Once the bustling heart of Christian pilgrimage, Bethlehem now faces shuttered hotels, empty streets and a shrinking Christian community, while Israel’s assault on Gaza and the tightening grip of occupation destroy hopes of peace at the birthplace of Christ, writes Father GEOFF BOTTOMS
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Angela Davis and the women’s movement of Northern Ireland
LYNDA WALKER remembers the legendary US civil rights activist’s two visits to Belfast, in 1994 and 2017
Angela Davis (right) and Lynda Walker of the Communist Party of Ireland, pictured in 2017
After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
The June 2025 attacks on Iran have heightened the risk of a wider war, exposed the fiction of a rules-based international order and left ordinary Iranians trapped between external aggression and internal repression, says the Committee for Defence of Iranian People’s Rights
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
WHEN Angela Davis addressed a group of over 700 people in the Whitla Hall at Belfast Queen’s University in 2017, I was immensely proud. This was her second visit to Belfast, her first being in 1994.
She told the audience how she received that invitation when she met women from Ireland in Moscow at the World Congress of Women.
In 1987 a delegation of 42 women from the length and breadth of Ireland went to Moscow — trade unionists, community activists, communists, all were thrilled to meet Angela.
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