These local elections on Fri 24th May are more important than ever. The reason is that up and down the country Fine Gael with help from Fianna Fail have allowed corporate vulture funds through various government breaks to them to buy up valuable tracts of land and to buy up thousands and thousands of apartments and homes. And the result is they are screwing people for rent. ... read full story / add a comment

The European elections are this Friday on May 24th and there are good reasons to consider your vote very carefully because it does make a difference because practically every bit of law passed in the EU has to be adopted by Ireland at some point. It is a great way for politicans here to say the "EU forced us to..."
They said that one about the attempt to privatise water during that campaign.

It can be safely assumed that most people are for internet freedom, protection of the environment and in particular to live in places with unpolluted water, clean air and safe from exposure to toxic chemicals. These are all no brainers. In the area of military we have seen how years of bringing democracy to the Middle East by bombing them has resulted in devastation and huge waves of human refugees and immigration and time and time again the nefarious activities of the intellegence agencies of the big powers like USA, UK, France and NATO show them to be heavily linked to the various terrorist groups, via training, funding and weapons supply through third party countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar in order to disrupt and overthrown regimes they don't like. So do people really want Ireland to drop it's neutrality and get aboard these very costly military adventures and volunteer it's soldiers for basically ordained mass murder? At a guess, the answer is probably no. ... read full story / add a comment

It’s that time of year again, when politicians come knocking on doors looking for your vote. This May there will be European and Local elections in Ireland north and south. While domestic issues are, as always, likely to dominate the discussions, we believe it is vitally important that the issue of Palestine is kept firmly in the minds and mouths of all our politicians. The very essence of the Palestine solidarity movement is to ‘think globally, act locally’ – and we have seen impressive local support for Palestinian freedom by many local councils over the past decade. We need to make sure that Palestine is and remains an election issue! ... read full story / add a comment

Raise the Roof coalition is organising a National Rally on Sat 18th May 2019 at 1.00pm in Parnell Square, Dublin 1. ... read full story / add a comment

UN to consider the Armenian Genocide ... read full story / add a comment

Venue: Ireland Institute 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2
When: Tuesday 16th April 2019
Time: 7.30pm ... read full story / add a comment

Julian Assange who helped setup Wikileaks and in one of the first set of leaks revealed the murderous campaign of the US military against innocent civilians in Iraq amongst many other leaks showing the systematic criminality and inhumanity of the US government was betrayed this morning by the right wing corrupt president Lenin Moreno of Ecuador. Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa – whose government granted Assange asylum in 2012 – branded his more pro-US successor Lenin Moreno the “greatest traitor in Ecuadorian history” for rescinding the asylum claim and allowing British officers to enter his country’s embassy.

At the moment in a damage limitation exercise to try and shutdown support for Assange the corporate press is saying if charged, he could face up to 5 years in prison. This is to make it not so bad, but we can be 100% sure if deported to the USA, they will have a long list of dubious charges and most likely will give him a prison sentence that will more than easily cover the rest of his lifespan for that is the way of such regimes. ... read full story / add a comment

In Somalia, 60 percent of the 15 million person population lives in extreme poverty. According to the United Nations Development Programme almost 10 million people live in extreme poverty or close to poverty in Somalia while the war-torn African nation wrestles with a $4.6 billion debt. On Friday, Somalia's Finance Minister Abdirahman Beileh will call for debt cancellation for humanitarian assistance. ... read full story / add a comment

What do Fine Gael politicians do when they retire? Join the corporate elite naturally.

The Dublin, MEP, Brian Hayes has become a well-paid lobbyist for bankers. Now their former leader, Enda Kenny is joining the global advisory council for a vulture fund. ... read full story / add a comment

Workers’ Party councillor and Euro candidate Éilis Ryan has said the government’s new rent regulations leave plenty loopholes for landlords to exploit.

