval from their supporters in Ireland.

Hiding behind the police

The presumption of innocence until proven guilty has never applied to Republicans and the Northern Bank robbery suspects were no exceptions.

Time for October 5th

The main trigger of the 1968 Civil Rights demands, equality, has still to be resolved.

PDs go down with the system they lauded

They were Ireland's nasty party but their arrogance prevented them ever listening to the electorate beyond their own narrow sectional interest group.

SDLP must stop selling nationalist rights

Nationalists must have viewed with dismay, disbelief and anger last week’s press conference with SDLP minister Margaret Ritchie sandwiched between two unionist ministers

Threats to DUP leadership coming from fringes

Allister is challenging the leadership of the DUP not from a solid, assured position but from the sidelines, from the fringes of unionism and he is causing them to lose their nerve.

Durkan ensured SDLP will never share power

Did he really say that? After initial disbelief, that was the first question a lot of people asked when they read reports of Mark Durkan’s weekend speech to the British-Irish Association (BIA).

Allister has the DUP running scared

The current impasse at Stormont is the price everyone here has to pay for the DUP’s exercise in political dishonesty in spring 2007.

British human rights record still among worst

Every three years members of the United Nations are required to submit a report on human rights in their state.

Whose Law?

The stalemate politics that has characterised the Six County assembly since its inception following the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 has continued during the recent spate of ‘functionality’ since the St Andrews Agreement.

Teaching Bush a bloody lesson

There’s an uncanny symmetry in the history of Russia’s treatment of Georgia and Britain’s treatment of Ireland over the centuries.

Sarkosy proved ‘No’ voters were right

When Mr Sarkozy the French President said Irish people must vote again on the Lisbon Treaty, he underlined how right Irish people were to vote against it.

Lost lives

No matter the motives for the current politically engineered Historic Enquiry, it will lack any credibility while the British continue to suppress the Stephens reports and while those who added to the pain and suffering of the bereaved, are not held to account.

Truth and lies

Evidence is now emerging that the bombing of McGurks Bar, like many atrocities in the early years of the conflict, may have been part of a policy of assassination by British intelligence services.

PSNI is failing to protect vulnerable Catholics

Inaction has thus far characterised the PSNI’s policing operation in defending Catholics in Stoneyford and in other parts.

Who should pay for the recession?

Why is the most objectively fair response to our economic difficulties the least acceptable to the economic and political establishment?

What price the Orange Card?

Are the people of the Six Counties to be again left high and dry due to the selfish interests of yet another British politician?

All is not well at Stormont

The £6 million for Irish language broadcasting is the clearest signal yet that all is not well with the power-sharing arrangements at Stormont.

Crisis? What crisis?

There is an obvious and simple way that the EU can respond to Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty: continue as it was.

Ireland can once more save Europe from the Dark Ages

Welcome to the most surreal week in the history of Irish politics.

‘Nasty party’ is Paisley’s legacy

He’s gone, the oul curmudgeon, and good riddance.

Britain firing blanks at loyalists

The British administration intends to do nothing to recover weapons held by unionist paramilitaries.

Arrogance, smugness and the Brits

Nobody knows for certain how much misery and bother has been caused through the ages by the insufferable smugness of the British ruling class.

Irish government is unionism's new best friend

Paisley's big hearty handshake with Bertie at Farmleigh House last year was the beginning of what will inevitably be a lengthy dalliance.

A split’s not always first thing on agenda

When friends and comrades disagree the fall-out is always specially painful, even terrible. But never hopeless.

Ex-prisoners should enjoy same rights as others

It is time former prisoners from the conflict took their place in society with the same rights and entitlements as everyone else.

What is Peter Robinson’s vision?

There is no clue yet about how the DUP leader-designate sees the future of unionism or even if he sees a future for unionism.

US investment will build a sustainable future

May's investment conference is crucial as we seek to deliver on the wider objectives of equality and sustainability.

Does a Bill of Rights need us?

A bill of rights in any shape or form must be viewed as a progressive thing.

Flying the flag

Don't assume you can trust a British politician any more than a DUP one.

More than two sides to the story

What Jonathan Powell has said about Bloody Sunday is revealing, not what he claims Martin McGuinness said.

Confident unionism is showing signs of stress

Unionists are trying to perpetuate the old hostile relationship between nationalists and the police.

