Sinn Fein

Mary Lou McDonald, A Republican Riddle is no hagiography, nor is it a glib hatchet-job, writes Bill Nevins.

The聽seismic聽February 8 general election result, which saw Sinn F茅in become the most popular political party in the 26-county Irish Republic for the first time, has shaken the Irish political system to its core and sent shockwaves across Europe, writes Duroyan Fertl.

The 1998 Good Friday peace agreement to end the conflict in Northern Ireland could become unsalvageable, Irish republican party Sinn Fein has said, as Brexit and other unresolved issues continue to shutter the institutions set up under the agreement,

Britain鈥檚 departure from the European Union without a deal would make a united Ireland and the break-up of Britain more likely, British Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs ahead of a January 15 vote on her government鈥檚 Withdrawal Agreement that it has negotiated with the European Union. May dramatically lost the vote by 432-202.

It is the first time May has admitted British rule in Ireland and Scotland could be jeopardised by Brexit.

In Northern Ireland, made up of the six Irish counties still claimed by Britain, a majority voted to remain in the European Union in Britain鈥檚 2016 referendum. But 鈥淏rexit鈥 is threatening to take it out of the EU regardless 鈥 threatening progress in a statelet historically wracked by discrimination, inequality and violence.

Brexit is a threat to Northern Ireland in several ways. Key aspects of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which formally ended decades of armed conflict, underpinned by European law and funds.

The new campaign has released the video below, narrated by actor Irish actor John Connors. The video says it is time to build a new, democratic, inclusive and United Ireland.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is investigating hate crimes committed at bonfires in unionist (supporters of British rule over Northern Ireland鈥檚 six counties) areas on the nights of July 11, An Phoblacht said the next day.聽Bonfires, which are set alight each July 11 by the members of the unionist community,聽were strewn with election posters for Irish republican party Sinn Fein and other non-unionist groups, as well as Irish flags and various expressions of sectarianism and bigotry.

In Northern Ireland 鈥 the partitioned statelet made up of the six Irish counties still claimed by Britain 鈥 the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is the largest unionist party (supporters of an ongoing 鈥渦nion鈥 with Britain).

Few would have predicted, until recent times, that the biggest act at the Glastonbury music festival would be a 68-year-old socialist reciting .

Yet Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn鈥檚 June 24 speech at Glastonbury attracted what was likely the largest crowd in the festival鈥檚 history, said.

Martin McGuinness

Irish republican leader Martin McGuinness, who was聽Sinn Fein leader in Northern Ireland until stepping down due to ill health earlier this year, passed away on March 20 aged 66.

Born in 1950 in Derry聽in the six counties occupied by Britain, he came face to face with the discrimination and sectarian bigotry against Irish nationalists and Catholics that marked the partitioned statelet.

For the first time since Ireland was partitioned in 1921 as part of a treaty to end Ireland鈥檚 War of Independence, supporters of Northern Ireland鈥檚 鈥渦nion鈥 with the British state no longer hold a majority in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Irish Republican party Sinn Fein attained its highest ever share of the vote in the six counties that make up the Northern Ireland statelet still claimed by Britain, in emergency assembly elections on March 2.

Elections were called after power-sharing between Sinn Fein and the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) collapsed over a corruption scandal involving the public energy program. When DUP leader and Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster had refused to resign over her role in the scandal, Sinn Fein withdrew from the administration.