As we collectively brace ourselves for four years of austerity, it is worth remembering that Ireland is not a poor country.
Yes we have high levels of unemployment and poverty. Yes we have high levels of private and public debt.  But the money that flowed into the country at the height of the boom has not [...]

Michael Taft responds to Sinn Fein’s Pre-budget submission.
With the political consensus obsessed with a €15 billion deflationary juggernaut, it’s a relief that one party gets it. Sinn Fein’s pre-budget submission argues for a major stimulus programme combined with a growth-friendly consolidation package that, taken together, would increase growth and job creation. This would put [...]

Sinn Féin is the first party in Dail Eireann to launch their pre-budget submission.
A copy of the submission can be found here. The following are press statements from Finance Spokesperson Arthur Morgan TD, Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Party President Gerry Adams.
Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Arthur Morgan TD today launched his party’s [...]

New-look An Phoblacht on sale now.
With more pages, more photos and more colour, the 32-page July issue includes…
Ballymurphy Massacre, 1971 - Prelude to Bloody Sunday?
The Parachute Regiment shot dead 11 people over 3 days in west Belfast in the wake of internment in 1971 and just months before being deployed in Derry

The so-called ‘dissidents’
Belfast activist [...]

Who has the right to comment on the Croke Park Public Service Agreement?
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore says that political parties should not ‘interfere’ in what is a matter for public sector workers. They should be left in peace, he says, to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the agreement and make their decision accordingly.
I don’t [...]

The results of the 2010 Westminster elections were inconclusive in Britain. But in the North of Ireland they marked a new stage in the development of long-term trends, which comprises the break-up of the unionist bloc, the rise of Nationalism and within that the rise of Sinn Fein as its most resolute expression. SF is [...]

An interesting comment on the allegations surrounding Gerry Adams brother was added to a piece on the topic on Irish Left Review a couple of weeks ago. It’s one of three comments, but is of considerable utility in pointing up some of the problems implicit in the issue…
“It would be unworthy of a left-wing blog [...]

It’s interesting reading the article by Harry McGee in the Irish Times about Sinn Féin and its current troubles. That topic, though, is for another day, albeit I find it hard to disagree with him when he argues that
“There are some who believe Sinn Féin is in terminal decline, like other republican parties that preceded [...]

I was horrified to read Suzanne Breen’s latest instalment in her brave solo exposition of what is one of the most disturbing stories to emergence from behind the Iron Curtain of the Sinn Féin spin machine in recent years. Two women, the first a former national secretary of Ogra Shinn Féin and niece of Joe [...]

With the ongoing instability of the devolved institutions and the degeneration of the relationship between the First and deputy First ministers, it is an apposite time to revisit a rather under-rated monograph from the beginning of the year.
‘The Long March: The Political Strategy of Sinn Féin, 1981-2007‘ by Cambridge historian, Martyn Frampton, is a necessary [...]