2002-05-07 10:46:00 EST
SINN FEIN LAUNCHES ELECTION PLATFORM
Sinn Féin has launched its Irish General Election platform. The party is running 37 candidates in 34 constituencies. Details of the party's election campaign platform were given today by its president, Gerry Adams. The party calls for the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in the document entitled "Building an Ireland of Equals".
2002-05-04 12:54:00 EST
OPPOSITION REACTS TO PROSPECT OF FF OVERALL MAJORITY
The smaller and opposition groups contesting the Irish general election today mounted a campaign against the prospect of single-party government after new opinion poll suggested that Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's Fianna Fail could win an overall majority.
05/01/02 15:06 EST
IRA CEASEFIRE 'NOT ENOUGH' SAYS REID
An IRA ceasefire is ''not enough'' Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid has told the House of Commons four years after the Belfast Agreement. Facing claims from the Conservative Party that the peace process was "on trial", Dr Reid said the 'break-in' at Castlereagh police concern was a "matter of grave concern." Republicans have emphatically denied any involvement in the Castlereagh 'break-in', saying that accusations that republicans were involved was 'a smokescreen' to deflect responsibility from the real culprits.
04/24/02 17:13 EST
HEARINGS FAIL TO SUBSTANTIATE IRA-COLOMBIA LINK
There was bipartisan condemnation of what the House International Relations Committee (HIRC) staff members deemed to be evidence of IRA links with international global terrorism and the drug trade, during oversight hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington DC today. Senior members on both side of the House Committee questioned the validity and basic premise of the hearings, with more than one member wondering aloud whether the hearings were more aimed at further funding US military intervention in Colombia rather than establishing the facts as to why three Irishmen were arrested in Colombia in August of last year.
2002-04-08 12:11:00 EST
IRA'S SECOND DECOMMISSIONING ACT BROADLY WELCOMED
The IRA announced a fresh move on arms decommissioning this morning following talks with international decommissioning body. The Irish premier, Bertie Ahern, welcomed the move, describing it as a significant development and saying he was "very pleased". British prime minister Tony Blair today hailed the IRA's second act of decommissioning as "immensely significant".
2002-04-04 16:20:00 EST
IS BRITAIN GIVING UNIONISM FALSE HOPE? - McLAUGHLIN
The British Government must ask itself if it is giving "false hope" to unionists in Northern Ireland by maintaining its presence there, a leading Sinn Féin figure argued tonight. In a speech developing his party's case for a united Ireland to party activists in Cork, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin welcomed Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble's recent call for a referendum next year on Northern Ireland's future.
2002-03-31 15:44:00 EST
EASTER RISING COMMEMORATED AROUND IRELAND
Thousands of people around Ireland have attended commemorations of the 86th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. At the Dublin Commemoration, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams called for the establishment of a political coalition to work towards a united Ireland.
2002-03-29 15:42:00 EST
DURKAN SAYS AGREEMENT SIGNALLED NEW BEGINNING
A new implementation body for the Belfast Agreement must be used to prevent parties being "caught by surprise or locked into suspicion" as political developments take place, Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Mark Durkan said today.
2002-03-29 11:41:00 EST
AGREEMENT OFFERS 'GOOD AND FAIR' FUTURE - AHERN
The Good Friday Agreement offers a "good and fair" future for Northern Ireland and dissenters should accept that it poses them no threat, Irish premier Bertie Ahern said today. Four years after the signing of the historic accord Mr Ahern said it was time for anti-agreement politicians and paramilitaries to accept it was the way to build peace on the island.
2002-03-22 11:47:00 EST
ADAMS INVITED TO TESTIFY OVER COLOMBIA THREE
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams today said he had an "open mind" over an invitation by a United States congressional committee to give evidence in Washington on what he may have known about the arrest of three Irishmen in Colombia last year. The House of Representatives International Relations Committee confirmed this week they had written to Sinn Fein urging Mr Adams or his colleagues to testify on the arrests of Martin McCauley, Niall Connolly and James Monaghan in Colombia last August on suspicion of training left-wing FARC guerrillas.
2002-03-20 14:42:00 EST
REID ANNOUNCES REVIEW OF CASTLEREAGH SECURITY BREACH
Former Northern Ireland Office permanent secretary Sir John Chilcot is to head a British government review following last Sunday's security breach at Castlereagh RUC/PSNI Special Branch office. The announcement was made by Northern Ireland Secretary of State John Reid and Sir John`s review will proceed in parallel with an RUC/PSNI criminal investigation and will report directly to Dr Reid.
