Members of Sinn Féin and Ógra Shinn Féin carried out a direct action at James Adams & Sons Auctioneers on Stephen's Green. ... read full story / add a comment

On April 7th, the fourth in a series of information meetings organised by People before Profit was held in the IFI in Dublin. This meeting - on the issue of privatisation of the Irish health service - was addressed by Louise O'Reilly of SIPTU, Peadar O'Grady of the SWP and Dave Hughes of the INO. Participants were urged to support the Patients Together Lie In at the Dáil on Good Friday at 12.00. ... read full story / add a comment

The canton of Bern in Switzerland held elections on Sunday and results indicate a definite SWING to the social democrats and greens, who won with a LANDSLIDE / AVALANCHE result and gained 3 of the 7 seats.
CONFUSION
The right wing Swiss People's Party were HARDEST HIT. They'd held out for a 4th seat but lost one!
DEAD HEAT
Centre right radical party hopefuls saw their weekend celebrations DASHED when they lost one seat to a greenie. ""For the government election, it was a case of voters wanting to punish the Right for trying to claim six out of seven seats," said Hanspeter Kriesi, head of the Center for Comparative and international Studies in Zurich & EXPERT.
Too arrogant

"The Right was seen as too arrogant. Even so, it was a surprise since Bern is traditionally conservative.".... "The Greens helped the Left " ..... ribbid gurggle ..... PHOTOFINISH Yes indeed for the People's party are very anti-European.
... read full story / add a comment

Harold's Cross Park celebrated it's centenary in 1994. A plaque commemorates the endowment of the Victorian Park to the people of the Rathmines/Harold's Cross townland. Cllr Mary Frehill performed the dedication ceremony. The park is a protected structure in its whole integrity including the original railings, the promenade ring, the hankerchief tree which commerorates the Women's Laundry strike and the view of the chapel and cemetry at Mount Jerome.
Today at 11am, I walked to the park with my daughter to find the park be-ribboned and works ongoing which are dedicated to the removal of the Victorian (or Edwardian ) railings, for 'safety reasons'.
There has been no planning notice to this effect on the railings or access points to the park. There has been no public consultation with the residents of the area as to the plans undertaken by Dublin City Council. When I started to take photographs I was threatened by a council worker that he would take a photo of me and that he would call the gardai, thus I confined my mobile camera to the pretty ribbons, until braver people came along. I asked a park keeper if this work would not affect the visual integrity of the park and if planning permission had been sought. He replied that as it was a safety excerise, that he did not believe that permissions were required. The protected structures within the park: two red-brick out-buildings are protected but the park itself was under the jurisdiction of the council. Councillor Frehill, when contacted stated that the works were going to be stopped pending a site visit this evening and a look at the plans for works. There has been in effect a complete stoppage of works until the reason for works and plans are inspected, under enforcement regulations.
... read full story / add a comment

Congress highlights ‘falling wages in a booming economy’ (ICTU press release)
... read full story / add a comment

There are 3 main ways to get to Baldonnel Warport on the day, chose one, have fun, stay safe! ... read full story / add a comment

April 7th, 6,000 riot police and 700 hired thugs attacked the
Autonomous Peace Village of Daechuri. They succeeded in destroying the irrigation system, making farming a near impossibility. 40 protesters were arrested, 30 were injured, 5 of those seriously. ... read full story / add a comment

The Dublin City Council are enforcing an illegal poster ban which silences all small non-profit, non-corporate groups - political or otherwise. ... read full story / add a comment

Sinn Fein staged a protest on Saturday 8 April at the Airport Roundabout against the Privatisation of Aer Lingus. The protest was attended by Gerry Adams MP, Bairbre De Brun MEP as well as Cllr Dessie Ellis and Cllr Felix Gallagher. ... read full story / add a comment

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has claimed that ‘the proclamation of the Republic on Easter Monday was a cry of radical idealism that shook the world in 1916 and still challenges us today’.
... read full story / add a comment

Dear ARAN Friend!

Good news from Scotland. Just recently the Minister for Environment and Rural Development, Ross Finnie, confirmed his intention to introduce a ban on the use of wild animals in traveling circuses in secondary legislation following the implementation of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Bill. This follows a successful campaign by the Born Free Foundation, Advocates for Animals and other animal welfare organizations to ensure that the complex needs of wild animals are not overlooked in national legislation. This is extremely encouraging news as days before that announcement we heard about similar plans from the UK government to ban ‘wild’ or ‘certain’ animals in circuses in the UK.

