Socialist Party

"In sooth I know not why I am so sad./ It wearies me, you say it wearies you;/ but how I caught it, found it or came by it / What stuff tis made of whereof it is born,/ I am to learn." So opens Shakespeare’s "Merchant of Venice" with the character Antonio experiencing what we might call today an attack of the blues.

At a high profile conference in January Sinn Fein called for a referendum on the border to be held during the next Stormont Assembly term. In practice this means before 2020. Almost immediately, the DUP’s Arlene Foster surprised Sinn Fein by suggesting that it might agree to a border poll.

Seven electricians, members of the TEEU (www.teeu.ie) have been out on strike at St. James’ Hospital since Tuesday 19 February. socialistparty.net interviewed three of them, John McMahon, Geoff Mell and Alan O’Connor.

International Women's Day Protest - 6pm at the Spire, Friday 8 March

• Stand up for women's right to choose
• Stop violence against women
• Rage against rape
• Oppose austerity & the assault on the public sector

Walkout by four unions from Croke Park 2 talks justified and welcome - new alliance of fighting unions needed to campaign for 'no' vote across the public service.

On the surface it looks like the talks for an extension of the Croke Park deal are in troubled waters. With the walk out of the Garda rank and file association and the nurses trade union threatening to walk with the 24 / 7 frontline alliance.