2002-03-17 16:36:00 EST
AHERN OPPOSED TO BORDER POLL NEXT YEAR
Irish premier Bertie Ahern today threw his weight behind calls by Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman to have a third party investigate the Omagh bombing.
2002-03-16 13:05:00 EST
BRITISH ARMY HELICOPTER CRASH LANDS IN SOUTH ARMAGH
Irish premier Bertie Ahern has voiced his opposition to a referendum on a united Ireland during next year's Northern Ireland Assembly elections. Mr Ahern has said that a referendum on Irish unity would "unnecessarily inflame passions" during the elections. The proposal of putting the question of reunification to the people next year was put forward by Stormont First Minister David Trimble last weekend and welcomed by Sinn Fein.
2002-03-14 17:10:00 EST
HAASS CONDEMNS TRIMBLE'S REMARKS ABOUT REPUBLIC
President George W. Bush's special adviser on Northern Ireland tonight condemned Mr David Trimble's description of the Irish Republic as a "pathetic sectarian state". Ambassador Mr Richard Haass said the Ulster Unionist leader's statement to his party's annual general meeting was 'regrettable'.
Read the full stories at The Irish American Information Service
April 8, 2002
March 7, 2002
...with the ballot, the results and David Trimble's reaction
Irish Proclamation of Freedom Read by Patrick Pearse from the Steps of the General Post Office, Dublin, Ireland on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916
The Irish Government, June 1997:
Bloody Sunday and the Report of the Widgery Tribunal
Full text of the Good Friday Agreement, April 10, 1998.
Investigation into the human rights in Northern Ireland, September 29, 1998
Statement by Rosemary Nelson, solicitor for Garvaghy Road residents
Nobel Peace Price Award, December 11, 1998:
Nobel Address by David Trimble, First Minister and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party
Nobel Address by John Hume, leader of the catholic SDLP
George Mitchell's Peace Principles, November 1999:
Statements of November 16 and 17, 1999, by Ulster Unionist Party, Sinn Féin, Progressive Unionist Party and IRA
George Mitchell's statement, November 18, 1999
Suspension of Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive. February 2000:
Decommissioning reports, Mandelson in House of Commons, IRA statements
Peace process resumed. May 2000
British-Irish joint statement and IRA statement.
Inspection of IRA weapons dumps, June 2000
Arms inspector's report
Abortion Referendum March 7, 2002
An Irish bookshop: Read Ireland
Wesley Johnston's History of Ireland
The CAIN Project (The Northern Ireland Conflict)
Danish Irish Society
Sinn Féin Homepage
The Irish Times
I started reading about Ireland and about its history in order to understand just a bit of the Irish paradoxes. Although I started from the very beginning the matter was still incomprehensible. I therefore began to write down the headlines in Danish.
In 1998 when I got my own website I wondered what to put there. My family, my career or my garden could not attract much attention. But my Danish survey of the history of Ireland would be different from most other websites, so I uploaded the whole story.
I considered my web-project to be complete by then. However the beginning of 1998 was to become a turning point in the history of Ireland. The Good Friday Agreement created optimism and a new hope of lasting peace. I therefore added new chapters on the peace agreement and on the ups and downs since then. Obviously there is still a way to go before a real peace has been achieved and right now I can't see the end of my project.
A lot of people wrote to me asking for details or references. This has proved the need for a brief Danish version of the history of Ireland. In 2001 more than 50 persons on the average have been visiting my website every day.
However about 10 % of the visitors on my website are non-Scandinavians. I have added this page in order to serve these people with some information about my project and with some of the important references.
I considered reference documents and speeches most interesting in the original English language. I also have to admit that a proper translation of the documents to Danish is not that simple. On the other hand the number of visitors to the reference pages in English has been very limited. Therefore all information in English will be concentrated in this English section of my website together with selected news.
I have no intention of making an English version of the whole story. I have neither the ability nor the capacity to write in English and several excellent sites already offer that sort of information.
It remains to be seen if this section serves the interests of some visitors.
E-mail me your comments and questions
Ireland History in Maps
Irish History on the Web
The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
Ulster Unionist Party
The Irish Republican Socialist Party
Fine Gael
Ulster Democratic Unionist Party, DUP
Fianna Fáil
Ulster Democratic Party
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Progressive Unionist Party
Ulster Nation
The Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Wild Geese (USA) Irish soldiers in exile
Visit Danish Irish Society
December 16, 2001 Top
Since my first visit to Ireland the history of Ireland was a puzzle to me. Why has this beautiful country with its charming and hospitable population become the arena of a never-ending conflict? Differences in religion, language, race or culture gave no reasonable explanation. Which coincidence has caused so much suffering in Ireland while other countries such as Denmark had nothing but trifles to quarrel about?