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

The Fine Gael Minister responsible for housing, Eoghan Murphy, is playing with figures again. He wants to protect his PR image rather than get on with the job of building houses.

He pretends that the numbers who are homeless is ‘just under’ 10,000. But this does not include those registered as rough sleepers or women who are in refuges because of domestic abuse. Nor does it include many of the hidden homeless who are sleeping on sofas in overcrowded conditions. 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

“There are at least 40,000 problem gamblers in Ireland”

read full story / add a comment

Focus Ireland has said that new figures reporting a total of 9,987 people homeless in January show the Government is still failing to do enough to ease the crisis.

The figures show a rise of 2.3% (234 people) in one month alone from 9,753 in Dec to 9,987 in Jan 2019.

The figures from the Department of the Environment also show that 3,624 of the number homeless are children (in 1,614 families) read full story / add a comment

Dublin Workers Party councillor, Eilis Ryan, has called for mandatory measles, mumps and rubella injection for school children .
“There has been a clear spike in mumps amongst teenagers born in the period when bogus research linking MMR to autism was published , Cllr Ryan said.

Cllr Ryan's call came after nearly 400 cases were reported this year – including 64 last week.
“Figures released by the HSE today showed that the number to date in 2019 is six times higher than during the same period last year
read full story / add a comment

The context to this letter by Edward Hogan is to highlight the complicity of the Irish government in assisting the US who are directly involved in the murder and terrorizing of the Yemeni population through the provision of bombs, missiles, drones, training. The media have managed to more or less turn a blind eye to this year since it started in 2015. read full story / add a comment

IAW is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid regime over the Palestinian people and build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. It now takes place in over 200 cities across the world, where events such as lectures, film screenings, direct action, cultural performances, postering, among many more help in grassroots organizing for effective solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. read full story / add a comment

“The country will be back to normal in 2053” reveals the thoughts of Jack Kennedy in a future Ireland scenario. read full story / add a comment

In the aftermath of the huge march (Sat 9th Feb 2019) in support of the nurses on Saturday the government suddenly found a pay deal it could put on the table, leading to the INMO suspending the strike until that deal is discussed and voted on. read full story / add a comment

Ireland is going to be one of the first countries to have 5g rolled out. This an extremly important issue that every person needs to know about. Authorities are making health decisions for mass populations without telling us. My aim of this campaign is to raise money in order to get the word out about the issues that come with a 5g rollout. read full story / add a comment

The challenge by Irish environmentalists has proven that the 'New Fortress Energy' Shannon LNG consent process will take years and may now never come to fruition.

'Safety Before LNG' stated that today's decision was to be expected and does not come as any surprise and thanks the 'Friends of the Irish Environment' for fighting to prevent climate chaos from the environmental madness that is the US fracked gas industry. read full story / add a comment

The government is paying out nearly half a million euro to PWC to find out why there was a cost over-run at the National Children’s Hospital. But PWC has been the recipient of major contracts from BOTH the HSE and the construction company involved, BAM. read full story / add a comment

Housing Agency “talking nonsense about affordable housing” – private developers completely incapable of providing real affordability.

People Before Profit TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, says “only way to deliver affordable housing is for state to build on public land.” read full story / add a comment

An Open Letter signed by 33 environmental NGOs objecting to biomass burning in Irish peat power stations and calling for those plants’ closure [1] has been submitted as part of an objection to ESB’s West Offaly planning application [2]. Dogwood Alliance [3] in the USA and Biofuelwatch in the UK and USA [4] slam ESB’s application for a post-2020 consent for the power station and its gradual conversion to biomass.
read full story / add a comment

The Fine Gael led government is trying to break the nurses’ strike with a constant barrage of media propaganda.

They say that the country cannot afford the nurses’ pay claim, as other workers would also start to demand a pay rise if they won.

But Varadkar and Harris showed no difficulty in finding an extra billion euro to fund the National Children’s Hospitals – even though the projected costs grew by three times. Then bizarrely, they agreed to pay an extra half a million to the accountancy company, PWC, to find out why the costs were so high. read full story / add a comment

The €500 million proposal to build a Liquified Natural Gas [LNG] terminal on the Shannon Estuary in County Kerry is in the High Court tomorrow because the Planning Appeals Board ignored Ireland’s legal obligation under the Government’s Climate Change legislation. read full story / add a comment

Organised by Republican Movement Cork and Clonmult Martyrs relatives and friends Commemoration Committee. read full story / add a comment

Solidarity/People Before Profit motion calls for Dáil support for nurses pay claim

Crisis in health service will not be addressed until we pay the nurses and end retention and recruitment crisis says TD

Bríd Smith said today that the nurses’ dispute was not simply a pay dispute, but was about the kind of health service we want in the future. read full story / add a comment

Gemma O'Doherty's Tedx speech in Longford which you never saw a mention of in the MSM. And for good reason! read full story / add a comment