On this day in March 1964 Brendan Behan died at the age of forty one from alcoholism. Before he became an internationally-acclaimed author he worked as a house painter and also joined the IRA, initially as a courier. Behan was a friend and comrade of my Uncle Harry, a...

Today is the twelfth anniversary of the death of David Ervine, leader of the PUP and a former UVF prisoner. I interviewed him in 2002 in his office at Stormont where he was an MLA. There has been much speculation down the years about whether loyalism would be in the...

The difficulties of dealing with the past has been dominated by and largely associated with the recent conflict in the North. But the decision by the Irish government to commemorate members of the RIC and the Dublin Metropolitan Police prior to the establishment of...

Jimmy and I went to the dance that Friday night in Clonard Hall. It was New Year’s Eve. He was 17 and I was 18. There was the countdown to midnight, followed by hugs and kisses and the singing of Auld Lang Syne. But the festivity was overshadowed. Around us were a...

This is an excerpt from my book, Then The Walls Came Down, when at Christmas time I was on remand for conspiracy to murder, kidnapping and IRA membership. Among those referred to are my cell-mate, Roy McCool from Derry; two of my co-accused, Jim O’Carroll and John...

My friend, Jenny Farrell, has just compiled and edited a book which is to be launched by Fr Peter McVerry at 3pm, next Saturday, 23rd November, in Connolly Books, 43 Essex St E, Temple Bar, Dublin. The book, The Children of the Nation: An Anthology of Working People's...

Fr Des Wilson died yesterday at the age of ninety four. I saw him for the last time two weeks ago at Nazareth House Care Village. He was very frail and his voice was a whisper. But with him was Janet Cush, one of many from the Springhill and Ballymurphy community who...