We will assemble outside SuperValu Car Park in Westport town at 11am on Sunday 4th September.

Judge Seamus Hughes had a total of six penalty points wiped from his driver’s licence on three separate occasions between 2011 and 2012, Phoenix Magazine claims.

The Wesport native, who is also a former Fianna Fail TD, clocked up the first offence on March 28 2011, shortly after taking over from retired judge, John Neilan in District Number Nine. ... read full story / add a comment

Even though NamaLeaks.com launch was two week ago, we are reposting this report from Mick Wallace about it to help raise awareness of its goals.

Namaleaks.com, the secure and anonymous whistle blowing platform has launched today, Friday August 12th 2016. Namaleaks.com will allow for anyone who has been unfairly treated or who has witnessed poor practice by NAMA, or by any Investment Funds currently operating within Ireland, to securely and anonymously deliver information relating to same, to namaleaks.com. This project is supported by Mick Wallace, Clare Daly, Frank McDonald, Julien Mercille, and Cormac Butler.

Watch the video - https://youtu.be/RYsoYnyZcb0 ... read full story / add a comment

Even though this story broke in early Aug, it received almost zero coverage except on RT.com. Given the biggest thing in the 1990s was the breakup and wars in the former Yugoslavia and Slobodan Milosevic the former president of Yugoslavia and the endless accusations of war crimes and so forth against Milosevic who was eventually tried in the Hague, it now comes as very big news to discover he has been belatedly pardoned and completely exonerated and therefore it is important that what really happened and the role of NATO as the instrument of the Neo Cons needs to be re-examined.

From RT.com: The ICTY’s exoneration of the late Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of Yugoslavia, for war crimes committed in the Bosnia war, proves again we should take NATO claims regarding its ’official enemies’ not with a pinch of salt, but a huge lorry load.

For the past twenty odd years, neocon commentators and 'liberal interventionist' pundits have been telling us at every possible opportunity, that Milosevic (a democratically elected leader in a country where over 20 political parties freely operated) was an evil genocidal dictator who was to blame for ALL the deaths in the Balkans in the 1990s. Repeat after me in a robotic voice (while making robotic arm movements): 'Milosevic's genocidal aggression' 'Milosevic's genocidal aggression'. ... read full story / add a comment

This article appear on the Saker blog and is reproduced here as George Soros has a huge and sinister influence over many organisations particularly in Europe and was implicated in the installation of the neo Nazi thugs in power in Kiev, in the Ukraine and for help trigger numerous colour revolutions that ultimately help install puppet governments answerable to the neo cons in Washington and carry out the neo liberal agenda which ultimately only serves the agenda of the rich.
A leak of private documents of George Soros’ Open Society Foundations has been released, courtesy of http://soros.dcleaks.com/.George Soros is known to be involved in pretty much any revolution or coup around the world as well as heavily influencing politics. But these leaks provide direct evidence and show how deep and serious his involvement is. Here’s a quick analysis of what one can find. ... read full story / add a comment

The Irish Cancer Society are organising two talks to promote the unsafe HPV vaccine and thereby are implicated in promoting this dangerous vaccine. The talks are titled: 'The HPV Vaccine – Warts And All' and will take place in Galway on August 23 and Cork on August 24.

The Gardasil / HPV vaccine which has been pushed on first year secondary school girls around this country (and elsewhere) for the past number of years has destroyed the lives so far of over 300 girls leaving them with debilitating conditions. A parents support group called R.E.G.R.E.T. (Reaction and Effects of Gardasil Resulting in Extreme Trauma) has formed to provide support and document the damage. However this vaccine has been pushed by the Dept of Health on unsuspecting parents who foolishly put their trust in these authorities who told them and continue to claim the vaccine is safe. And all of this for a condition that is not even contagious.

... read full story / add a comment

This year the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign Sponsored Hill Walk will take place on Sunday 11th September 2016.

This year we will be taking one of the loop paths up along the cliffs of the stunning Howth Head. We will be setting off from the outside the DART station in Howth, Co. Dublin at 12pm, and finishing up with a meal and some liquid sustenance in Howth. The walk will take us along up Howth cliffs, taking in the stunning views of Lambay Island and Ireland’s Eye, accompanied by the scent of coconut from the bright yellow gorse on the heath. In total, the walk is about 10 kilometers.
... read full story / add a comment

The next Right2Water national demonstration takes place on Saturday 17th of September from 2pm onwards.

Right2Water will be hosting another national demonstration in Dublin to tell our government to respect our democracy and abolish water charges ... read full story / add a comment

The 2016 Census has again revealed there is no housing crisis. In fact about 1 in 8 houses were empty, a massive 259,562 dwellings in all.

So why are their hundreds of homeless on the streets and thousands in emergency accommodation. Why are rents soaring, particularly in Dublin, to level that mean most people can no longer afford to rent there? Why have house prices continued to increase far, far beyond the reach of the average worker? ... read full story / add a comment

As reported by MayoNews and ShellToSea two week ago...

SHELL E&P Ireland will appear before Dublin Metropolitan District Court on September 5 next over an intense flaring incident at the controversial Corrib refinery on December 31 last, The Mayo News can confirm. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has confirmed it issued a summons to Shell last week after a six-month investigation into what locals described as a ‘frightening’ event. They said it lasted 30 to 40 minutes, lit up the sky and was seen from as far away as Achill and Foxford. The fire from the giant chimney stack was accompanied by a ‘low, loud rumble like a supersonic boom’, according to local witnesses ... read full story / add a comment

A new report from the independent progressive think tank TASC shows that consistent child poverty almost doubled during the recent economic recession. This data is contained in Cherishing All Equally 2016, the first annual update of TASC’s groundbreaking 2015 report on economic inequality in Ireland.

