Sinn Fein

With “change” as his banner and his country’s “great reboot” as his priority, new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer received the mandate to form a government yesterday. He highlighted the changes he achieved within the Labour Party as a model for the broader transformations he aims to implement in Britain.

Today, July 4, parliamentary elections are taking place in Great Britain, called ahead of schedule by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The elections promise to fundamentally change the face of the UK government, according to pollsters.

Ireland's European parliament elections finally concluded early Friday with all 14 seats filled after a marathon five-day count — the longest in the 27-member bloc.

The governing centre-right parties Fine Gael, led by Taoiseach (prime minister) Simon Harris, and Fianna Fail led by deputy premier Micheal Martin won four seats each.

Irish left-wing nationalists Sinn Fein demanded a place in Ireland's next government on Feb. 25 at a packed rally in Dublin, saying the country's two dominant centre-right parties were trying block voters' demand for change.

Unlike Greece, Ireland had its civil war immediately after the war of independence in 1922. The cause was the peace treaty between Britain and Ireland which agreed on the partition of the island, with six counties (Ulster) remaining in the UK and 26 becoming, eventually, the Republic of Ireland.

Northern Ireland's Sinn Fein accused British Prime Minister Theresa May on July 5 of setting the peace process back decades after a further delay in talks to form a new government for the province.

Michelle O'Neill, Sinn Fein's leader, said an agreement between May and the Democratic Unionist Party's 10 MPs in the London parliament to prop up her minority government was at fault.

Northern Ireland has the right to leave the United Kingdom and join the European Union as part of the Republic after Brexit, ministers have conceded for the first time, writes The Times.

The Eighth Congress of the European wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Ankara accuses of being an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), was held in Brussels on Sept. 24. 

Irish Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin asked constituents to consider the events leading up to and following the rise and leadership of the Greek Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA). Laying bare his government’s strategy to win a second term in office, he outlined a 2016 budget promising fiscal restraint and stability.

Northern Ireland's political parties began talks on Sept. 21 to try to save their power-sharing government after revelations about the involvement of Irish nationalist militants in a murder prompted the pro-British first minister to step aside.