Symbolism at heart of DUP stadium turnaround

The signals that the DUP has got cold feet about a sports stadium at Long Kesh are evidence of a wider malaise in unionism.

Paisley walks

Ian Paisley could not have imagined being pushed out of power after just a year in office.

Spain could learn lessons from Irish conflict

If the conflict in Ireland can be brought to a just end so can the conflict in the Basque country.

Existence of informers is unpalatable fact of life

Informers, agents and spies have been a part of Irish society for as long as the British government have been occupying Ireland.

Just who drafts MI5’s agenda?

Does anyone believe that even when justice and policing are devolved to Stormont that local politicians will have any control over agencies such as MI5?

The ache that still hurts

I don’t need any British Judge to tell me what happened on Bloody Sunday.

The real priorities

Behind the scenes, the political parties in the North have other matters on their minds.

Ian Og gets his come-uppance at long last

They say the Paisleys come as a package - if you get one, you get both.

The trouble with war

Don’t mention the war. Don’t mention the fact that thousands of British soldiers occupied the highways and byways of this wee place for over thirty years and that all of them had a licence to kill.

Unionists in pool can’t let go of the sides

Fascinating to watch unionists of all shades tying themselves in knots about human rights and devolution of justice and policing

Papers show cooperation got us further faster

The one clear lesson which emerges from the documents allowed to be released this year is that any time Irish officials managed to persuade the British to follow a line of action it was a success.

When language dies

Language analysts have estimated that there are more than 6,000 languages spoken in the world today and one minority language dies every two weeks.

A courtesy from Pope and Queen

If Pope Benedict and Queen Elizabeth visit Ireland each of them will have a chance to offer us a courtesy which has been too long delayed.

Abuse of privilege should be ended

Unionists are still naming people in the British House of Commons or Lords, accusing them of crime. This is an abuse.

Access to report crucial in quest for justice

The public exposure of the de Menezes case stands in marked contrast to the secrecy surrounding multiple killings by the Crown forces during the conflict in Ireland.

Finally on a path towards a new Ireland

For a new administration on a learning curve its six months in office has been surprisingly impressive.

Stunt will not make UDA disappear

It is depressing how many media outlets bought the NIO spin about the UDA standing down its ‘military wing’.

Tourists discover north’s deep-seated prejudices

Next time someone tells you that our commissions for equality and human rights are just money wasted on political correctness, consider the case of Frank Kakopa.

Chance for commission to show courage

On Saturday, November 24, Orangemen intend to march into the centre of Belfast to intimidate both an individual and a community.

Fianna Fail can become a 32-county organisation

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern delivered the graveside oration at Fianna Fail's annual Wolfe Tone Commemoration on Sunday. We present the text of his address.

FF is real beneficiary of Brown’s dithering

All the parties in the North exhaled a big sigh of relief when Gordon Brown bottled out of holding the election he had been threatening since August.

Irish language being used as political football

Attacks by unionists on the Irish language or the education department expose their wider attitude and lack of educational policies especially for their working-class supporters.

‘Whataboutery’ is classic avoidance technique

The wheedling and hand-wringing Margaret Ritchie faces until next Tuesday's deadline for UDA decommissioning is going to be epic.

SDLP will be devoured

It will be FF’s aim to become the dominant party in the North.

Right time for Paisley to step off

It was time for Paisley to step off the vehicle which he built and which gave him the respectability and momentum to take him to where he is today.

Consequences of the Flight of the Earls

Nationalists have never sought to undo the Plantation of Ulster which next year will be four centuries old.

Jumping to conclusions over ‘unity’ talk

The one contribution that stood out in this year's summer schools was Sir Kenneth Bloomfield’s talk to the Merriman School.

Taking pride in our cultures

The message is harsh and says, written hugely on a wall where the visitor can read it in great letters, “This is not Spain”.

A decade of injustice

Our leaders contrive ever more elaborate ways to get us into prison, and outsourcing seems to be one of them.

Withdrawal? What withdrawal?

It is not a withdrawal, the British garrisons are still there to try to hold the northeast of Ireland militarily and economically. And they have been given new extra oppressive powers to do it.

Omagh Civil Case - Justice or Stitch-Up?

Reviewing the ongoing Omagh civil case saga, one is left with an abiding sense of uneasiness at the immense inequality being applied to one of the defendants, Michael McKevitt.

