Oh, Ian: “A DUP MP has faced criticism from parliamentary counterparts after linking the IRA with Catholicism. Ian Paisley’s reference to the sectarian murder campaign by the “Catholic IRA” drew critical responses from fellow members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. Mr Paisley was questioning Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis on legacy issues and was […]
If reports are to be credited, British intelligence appears to have successfully moved against one of the aspirant IRAs – namely those claimed to be in the New IRA and those in the left-wing grouping, Saoradh. The scuttlebutt is that MI5 recruited a leading member of the organisation in question who embarrassingly it would seem […]
Tom Mitchell who died on July 22 just short of his 89th birthday was twice elected as a Westminster MP while a republican prisoner, which I believe is a unique distinction. Mitchell was born in Dublin in 1931 and joined the Dublin Brigade of the IRA in the early 1950s. He took part in a […]
Last weekend’s interview with Mary Lou McDonald by Hugh O’Connell attracted a lot of attention because McDonald had told him that she might well have joined the IRA. Of course she did not, choosing instead to join Fianna Fáil while in college, and only joining Sinn Féin in 2002. She was elected to the European […]
There are probably two things one might say about Mary Lou McDonald’s claim to the Sunday Independent that given the chance, she’d have been in the IRA, armed to the teeth and taking potshots at lads from Bolton who were unlucky enough to get posted to Northern Ireland. If you’re the anti-SF type, there’s the […]
Cullinane insisted to reporters today that he had never distanced himself from the IRA and would not be retracting the comments.
It would appear that Peadar Tóibín’s reference to the manner in which Sinn Féin operates has opened up an entire can of worms. It is no secret now regarding the manner in which pro-life republicans were forced out of Sinn Féin. The reason for that was the belief that the party needed to be seen […]
It’s worth recalling that Arlene Foster was eight years old in 1979 when her father, John Kelly (Foster is her married name) was shot in the head in the driveway of the family home. Speaking about the experience in 2015, she recalled: “I was eight when my father, John Kelly, was shot – I hadn’t […]