“I’ll finish as I started”

7 June 2023
At a recent lecture on Ernie O’Malley by the historian and Sinn Féin Councillor Mícheál Mac Donncha, I was chatting with Belinda Nugent from the O’Malley/Russell Cumann and I mentioned that my Granda Michael Smyth knew Ernie O’Malley and was instrumental in his famous escape from Kilmainham Gaol in 1921 along with Simon Donnelly and Frank Teeling. Free article
Stunning council election sees Sinn Féin become largest party
26 May 2023
The council elections in the north has seen Sinn Féin become the biggest party in local government for the first time with a record 144 seats. Free article
Raymond McCreesh and Patsy O’Hara – Died on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh, 21 May 1981
20 May 2023

THURSDAY, 21 MAY 1981, witnessed the deaths of two more Hunger Strikers. Raymond McCreesh passed away at 2:30am. That evening, Patsy O’Hara died. The deaths of Raymond and Patsy – who had started the strike on the same day, died on the same day and were born within a fortnight of each other in February 1957 – marked a critical escalation in the prison struggle as well as the struggle outside the prisons walls. Free article
New Opportunities for the Basque Peace Process
12 May 2023

Declan Kearney has said constructive diplomatic and political initiatives will bring important impetus to the achievement of a permanent and democratic peace settlement in the Basque Country. Free article
Francis Hughes – Died on 12 May 1981 on hunger strike in the H-Blocks
11 May 2023

The death of Francis Hughes at the age of 25 on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh saw not the end of a legend but a new chapter in what was, by any measure, the story of one of the most fearless and tenacious guerrilla fighters of the 20th Century and of the Irish Republican Army. Free article
Defending the Good Friday Agreement
10 May 2023

A collection of current and former Sinn Fein MPs met in London with members of the legal profession, trade unionists, political activists, and members of the Irish community in Britain to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Free article
Bobby Sands MP – Died 5 May 1981 on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh
4 May 2023

5 May 1981 was one of the most defining days in Irish history. It was the day that Bobby Sands, the 27-year-old Member of Parliament for Fermanagh/South Tyrone, died on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh as part of the republican prisoners’ campaign for the restoration of political status. Free article
A journey through the Counter-Revolution
4 May 2023

On Saturday 29 April, eve of the centenary of the 1923 IRA ceasefire, Sinn Féin in Ennis, County Clare, unveiled a refurbished plaque to three Volunteers executed in the Free State barracks 100 years ago, some of the final Civil War executions. Speaking at the event Mícheál Mac Donncha looked back at the Counter-Revolution and how its centenary has been marked. This article is based on that address. Free article
GFA anniversary underlines international significance of Ireland’s peace process
25 April 2023

Writing for An Phoblacht, Declan Kearney has said the 25th anniversary of the GFA underlines international significance of Ireland’s peace process. Free article
Centenary of the death of Liam Lynch
9 April 2023

Liam Lynch died around 8.45pm on the evening of 10 April 1923, 100 years ago. His death signalled the end of the war and moves were made soon after to conclude that phase of the IRA’s campaign. Free article
History in the Making
8 April 2023

Pádraic Wilson was the Officer Commanding Republican Prisoners in the H-Blocks from 1996 to 1999. Here he writes of the key events within the prisons in the months before and after the Good Friday Agreement. Free article
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Contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures