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For the last three months, the residents of the Montpelier Hill district in Dublin's north-west inner city have been organising sit-out pickets at two locations in their neighbourhood. The first is at the entrance to Montpelier Drive, which is a small secluded red-brick estate of around 50 houses. The other picket is at St Bricin's Park, near the end of Montpelier Hill and Arbour Hill prison. This action by the residents was prompted by the increase in men soliciting prostitutes in the area. Local residents say that kerb crawlers were approaching their children and offering money for sex, encouraging them to get in their cars.

The level of prostitution and related activity has increased in the last few years with the opening of the Collins Barracks Museum on Benburb Street. The women working on the streets moved away from the now well-lit area (further developed in recent months with the LUAS) onto Montpelier Hill, which is a quiet residential area, and poorly lit at night.

Jenny, one of the residents on the Montpelier Gardens sit-out, explains why they were there. "We're fighting this about eight years and nothing was happening. So we decided to take action ourselves, because one of our neighbours was attacked and mugged at half three in the afternoon. So then we decided if the Garda are not going to take any action then we're going to have to do it ourselves. People are of the opinion that we're just here since Lynette McKeown went missing. We've been out here before that, a long time before that happened. If it happened once its going to happen again." Article Continues at 'Feature Continued' link Below

Discussion on Legalisation of Prostitution from Melbourne Indymedia

"We must all appear before the judgment that each may be repaid for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad" intones Poet.

So the left are in power in Dublin? Any chance of a free train to Limerick on the 25th for your 'Obedient Citizens' ?

Election Posters Bothering You?
Bye Bye Agressive Rats?
CWI statement on Socialist Party Election
Left Wing Election Races - Being the Tallyman
Fingal CoCo Results

'Street Art' Photo-Essay continues at this link

From the newswire:

In the wake of last year's successful Campaign for a Free Education (CFE) something of a ‘new bloom’ of student activism has sprouted up in Universities and Colleges across the country carrying with it an enormous amount of dissatisfaction with and opposition to the direction in which the Irish Education system is currently being steered.

Exemplary of such activism was the recent inaugural sitting of the Irish Education Forum (IEF) and its subsequent plan of ‘building an alternative’ to the threat of privatisation. The IEF is a vital foundation stone in the formulation of a response to the very imminent reintroduction of College fees and the subsequent privatisation of third level education. Continue to a full report on the Irish Education Forum >>

A Debate on Punishment Beatings has broken out on the Indymedia Ireland Newswire as a result of a contribution from an INLA supporter rubbishing the connetion made in the media between INLA punishment beatings and suicides. This is one contribution to the ongoing debate from 'Aine' in Belfast.

"The young people involved in anti-social (not always criminal) behaviour are victims as well as the people affected by their behaviour. All are victims but surely the question is not who is the most worthy victim but how to stop young people engaging in this kind of unacceptable behaviour? Contrary to what has been said on this thread, there is NO evidence (apart from what we hear from apologists for punishment beatings) that working class communities WANT such attacks on their young people. I work with young people through a community group in a working class part of Catholic West Belfast and, honestly, people do want something done but ALL of them want something positive that will stop the young people getting in trouble in the first place.

Why is it that all the punishment attacks are in working class areas? Are better off kids better behaved? Of course not, but they are less likely to be on the streets, more likely to have their own rooms with computers etc and have the money to go to the cinema, leisure centres etc.

Something has to be done is the response from Tony Blair, David Blunkett and INLA apologists - especially the IRSP. So, they bring in Anti Social Behaviour Orders that can include Housing Benefit being cut if a family member is involved in anti-social behaviour - so leading to more poverty and more pressure on the youngster to steal to put food on the table if his mother is a lone parent. If people in the IRSP used as much energy seeking funding for youth projects or objecting to the fact that 16-17 year olds around here have NO income - their parents do not get a brass farthing towards their upkeep if they are not in full-time education or training - there would be a lot less crime and anti-social behaviour.

Of course, in spite of all the talk of people like me being middle-class for defending these young people's right not to be brutalised [I earn £13,500 a year and live in that middle-class paradise called Poleglass] the reality is that the so-called 'leaders' of the IRSP would not know what it means to be poor. Some of them have VERY middle class jobs and incomes and probably cannot imagine the stress faced by the families these young people come from."

Other Relevant Links
Slugger O'Toole Debate on Same Subject
Article on Ardoyne Suicides from An Phoblacht/Republican News