Turf Wars in County Kildare

By the end of 2013 the Irish state and the EU will have closed 130 bogs across Ireland designating these raised bogs as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs). In effect they will prevent families and domestic turf cutters from cutting turf as they have done for hundreds of years.
The EU Habitats Directive was introduced fourteen years [...]

Ready for peace?

The UVF was involved in some of the most serious street disturbances Belfast has witnessed in a generation last summer, but according to Billy Hutchinson the leader of the paramilitary group’s political wing – the Progressive Unionist Party – its commitment to peace remains. Kevin Brannigan reports.
Billy Hutchinson is a complex individual. At the age [...]