Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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Brexit and the British border in Ireland
Ireland should follow Britain out of the EU — or it will come under effective Franco-German control while flying an EU flag, writes KEVIN McCORRY
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
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NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
A KEY reason for the hostility of the EU and the Irish government to Brexit and their intransigence on the artificially created problem of the Irish “backstop” is fear that if a real Brexit occurs — with Britain outside the EU customs union, single market and European Court of Justice jurisdiction — the Republic of Ireland will inevitably follow.
Continued EU membership by either the UK or the Republic of Ireland is in no way necessary to underpin the North-South co-operation within Ireland and the East-West co-operation between Ireland and Britain that the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) provides for.
To suggest otherwise is false. Naturally both states must honour their commitments under the agreement.
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AARON SMITH discusses why the Protestant diaspora are still part of Yeats’s ‘Indomitable Irishry’, and an integral part of any future united Ireland.
TOM GALLAHUE argues that asking what role Irish diaspora educators can play in shaping Irish unity is to ask a deeper question about democracy itself
A new group within the NEU is preparing the labour movement for a conversation on Irish unity by arguing that true liberation must be rooted in working-class solidarity and anti-sectarianism, writes ROBERT POOLE
The independent TD’s campaign has put important issues like Irish reunification and military neutrality at the heart of the political conversation, argues SEAN MacBRADAIGH