Government offer spurious reasons for blocking Medicinal Cannabis Bill

Gino Kenny TD says: “I put forward solutions over three years ago and they completely ignored them”

People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny said he received a letter today from the Minister for Health, Simon Harris, outlining the reasons why the Dublin Mid-West TD’s Cannabis for Medicinal Use Regulation Bill 2016 failed to progress further in the legislative process.

The letter contained a ‘reasoned response’ to Deputy Kenny’s Bill, which sought to provide for GPs to prescribe medicinal cannabis for people with a wide range of illnesses. read full story / add a comment

Please join us on Human Rights Day 2019 to protest against the continued imprisonment of Julian Assange and the unlawful US Extradition Case against him. read full story / add a comment

Cobh's iconic Deepwater Quay / Five Foot Way is a scenic walkway and Right of Way in the Cork Harbour town of Cobh. It has existed for over 150 years and the Right of Way has been used for generations of people. Now it is under threat as the Port of Cork claims there was never a Right of Way and is taking steps to extinguish it forever. Join us in our quest to ensure that future generations continue to enjoy this scenic walkway. read full story / add a comment

On Christmas Day next (Wednesday 25th December 2019) at 12 noon , the CABHAIR organisation will , for the 43rd successive year, hold a sponsored swim at the 3rd Lock of the Grand Canal , at Inchicore , Dublin (opposite Kelly's 'Blackhorse Inn' pub). read full story / add a comment

The British state is slowly killing Julian Assange. They want him to die so as to send a message to anyone else who dares make public the crimes of governments like the US and the UK who have bombed countless countries, murdering hundreds of thousands of people in the process and which in fact has gone a long way to contributing to the waves of immigrants risking their lives to get into Europe. The World Socialist WebSite has produced a report on the situation so far.

More than 65 eminent medical doctors from the UK and around the world have issued an open letter calling for urgent action to protect the life of imprisoned WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange.

The doctors warn there may be serious consequences if Assange is not moved from Belmarsh Prison to a university teaching hospital where he can be assessed and treated by an expert medical team. read full story / add a comment

When time spent working is factored into the equation, agriculture is now the most unequal sector of the Southern economy, with the richest 10% of farmers claiming 30% of all income and the bottom half left with less than 20% between them. read full story / add a comment

60,000 people have joined the Facebook group “Protest Against Homelessness in Ireland,” pledging to march on December 5th, 12pm at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin. Here’s why you should join the protest.

1. Because the scenes of misery on our streets are getting worse by the day.
2. Because the government is not on our side.
3. Because we need real opposition.
4. Because we could end homelessness now.
5. Because this could kick the housing movement onto a new level. read full story / add a comment

A reactionary right wing coup has deposed Evo Morales, the left wing and self proclaimed socialist President of Bolivia, after 14 years of rule. This coup has been executed by the Bolivian armed forces and police in conjunction with the right wing opposition Citizens Community led by Carlos Mesa, probably with the backing, behind the scenes, of the far right Bolsonaro government in Brazil and the US State Department. read full story / add a comment

Film about the last two surviving members of the Piripkura people, a nomadic tribe in the Mato Grasso region of Brazil, struggle to maintain their indigenous way of life amidst the region's massive deforestation. read full story / add a comment

Councilors from Fianna Fail, Green Party, Labour and Social Democrats have agreed to give land at O Devaney Gardens to Bartra Capital.

O Devaney Gardens was a working class flat complex on the edge of the Phoenix Park. For decades, it was run down by Dublin City Council and requests by tenants for proper maintenance were ignored.

Dublin City Council officials typically neglect inner city housing complexes in the hope that they can eventually move out the residents and turn them into posh private apartments.

The Fianna Fail-Green-Labour–Social Democrat coalition that run Dublin City Council complied with this disgraceful strategy. read full story / add a comment

The Editor of Grayzone, Max Blumenthal was arrested over a week ago in Washington DC and was shackled by his hands and ankles for over five hours in one a cage along with other inmates over the weekend. His crime? To report from outside the Venezuelan embassy in Washington DC last May and to burst the US media bubble on how things really were in Venezuela after the US tried to organise a coup against the elected leader Maduro and install their own puppet who would sell out the country to vulture capitalists.