Kid-glove treatment of UDA disgraceful

In one of the most scandalous uses of public money in the north, and that's saying something, successive proconsuls have been advised to try to bribe the UDA out of racketeering and extortion.

Body can build a more prosperous island

Further evidence of the ongoing transformation of Irish politics as a result of the peace process was again on display this week.

It ain’t easy being Green

The Greens by entering into coalition, have now joined a long list of once radical organizations who have chosen to become, as Chris Gaskin wrote, “the mud guard of the two failed civil war parties”.

Pattern of systemic inequality must be reversed

At the annual meeting of Lisburn council, SDLP councillors abandoned a long standing principle of their party - the principle of power-sharing.

PPS is undermining public confidence in justice

If ever there was a case for a speedy transfer of policing and justice powers to the north’s executive then it is shining out of the statement last week from the Public Prosecution Service (PPS).

English politicians care little about Six Counties

There was quite a revealing and disappointing moment for British secretary of state Peter Hain at the end of last week’s Question Time on the London-based BBC.

The DUP’s double standards are nauseating

How would anyone in the DUP, no matter how sanctimonious they may sound, know anything about policing and justice, let alone democratic standards?

UDA gangsters shouldn’t have it all their own way

It is quite obvious that, apart from everything else, the UDA are just far too emotionally unstable to be in charge of lethal weapons.

SF must learn quickly from election results

It is a mighty task but republicans have had setbacks more serious than last week’s election results.

Taking it on the chin

From the ecstasy of March to the agony of May, 2007 is turning out to be quite the rollercoaster year for republicans.

Assembly is merely a twig on the NIO branch

The Northern Ireland Office hasn't gone away, you know.

Face of Ireland changed in just 16 minutes

On Tuesday everyone in Stormont was entitled to feel proud.

Politics and the daily grind

Some tales from the Celtic Tiger as you consider your options and as the country winds itself up to go to the polls.

The writing is on the wall for ‘Britishness’

Tomorrow’s election results in Scotland are going to increase the isolation of unionists in Ireland even more.

Photocalls do not reflect street-level reality

The Paisley-Adams deal represents not a compromise or accommodation between the ideologies that had defined the two men’s parties but the willing negation of each.

Choosing prestige over power?

David Trimble joining the British Conservative Party is a sad event.

The people have spoken

There are still commentators who can’t accept that Sinn Féin and the DUP are carrying out the wishes of the voters.

Alternative Ulster

Strange parallels between those who thought the political process could never be reconciled are beginning to emerge.

Making headlines for the right reasons

The unthinkable, indeed unbelievable is happening before our very eyes.

An omen of good days to come

It is difficult to decide which captures best the ground-breaking nature of the event - the photo or the statements.

It’s time PSNI was accountable for its actions

In the past week we’ve had two very serious incidents involving the PSNI and the British Army.

A good news election story for republicans

With a brilliant election result behind him Gerry Adams will lead northern republicans southwards with the intention of building on his success.

DUP chokes on its own history

Elections are supposed to provide answers. When the people speak, the politicians are supposed to respond accordingly. Not so in the North.

Brown doesn’t give tuppence about this place

We’re at present in the lull before the storm - and what a storm it will be.

Power-sharing in North must not be stopped

By the standards of western democracy, the election in the North must be one of the most bizarre ever to have taken place.

Apologies are the latest cheapo wheeze

Has Peter Hain been outed for the political opportunist he is?

Policing no longer a tool of the British state

For centuries policing was an instrument of British state power and the armed wing of unionism. Now it can be neutralised.

Unionism will pay dearly if Blair is humiliated

There will be an election unless Paisley has the guts to say he will not share power with Sinn Féin.

Repeating the pattern of the top brass

Anybody wondering how Ronnie Flanagan came to believe he’d get away with claiming memory loss about his role in collusion should recall Mike Jackson and Bloody Sunday.

Reunification is solution to partition problem

Overwhelming is the word that springs to mind to describe the decision and the mood at Sinn Féin’s Ard Fheis last Sunday when more than 800 delegates backed the party leadership’s policing proposal.

Sit and watch intra-unionist bigot-fest

Only when the election is safely over and the DUP has consigned its UUP rival to oblivion will Paisley be able to contemplate delivering on his political obligations.

The wrong thing to do

Yes, there is an alternative to supporting the British Crown forces in Ireland.