Commenting following Minister Eoghan Murphy’s announcement of the new regulations this evening, Cllr. Ryan said:

“Landlords will breathe a sigh of relief that Minister Murphy continues to allow plenty loopholes for a landlord who wishes to get rid of a tenant. They can still use the excuse of giving a property to a relative, of selling up, or of refurbishing, and be confident that, by the time they could be found out, the tenant will have had to move on to new accommodation ... read full story / add a comment

Workers’ Party Dublin City Councillor Éilis Ryan has condemned what she says is the hypocrisy of Dublin City officials opening housing exhibition on Vienna’s housing model, today (Tuesday, 2ndApril) while refusing to contemplate similar public housing schemes in Dublin. ... read full story / add a comment

A gut punch that gets straight to the essence of the stark reality of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. This is how an artist resists.” – Joe Sacco

Between 27th March and 4th April the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is honoured to host a speaking and exhibition tour with acclaimed Palestinian political cartoonist Mohammad Saba’aneh. ... read full story / add a comment

This year, LASC’s annual Latin America Week (LAW) will be focused on Gender and Extractive Industries. Between April 6th and 13th we will host a series of talks in Dublin, Cork and Galway to explore how extractive industries impact on women in Latin America.

Our Latin America Week keynote speaker is Jakeline Romero Epiayu, from La Guajira, Colombia. Jakeline is a member of local organisation Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu (Wayúu Women’s Force) which works to visibilise the violations of human and ethnic rights in La Guajira, and to strengthen the rights of women and indigenous communities in the region. The organisation also works on denouncement of the negative consequences of mining and energy mega projects in the region, such as the Cerrejón coal mine. ... read full story / add a comment

Bring posters and banners outside if possible Background: Ken and Tarak attempted to inspect and investigate a US military contracted plane at Shannon Airport and took a banner highlighting the situation into the airport. They were arrested for trespass and refused bail. ... read full story / add a comment

Yesterday, the governor of the Paris military district told France Info that soldiers of the Operation Sentinel counter-terror mission had been authorized to fire today on the “yellow vests.” Asked about whether soldiers were capable of carrying out law enforcement duties, General Bruno Le Ray replied: “Our orders are sufficiently clear that we do not need to be worried at all. The soldiers’ rules of engagement will be fixed very rigorously.” ... read full story / add a comment

The death last month of a former senior British police officer, John Stalker, will no doubt have rekindled many disturbing and distressful memories for the families of six men shot dead by the RUC during the dark ... read full story / add a comment

Join the protest this Saturday at 2pm in Dublin. We can end the housing crisis - let's get feet on the street.

Join us tomorrow #March9th at 3 locations for the Dublin Housing & Homeless Demonstrations.

Meeting Points[[/bold]]: The Housing Agency, 53 Mount Street Upper, D2
The GPO/Spire, Dublin 1
City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2 ... read full story / add a comment

Book talk, QUB Old Staff Common Room

Part of the Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics ... read full story / add a comment

Lay Litigant Kevin Tracey had a significant win in the Supreme Court when he succeeded in having a contempt of court order quashed after 12 years and 9 months. In the judgement delivered by O;Donnell J and supported by 3 colleagues including the Chief Justice it was found that he had not received fair procedures in the District Court. In his long struggle for justice there were many obstacles in his way. One of these was the Courts Service within whose walls someone backdated a Court order by nine months. This prevented him from appealing a High Court judgement within the permitted time limit. The long struggle for justice reminds me of the remark of a passing countryman to a mason called Mike who with my student brother was taking longer than expected to build build a hen shed: “Do you know, Mike, if every hen was as hard housed, a lot of them would shleep out”. It’s not funny to recall in these days of homelessness, that many other lay litigants may be left literally sleeping out after the justice system in Ireland prolongs their agony in their efforts to obtain simple justice from that same justice system. ... read full story / add a comment

FOREST BIOMASS CHALLENGE TO CO-FIRED PEAT PLANTS

The inclusion of forest biomass as a renewable fuel fatally undermines the goals of the new European Renewable Energy Directive [RED II], according to Plaintiffs from six different countries in an action filed today in the European General Court in Luxembourg. Each has suffered, in diverse and particular ways, from the consequences of the Directive’s biomass energy policy. ... read full story / add a comment