Cherishing All Equally 2016 – which was prepared by Dr Rory Hearne and Cian McMahon – updates 18 key economic inequality indicators including the distribution of income and wealth, as well as the provision of public services, taxation, family composition, people’s capacities and the cost of goods and services. In addition, the report includes two in-depth themed sections: ‘Children and economic inequality in Ireland’ and ‘Gender and economic inequality in Ireland’ – the latter section was prepared by UCD’s Dr Ursula Barry and Dr Maggie Feeley. ... read full story / add a comment

Both men were arrested at Shannon Airport on May 25th, after entering the airfield, painting anti war markings & slogans on the runway, and then making their way over to a USAF C21 jet, (a 2nd military aircraft, an unmarked special forces C32B had already taken off before the presence of the men was detected by the Army sentries). The men were inside the perimeter walking around with a very large tricolour flag for 40 minutes before they were spotted by the Irish Army, approaching the US Airforce Jet.
They were held for over 24 hours, then brought to Gort where the Judge granted a state application for their bail conditions to ban them from entering County Clare other than for court related matters.
Yesterday they were in Ennis District Court, where they applied for disclosure (copies of statements and other evidence) and a variation on their bail conditions. ... read full story / add a comment

The People's Newsletter from the People's Movement in their bi-monthly newsletter carry an article on Brexit which is topical given that the British go to the polls on it this Thurs 23rd June. The various opinion polls show it to be relatively close.

The article here from the People's Movement puts forward good Left wing arguments why Britain should leave and they are good reasons for Ireland to leave too. The impression given is that the Brexit referendum was agreed to because of political pressure from the people. It is likely though that there are considerable powerful interests within the elite want to leave as they see their chances to be better off in the long run, yet those arguments not discussed here would be more issues within national capitalist faction.

The other article in this months newsletter is ... read full story / add a comment

AAA-PBP Motion calls for Ministerial order to cap charges and reinstate waivers for low income families

Dail debate and vote to take place next week on AAA-PBP motion calling for immediate government action to prevent planned increase in waste charges

Next week, the Dail will debate and vote upon a AAA-PBP Private Members Motion calling for an immediate Ministerial order to prevent private waste companies from implementing the planned dramatic increases in household waste charges.

The motion submitted today by AAA-PBP will be debated in the Dail next Tuesday

Bin charges are set to rise by between 100 and 200%. These charges will inflict an unsustainable burden for hard pressed households if the proposed increases by private waste companies are implemented and will undoubtedly lead to a dramatic increase in illegal dumping. ... read full story / add a comment

An oil and gas company called Infrastrata has been given a fifty year lease to drill less than 400 metres from a reservoir at Woodburn near Carrickfergus - on public land within our water catchment. At no point were we consulted.

The consequences of unconventional drilling on health and the environment are well documented. This is why it has been banned all over the world - from France to Germany, Wales to Nova Scotia..

We all live downstream.. We all share the same water table. This is a cross community all islands event with representatives from across the water and across the border who are facing or have faced similar challenges. ... read full story / add a comment

The FG TD Tony McLoughlin has tabled a private members bill to ban fracking. There have been two previous motions to ban fracking, the first by People Before Profit and the second by Sinn Fein. However, this third attempt has come from an unexpected quarter -from within the ranks of FG itself. Deputy McLoughlin is indeed correct to want to ban fracking as basically all it does is pollutes the water table indefinitely over a huge area for paltry amounts of gas causing far more harm than good. ... read full story / add a comment

Scrap FEMPI now; payback time for workers. People Before Profit will today propose a motion to the Dail to abolish the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest legislation (FEMPI). FEMPI is the most anti-worker legislation in the history of the state. ... read full story / add a comment

Rodrigo Duterte’s authoritarian neoliberalism isn’t the answer to poverty and political abuse in the Philippines. ... read full story / add a comment

The regular news digest of the People’s Movement, No. 147 is out now. It can be freely downloaded from the People's movement website and this issue has articles covering TTIP and a trade union view on Brexit. Recently Greenpeace published details of secret negotiations between the EU-US which were leaked and they indicated that EU officials had completely sold out to the US on all their corporate agenda demands. The TTIP agreement is by far and away the most undemocratic agreement ever devised and will shred protections of all kinds and oblierate the sovereignty every state that has this imposed on them. However the mainstream rightwing corporate media is not covering what is in TTIP and simply make false statements that it will bring jobs and growth, where the core issues are central to what it means to how society right across both the EU and US is run. Naturally our own mainstream political parties of FG and FF are completely for this corporate power grab of an agreement. ... read full story / add a comment

The idea of this meeting is to inform people of the secretly negotiated TTIP agreement between the USA and Europe. It is open to all.

We hope to be able to help launch an automonous local Anti TTIP group that can work with unions, political groupings and others to defeat TTIP, by being separate from but co-operative with others. This model has worked with the Water Charges Movement in the area and we hope it can be as strong on TTIP. ... read full story / add a comment

Woodburn Forest near Carrickfergus in County Antrim has become the site of the first operational fracking rig on the island of Ireland. On Monday 16 May InfraStrata PLC began to drill, seeking to confirm a viable oil find which will pave the way for large scale extraction. Community campaigners continue to resist and all support is welcome on the site to stop the drilling while one local mounts a legal challenge. ... read full story / add a comment