New route to a United Ireland

The goal of a united Ireland remains absolute but the means by which it can be achieved no longer needs to involve armed actions.

The final step

There was no great surprise at the end of it. Who expected a different result?

DUP’s creative ambiguity has limited lifespan

For the first time in his 50 years in politics Ian Paisley snr is facing a reality he probably thought he would never have to face.

SF is up for the challenges of peace making

Evidence that the leadership of Sinn Féin is set once again to stretch republicans to the outer limits of their commitment to the peace process is very obvious.

DUP’s mindset is fossilised in 17th century

The current DUP leadership is a political Jurassic Park but if the mindset exhibited on the Today programme is anything to go by, then the prospect the coming men offer is back to the future.

Sinn Féin and Policing the North

Those with experience of Sinn Féin manoeuvring will have recognised recent signs that a policy change is in the air.

DUP dissenters can afford to wait a year or so

The DUP is a victim of its own success.

SF quite right to make policing a deal-breaker

Unionists like to claim that nationalists are a kind of sub-species who enjoy criminality and endorse lawlessness.

Time won’t change stark choice DUP faces

With Martin McGuinness as his co-equal deputy first minister, Ian Paisley is now shakily wearing the crown of transitional first minister.

Britain being made to squirm

The truth is that the British government couldn't care less what the taoiseach says about 1974-76 any more than the Russian government cares about what John Reid says about anything

Carry on regardless

Regardless of the pandemonium Michael Stone caused outside the Assembly, his appearance only served to distract from the confusion and mistrust inside.

Unionists still believe they own the north

You could be forgiven for thinking that the only issue in Irish politics at present is whether Sinn Féin ‘will sign up to policing’.

Proconsul’s jiggery-pokery comes at a price

A lot of people, including the majority of the local meedja, seem to think the judge called for an inquiry into her appointment.

Paisley gets to say yes, again

Gerry Adams recalls the recent St Andrews negotiations and how Ian Paisley said 'Yes' for the first time in 50 years.

On the cusp of a historic development

If the DUP come into the St Andrews process, it will be a final acknowledgement by this most recalcitrant unionist constituency that the days of domination, inequality and discrimination are gone for ever.

Is it a country or a region? It’s a basket case

When unionist politicians give a knee-jerk reaction it is the mentality they reveal that still shocks.

BBC out of step with its own protocol

Many people were incensed that the BBC - an organisation funded by the licence-paying public - would provide an uncritical programme live glorifying the RIR.

Ian Og in his da's shoes?

Is the DUP really a political party, or the political wing of a religious sect, or a family business?

Chance to put politics of partition behind us

It is a deal in waiting and what a deal it could be.

How tides have turned

The St Andrews Agreement will bring about a seismic change in the North.

Serving Judas, Not Justice

It remains far from clear that the absence of evidence is preventing a proper resolution of the O’Hagan murder

The DUP is preparing for a seismic shift

There is a rustling in the unionist undergrowth to indicate that the DUP may be preparing for a sea change in its approach to power-sharing.

CRC article relates more to unionist thinking

The British has created a series of shop-window fronts to give the false impression, particularly to those looking from abroad, that Britain is addressing the unique problems here.

Ministers have lost interest in north-south links

The nature and extent of all-Ireland arrangements are likely to become political issues in the South instead of matters on which all Irish parties agree and take for granted as a national objective.

Renaissance Republicanism

It is hardly surprising three dozen or so Irish Republicans considered getting together in Toomebridge to have a chat about the future of their country and the role of Irish Republicanism within it.

Peelers Give You Trouble

With Sinn Fein's ratification of the British constabulary on the political agenda, Martin Galvin join's Danny Morrison's call for a serious debate on the future of Irish Republicanism.

When one doesn't mind being called a Provo

The sincerity of those dissident republicans who believe that the strategy of the Republican Movement is wrong is easily tested.

Public commitment or public relations

Many Republicans believe that as part of the negotiations for a return to a DUP headed Stormont, Sinn Fein will be obliged to accept not only policing boards but the British constabulary.

Injustice must always be opposed and exposed

Britain’s history in Ireland is one of brutality and inhumanity, often characterised through the abuse of political prisoners.

Diplock claim equals justice denied

The British strategy on non-jury Diplock courts seems clearly and solely directed at Sinn Féin.