What a surprise there was nothing about this in the mainstream media. If the same thing had happened in Venezuela there would have been widespread condemnation in the pro-coup mainstream media.

The World Socialist website carried a report on it yesterday. read full story / add a comment

Relaunch of the booklet We Shall Over­come: The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland by Patrick Murphy
Speakers: Patrick Murphy, Anne McVicker, Seán Byers.

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2019 is the Year of the Salmon and Salmon Watch Ireland are facilitating a workshop to discuss the present and future issues that can be addressed by interested parties to ensure that Ireland’s salmon stocks can be maintained and how we as conservationists might help to save this iconic fish. Salmon Watch Ireland will bring together experts in salmon management with an emphasis on Environmental DNA as it relates to salmon, closed and semi closed containment systems in aquaculture examining latest developments and an update on the projects involving smolt track. read full story / add a comment

Comrades, The integrity and life of our comrades in Ecuador are at risk in the face of the repressive offensive of the government

We need you -especially those who live in the countries of the global north- to help to spread the situation.

There is this last minute press release from one of the community media that is covering locally in Quito together with our own comrades of Indymedia Ecuador (spanish): read full story / add a comment

This is a global rebellion of the willing, from America to Scandinavia, Brazil to Australia, from Europe to The Solomon Islands we will take to the streets in protest against our governments criminal inaction on climate change.

Extinction Rebellion Ireland invites everyone to be part of this compassionate revolution. Join us as we make history. read full story / add a comment

The World Socialists WebSite has carried a report on the protest outside the prison in support of Assange
A large crowd rallied outside Belmarsh Prison in London on Saturday as jailed WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange received the Gavin MacFadyen Award 2019—the only journalism prize given by whistle-blowers. Assange’s father John Shipton accepted the award on his son’s behalf. read full story / add a comment

After a year-long debate within the Socialist Party, we have decided to leave and to establish a new democratic socialist political group, RISE. The four letters of RISE give a picture of the politics we stand for: Radical, Internationalist, Socialist and Environmentalist. read full story / add a comment

Today’s initial half day strike action by teacher members of UNITE at the Delfin English Language school on Parnell Square for union recognition and improvements in conditions is the culmination of a long organising campaign. Michael O’Brien speaks to one of the strikers to find out what it is all about. read full story / add a comment

This blog entry from 16th Sept on the ShannonWatch.org website is reproduced here because while it might seem old news one week late, it will in fact be news to a lot of people since the mainstream just don't cover this, certainly not from the side of peace perspective.

The following was written by Veteran for Peace activist Tarak Kauff who is currently being refused permission to leave Ireland. He is accused of minor offenses linked to the attempt he and Ken MAyers made to inspect a US contracted military plane at Shannon Airport. read full story / add a comment

The case is made for the provision of free public transport in every major town and city worldwide for a multitude of reasons. It has always been a good idea and should have been done a long time ago, but now with three major issues of our time; resource depletion, including oil, pollution and the climate crisis; they make it imperative that we move to such a system, both to conserve dwindling supplies of cheap energy, to reduce the use of vast mineral resources to make hundreds of millions of cars and to dramatically reduce our carbon emissions because climate change is happening faster than expected. The Earth's climate has turned out to be more sensitive and complex than anticipated as evidenced by the recent dramatic record breaking summer ice melts in the Arctic1 in 2007, 2008, 2012 and basically every year since then. With such a large change in the albedo or reflectivity over a huge area of the Arctic, this signifies the jump into positive feedback of the climate system, although it is not the only positive feedback. Combined with preliminary reports that frozen methane is beginning to be released from the Arctic sea floor and tundra and given that methane is 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas, it is clear we are probably at the point of things running out of control. Emissions need to be cut drastically, starting about 20 years ago. read full story / add a comment