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  Hope and Opportunity Ba mhaith liom mo chomhghairdeas a ghabháil le Catherine Connolly agus a foireann. Maith sibh as feachtas Uachtaránachta dearfach, forásach agus trócaireach a chur chun cinn. I want to extend my  congratulations  to Catherine Connolly and her team. Well done for fighting a positive, progressive, compassionate and cohesive Presidential campaign. Well done also to the many Sinn Féin activists from all parts of the island and all the others who enthusiastically handed out leaflets, erected posters, canvassed thousands of doors and worked hard to get the vote out last Friday. Lots of words have been used to described the outcome. Stunning. Triumph. Historic. And many more. For me the two most important are  hope  and  opportunity . Catherine Connolly was an exceptional candidate. The success of her campaign cannot be separated from her authenticity and her connectiveness with the electorate and with those, many of them first timers, who c...

  Adh Mór Catherine The Presidential election is on Friday. Many of you reading this column or listening to it on social media platforms , will not have a vote. But some of you will. So, I am asking you to cast your first preference for Catherine Connolly and to encourage everyone else to do the same.  The last week has seen a significant increase in negative campaigning against  Catherine by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and by the establishment media. Why has Catherine Connolly, who most of the media ignored during her time as a TD, become the  bête noire of the establishment? Is it because she has unashamedly challenged Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on their appalling record in government – on health, on homelessness, on the cost-of-living crisis, and on carers? Is it because of her fluency in the Irish language? Is it because she has defended neutrality and condemned genocide against the Palestinian people? Is it because of her support for a United Ireland....

  Palestine Must Be Free. A population greater than that of Belfast has been moving back to the northern Gaza strip following the ceasefire announcement last week. Awaiting them is utter destruction. The infrastructure of Gaza has been levelled by the Israeli state’s genocide. The return of the Gazans. is based on hope. Hope that humanitarian aid will arrive. Hope that the indiscriminate bombing by Israel and the deliberate slaughter of desperate, starving people at aid stations has stopped. Hope that the big powers – which have allowed this holocaust to go on for two years will ensure that this is a meaningful end to the war. Much of the detail of the agreement between Israel and Hamas is still not known. What we have seen is vague and ambiguous. Sometimes in negotiations this is necessary to create the space needed for progress to be made. But progress also demands  meaningful and positive momentum. A ceasefire is but a first step. An inclusive process is urgently neede...