An opposition government at Stormont is beginning to take shape after the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) decided to opt for opposition rather than take part in the power-sharing executive after Arlene Foster of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness were re-appointed as the assembly’s First and … [Read more...] about N.I. Assembly Gets First Opposition Government
Issues
28th Annual Afri Famine Walk
Palestinian poet and activist Rafeef Ziadah led the annual 10.5 mile Afri famine walk in Louisburgh, Co. Mayo, in May. The walk, which has been around since 1988, traces the footsteps of hundreds of famine victims who were turned away from local landlords at Delphi Lodge on May 30, 1849. “Exhausted, weak and emaciated, many of them were blown into the water on their return to … [Read more...] about 28th Annual Afri Famine Walk
Queen Elizabeth Denies Twelve-year-old’s Request for Return of the Six Counties
After learning about the Easter Rising and subsequent Troubles, Reese Kilbride, a 12-year-old Irish student from Portmar- nock, Co. Dublin, wrote a letter to the Queen of England in February asking that she kindly return the six counties of Northern Ireland to the Republic. “They had the six counties, they didn’t give back all of Ireland,” Kilbride told Irish radio station … [Read more...] about Queen Elizabeth Denies Twelve-year-old’s Request for Return of the Six Counties
Ireland Elected to U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for First Time
In April, Ireland was elected to the UN Commission on the Status of Women for the first time during its U.N. membership. Charles Flanagan, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade said at the time that Ireland “will use this opportunity to strengthen the Commission’s role and to build on our international engagement on the full realization of the rights of women and … [Read more...] about Ireland Elected to U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for First Time
Bear Bone Discovery Potentially Re-writes Human History in Ireland
An exciting artifact that changes what is currently known about human history in Ireland has been found in a cardboard box. A bear bone, which was discovered in a cave in Co. Clare in 1903 and lay unexamined in storage at the National Museum of Ireland until earlier this year, exhibits evidence that the hapless beast had been butchered by human hands 12,500 years ago, more than … [Read more...] about Bear Bone Discovery Potentially Re-writes Human History in Ireland