The political establishment have been left reeling by the size of the award made against Apple. They have launched an all-out propaganda war to try to recover ground.

Here are some of the lies and half truths:

‘The EU is attacking Ireland’s sovereignity’ . The same politicians who meekly accepted orders from the European Central Bank to pay out €64 billion in bank bail-outs have suddenly discovered nationalism.

When it comes to water charges or the privatisation of Aer Lingus they tell us to obey the Brussels bureaucracy. But it is a different story when there is a threat to the ‘tax planning’ industry that is staffed full of accountants and lawyers. Then all of a sudden it is time for the green jersey.

The global elite are under pressure and this is leading to splits and divisions. When this happens they spill the beans on how their system really works. ... read full story / add a comment

September 17th sees the next major national march against the 'we can't believe they are not dead already' water charges. We respect that many anarchists will be marching with their local groups but for those who are not we thought it would be good to have an anarchist bloc and march together, everyone can then meet up at the end. ... read full story / add a comment

DDCI Calls for Oireachtas Debate; Full Review of Tax Ruling Practices by the Revenue Commissioners Following Today’s EC Apple State Aid Ruling

Following today’s decision by the European Commission that Apple was granted illegal state aid, Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) is calling for a full Oireachtas debate to take place before any decision is made to contest the ruling in the European Courts.

The details of the revenue seemingly voluntarily foregone by the Irish state are truly astonishing, with Apple paying an effective tax rate of 0.005% in 2014 and reports of 13 billion EUR foregone in the period 2003-2014. This is particularly remarkable given the austerity policies ordinary Irish citizens were facing during much of this period. ... read full story / add a comment

The 5th annual march for Choice takes place September 24 and once more we are bringing together an anarchist bloc for the march, which is organised by the Abortion RIghts Campaign.

It's going to be an important march as the governement are desperately trying to delay calling a referendum to Repeal the 8th Referendum and a huge turnout will help to force them to abandon their delaying tactics. And with Repeal even being raised by Rose of Traless contestants (to RTE's horror) there is a real mood of urgency for change that must be expressed on the streets. We can't wait when 12 people a day are forced to travel to access abortion and more use pills at home under the theoretical threat of a 14 year jail term. ... read full story / add a comment

Dalradian Gold, the Canadian based mining firm, are planning to set up a gold mine and processing plant in the beautiful Sperrin Mountains, County Tyrone. Described as a potential “gold rush”, Dalradian claim their survey shows there are up to four million ounces of gold in the Sperrins. Officials claim it could produce 120,000 ounces per year for decades and tens of millions in profits. Michael Arthur reports.

However, to remove the gold, Cyanide will be pumped into the mountains. This process is extremely dangerous for the public health of people living in the area and the local ecosystem, the nearby Owenkillew River is the home of the protected Freshwater Pearl Mussel. ... read full story / add a comment

#ANTIFA : - Whilst Gaelic Football is the sport of those who oppose discrimination, football (soccer) in Ireland is inhabited by the racist and homophobic far right who glorify assaults on LGBT men and women, and foreigners, following a recruitment campaign by the openly national socialist Ireland First, represented on Twitter by Futboi (i) Adam @futboiadam and Futbol (l) Andrew @futbolandrew. Adam's Twitter timeline openly tweets about murdering black people, and Alan tweets to incite the burning of mosques, all fully aware Ireland's rightwing police force do not police internet hate crimes, not even blatant incitement to murder, nor do Twitter remove most racist accounts.

Following the demise of Pegida Ireland, the miserable failure that it was, Ireland First have copied the EDL in gathering both young and middle aged football hooligans from Ireland's soccer scene, aiming for a menacing political band of thugs who are prepared to use violence on minorities. Many of their trolling Twitter accounts masquerade under the premise of pseudo-parody, while tweeting out language designed to spur-on violent hate crimes, even murder.

Ireland First's Twitter Account (far worse than Britain First): - https://twitter.com/irelandaboveall

Cork's football casuals have heeded the messages of hate from Andrew and Adam, joined by newcomers like Alan, who seems to think that hanging around a gymnasium makes him invincible, and pretending to be "not serious" frees them from all responsibility for their actions.

Bonehill himself, pretended to be parody, when calling for Jewish people to be murdered, but the judge dismissed his conjecture, and quite rightly took his violent anti-Semitic words at face value. ... read full story / add a comment

On Thursday September 8th 2016 you are invited to spend an unforgettable evening with acclaimed Palestinian author, academic and activist Ghada Karmi as she launches her latest book, ‘Return: A Palestinian Memoir‘ (Verso, 2016).

The event, jointly hosted by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Academics for Palestine, will take place in the Ballroom in Wynn’s Hotel, 39 Abbey Street Lower, Dublin 1 at 7pm. Entry is free.

Ghada Karmi will be in conversation with well-known academic and journalist Harry Browne, and there will be time for questions from the audience. ... read full story / add a comment

WP says tax windfall must be used for ‘public compensation fund’ to build public housing

Apple revenue could build 72,000 houses in Ireland

The Workers’ Party has today (30th August) issued a call for the government not to appeal the European Commission’s Apple tax decision, but to establish a ‘Public Compensation Fund’ with money recouped from Apple’s unpaid tax bill. ... read full story / add a comment

On Sept 6th - Tuesday in Castlebar District Court, latest hearing in the State’s attempt to criminally prosecute two prominent I-I members for speaking up in Court when a judge, aided and abetted by others in the pay of the State, broke just about every rule in the book! ... read full story / add a comment

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