Video Of The Week

Just three weeks ago the National Transport Authority (NTA) officially started the tendering for 2016 of initially 10% of Dublin Bus routes and a further 10% of all Bus Eireann routes with most of the routes in Waterford City, and a number of Dublin commuter routes are to be privatised. In the original plan a number of Cork City routes were to go but these will probably happen later. This process has been the culmination of a relentless effort by Fine Gael (FG) in the present government and their predecessors and fellow Neo-Liberal ideologists, Fianna Fáil (FF) in the last government where they have consistently pushed for the break up of both Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann so that it can be handed over to their friends in the private sector to run on a profit basis. The NTA is used as a sort of cloak of respectability to give the impression that they will actually be a regulator with teeth of which we know very few regulators have any teeth, with the banking regulator during the Celtic Tiger coming to mind, plus many other examples and the function of NTA is really for propaganda value to convince the middle class. However this whole scheme is about ideology and is NOT about competition but about privatisation. read full story / add a comment

An anti-water charges meeting in Ard Mor tonight in West Tallaght has called this protest for Thursday in response to the arrests of anti-water charges protesters and other communities have taken up the call.

Join us at the Department of Justice and Equality, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2 at 18.30. read full story / add a comment

On the weekend of 23-25 January, Irish actors, musicians and activists descended on Wales for a weekend of solidarity with WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning (formerly known as Bradley Manning) and her family.

The first Truthfest in January 2014 was the brainchild of Irish actor and activist Donal O'Kelly, an idea hatched after he met members of Manning's family during a visit to Dublin organised by Irish Australian activist Ciaron O'Reilly in collaboration with Afri (Action from Ireland) in November 2013. The links forged during that visit have been maintained and strengthened through a series of exchange visits since that time, most recently this 2nd Manning Truthfest.

Ciaron O'Reilly was one of five Pitstop Ploughshares activists who disabled a US Navy war plane at Shannon airport in 2003. Read about Chelsea Manning and Shannon Airport here: http://wp.me/P42I6Q-iF read full story / add a comment

The WSM have written the following article which neatly sums up the various things happening in the news today and brings them together.

This morning squads of Garda around Dublin mounted dawn raids on the houses of water charges protesters over a sit in 3 months ago in Jobstown. At the same time across the city bankers and other speculators named in the HSBC Geneva Private Bank leaks slept soundly in their beds knowing no one was going to be knocking down their door. If you want to understand the nature of power the contrast provides an excellent example.

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A debate on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership

With Constantin Gurdjiev, Economist and
Frank Keoghan, General President, TEEU.
Hosted by Joan Collins TD
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Would you like to come along to the next Open Meeting of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign?

The next meeting is on Thursday 12th Febraury at 7.30pm

Venue: IPSC Office, 18 Capel Street, Dublin 1 read full story / add a comment

Fine Gael National Conference 2 DAY PROTEST In CASTLEBAR - Send This Government A Message

Come and make as much noise as possible and send the government a message!

FRIDAY - Meeting at The Royal Theatre & Event Centre, The Old Westport Road, Castlebar, Mayo at 5PM

SATURDAY - Meeting at The Royal Theatre & Event Centre at 12.30PM read full story / add a comment

Speaking of this mornings events Joe Higgins TD who has been in the process of visiting the various Garda stations where the public representatives are being held said:

“The arrests of AAA TD Paul Murphy, councillors Kieran Mahon and Mick Murphy and a fourth person who remains to be identified to us as we go to press is a cheap attempt to denigrate and weaken water charges movement as we approach make or break time – bills coming out and need for mass non-payment. read full story / add a comment

Follow up correspondence to Council of Europe CPT and UN Special Rapporteur Juan Mendaz OHCHR read full story / add a comment

Concerns about reported events at Maghaberry Prison lead to call for International Rights Groups to become involved read full story / add a comment

After the relatively large turn-out to the Anti-Water charges protests over a week ago on Saturday the 31st, the government is worried that their propaganda hasn't worked as well as it should so in response they have launched a new dirty tricks campaign to discredit the Anti-Water charges campaign. They are using the same strategy as that used in the Corrib Gas issue in Mayo over the past decade where the strategy was to criminalise the protests in the eyes of the public. read full story / add a comment

In 2012 public opposition forced the ditching of a plan for a "retirement village" on the side of the Dublin mountains, isolated from services and public transport and cut off by the M50, in an area normally zoned for agriculture and public amenity and widely used by the public. A previous plan for a private school on the site had been rejected for similar reasons in 2005. After the 2014 local elections the plan came back in a lightly tweaked form, with the developer's sister among a number of newly elected councillors supporting the project. A proposal to amend the development plan to include this project is due to be voted on this Tuesday evening, February 10th. Meanwhile some interesting shenanigans have developed. read full story / add a comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE… Contact: Seán Ó Cearrúlláin 086 155 59 37
email: ih@empirl.com

Drogheda, 09-02-15: E.M. Productions® in association with the Improving Horizons Foundation is recruiting for an Adventure Series that will change the lives of twenty ordinary locals through a project that will retrace World War Two’s Greatest Survival Story from 1943.

Long Months of Hard Training – Small Wages – Constant Danger – Honour and Recognition in Case of Success…

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Documents released by the ‘whistleblower’ Edward Snowden in late November 2014 revealed that the UK spy facility at GCHQ was targeting undersea cable communications between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

As is usual when such revelations emerge the Irish government (i.e. its Departments of Justice and Communications) wanted to say as little as possible about the issue. read full story / add a comment

Ethical human rights is firmly based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights so removes the UN's 'hidden collectivist agenda' which, in my view, seeks to culturally cleanse the world of individual self-determination. read full story / add a comment

Shell protester given suspended sentence after Pullathomas protest read full story / add a comment

International Brigades commemoration.Brian Hanley - well known author, will speak on the "Blueshirts, the Irish Christian Front aqnd the Right in Ireland" - Falls Road Library, Belfast, Sat 7th, 11am.

This is part of the AGM/Annual Lecture of the IBCC, the local committee ensuring that the memory of the International Brigadiers is kept alive.
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Join us for a film screening and panel discussion where we’ll draw on the experience of one community’s struggle against water privatisation in the Global South (El Alto, Bolivia) and relate it to the Irish movement against water charges

From El Alto to Edenmore .... Twisted Pepper -Weds 4th Feb @ 7pm. read full story / add a comment

Press Release - Feb 1st - The Irish Government and media appear to be in a panic about two Russian TU-95 bomber aircraft that flew down the west coast of Ireland at least 50 miles out to sea, and not through Irish sovereign airspace. A statement issued by the Irish Department of Defence said "non-controlled and non-notified flight activity by Russian aircraft is not acceptable". This same Department of Defence of a supposedly neutral Irish state has issued no such statements about the transit of almost two and half million US troops through Shannon airport since 2001, and provides Irish soldiers to guard US military aircraft at Shannon. read full story / add a comment

Clonmult Martyrs Commemoration Committee, Republican Sinn Féin Poblachtach - Cork and the Cork Republican Movement, relatives and friends met recently in Midleton to organise the Annual Commemoration for Sunday 22nd February 2015 at Midleton. read full story / add a comment