Hunger Strike Anniversary

News of the protest against criminalization, by Republican political prisoners at Maghaberry, will strike a chord deep within the hearts and memories of many nationalists and Republicans.

30,000 people know who the victors were 25 years ago

The public demonstration for the anniversary of the hunger strikers was a powerful evidence of people’s determination, and of their dignity.

Sectarian rhetoric

The issue of sectarianism has to be tackled head on whatever its source.

Nothing is true until it’s officially denied

No-one any longer believes a word this British government utters.

Nationalists have a right to proper policing

Any future decision by republicans to endorse policing in the six counties will be on a par with those landmark decisions which republicans have already taken over the last decade of the peace process.

Unionists still refuse to have open minds

One year on the unionists and their allies are still refusing to open their minds to the place the peace process can take us.

Israel must be held accountable

Israel is clearly once again guilty of a gross crime against humanity and it must be held accountable.

Paisley still trading on fears

Over the decades, one thing has not changed.

SF riding the tide in political sea change

Two strangers arrived at Stormont as the shutters went up for the summer.

Participation in partition - a denial of sovereignty

The Annual Republican Sinn Féin Wolfe Tone Commemoration to Bodenstown took place last month. The following oration was delivered by Dr Sean Maguire son of the late Comdt- General Tom Maguire, a survivor of the Second (All-Ireland) Dail Eireann. It is reproduced here in full.

No dumbing down of the Orange Order

Why try and dress up the Twelfth as something it is not?

Collusion issue is now an undisputed fact

For decades republicans raised the issue of collusion but were dismissed as propagandists. It is now an undisputed fact.

Timely reminder to second-class nationalists

In case any one is in any doubt about the purpose behind Orange marches the decision by the Parades Commission in relation to an Orange march on Belfasts Springfield Road is a timely reminder.

Violence rewarded, while Feile gets punished

Belatedly, unionists have come to recognise the concept of alienation - which they derided in nationalists.

Slave mentality rules

There is no political way we can say 'No' to, or change, what Peter Hain decrees.

DUP support would help Empey strategy

It was entirely understandable that nationalists and their political representatives would be cynical about the decision a few weeks ago by Reg Empey to take David Ervine into his assembly party.

Britain must come clean on Haddock

The confession by the former north Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force man Mark Haddock that he has been a Special Branch informer for the last 16 years is further damning evidence of collusion.

Unionists must choose to shape change

Robert McBride, former ANC activist, death row inmate, parliamentarian and now chief of police in East Rand, Johannesburg, recently brought a message to republicans across Ireland.

‘Assembly’ is hologram on the hill

The assembly meeting up at Stormont isn't the Northern Ireland Assembly established by the Good Friday Agreement.

Ballymena’s culture of hate

It has been fascinating to watch the DUP tip-toe politely around the funeral of Michael McIlveen.

‘Assisted suicide’ for UUP

Farewell to David Ervine and the Progressive Unionist Party.

A sinister hush over collusion evidence

One of the biggest scandals to hit these islands in recent years did not even merit a mention on our main radio or TV stations.

Things changed forever after Bobby Sands' death

There was nothing normal about our lives in the H-blocks during the years 1976-1981 so why should our thinking and actions be assessed according to a 'normal' system of measurement.

It takes lots of courage to break ranks

Brian Kennaway's new book The Orange Order: A Tradition Betrayed is causing quite a stir, mainly among Protestants, unionists and Orangemen

A few bad apples don’t make a bad barrel

The IMC has failed to report that almost 70 active members of a certain paramilitary organisation have been convicted of criminal offences.

Values of Rising need to be renewed

There needs to be a debate about what it really does mean to be Irish.

Shootings ‘cult of silence’ must end

Until Easter Sunday Neil McConville was the only person the PSNI had shot dead.

Rising played pivotal part in Irish history

Shortly before 1pm on Easter Monday 1916, outside Dublin's GPO, the British empire started to crumble.

1916 and all that...

To justify or to sympathise or, at the minimum, to understand, 1916, is to justify, sympathise or understand the IRA’s armed struggle in the North.

Who killed Denis Donaldson?

Few in the media or among mainstream political parties have dared to consider British involvement.

Sham assembly just like old times

Tomorrow’s performance by Blair and Ahern promises to be a perfect example of “the triumph of hope over experience”,

‘Feudal lord’ has illusions above his station

If ever there was a politician on the make, it’s Peter Hain.

February 3, 2012