... read full story / add a comment

It has been long observed that people for some reason on their non-banking days readily absorb shite about Dangerous Places, Famous People, Sensible Saving Options, Holidays, Interesting facts, Sport results, Media, gardening and health as well looking ahead at “democratic evolution” and looking back at "how history was made".

This week's edition is very short. In fact I almost didn't write one, and like the "house arrest" edition that never transpired, the Judas edition almost escaped the open publishing network.

But you're not getting off that easily.
_______________________________________________________________________________ ... read full story / add a comment

Today, in strength, Galway's Amnesty International activists took to William Street to protest over the obscenity that every year throughout the world, more than half a million people are killed
by armed violence – that’s one person every minute and to let the Irish government and UN know that there is a solution; a legally binding, rigorously enforced, international Arms Trade Treaty that will seriously kybosh the flow of arms to countries that use them to ... read full story / add a comment

. ... read full story / add a comment

Some videos from yesterdays events at the Four Courts and the subsequent action at Statoil's offices at the IFSC.

Video from Four Courts: ' 5 Go Free at the Four Courts' http://obin.org/video/wawa/07-04-06-rosport5.mpg (11 mins)

Video Trailer From Statoil Action: 'Dangerous Pipe' http://obin.org/video/wawa/07-04-06-statoilpipe.mpg (2 mins)

Flmed and produced by Revolt Video Collective, a video activist collective.
Our goals include...
Physical and Virtual Distribution of Irish Activist Video.
Workshops and Skill Sharing.
Ambitious video projects chosen via consenus and tackled collectively.

To get involved please send an email to: [email protected]

Related links:
Rossport Solidarity Camp: http://www.struggle.ws/rsc/
http://www.shelltosea.com

... read full story / add a comment

A press release issued by UCD Alliance for Choice on Friday hasbeen repeatedly deleted by UCDSUs editorial group. Like indymedia, UCDSUs news wire uses the oscailt program. Unlike Indymedia however despite stating that :

"A record of all editorial actions, which editor performed the action and the reason for it are sent the editorial email list which anybody can join. So if you want to keep an eye on the evil censorships of the UCD SU-cabal, you know what to do. Subscribing to this list means you will see all articles and comments which have been hidden and the reason why they were hidden. After subscribing, you can then go through the archives of the list to see all past editorial actions"

UCDSU operates no such system. There is no open, transparent accountable editorial list. The previous UCDSU administration has used an editorial e-mail list. The current SU president is a member of Ogra Fianna Fail. ... read full story / add a comment

Frank Cordaro addressed an anti-war meeting last Summer in Dublin. Frank is presently serving a 6 month sentence for trespass at Offcut Air Force Base, Omaha Nebraska, USA. Offcut is the HQ of the U.S. Air Force Base. Although a Federal prisoner of the U.S. federaL Government, he is thus far doing his time in county jails given the crowded nature of U.S. Prisons (2 1/2 MILLION INSIDE AT LAST COUNT). ... read full story / add a comment

A large group of Shell to Sea activists attempted to return a section of the Corrib Gas pipeline to the Statoil Office at the IFSC today, as part of a campaign to draw public attention to Statoil's role in supporting Shell in their continuing attempts to install a dangerous experimental raw-gas pipeline in North Mayo.

The Gardaí, supported by a large number of private secirity guards, prevented the pipeline being brought into the office, and many office workers from the surrounding businesses came out to watch the stand off.

Normally activists are not able to even leaflet in the IFSC, since it is private property, but today leaflets were handed out, stickers were put up, and the security guards were powerless to interfere with the protest. For a lot of the workers in the financial services district, the protest provided a colourful distraction from the demands of their office jobs.

No one from Statoil was prepared to meet with the protesters or take delivery of the pipeline however, although one Statoil Executive did come to the phone, to say that the building security guards would not let any of the protesters enter, and he wasn't interested in leaving the building, since didn't feel there was anything to be gained by speaking to people in group situations, because he'd had bad experiences before.

He went on to say that the Irish people should be satisfied with the deal that their government had got for them, where they receive 25% tax, although he conceded that since the billions of euros spent in exploration can be written off, it will be many years before a cent of tax is paid, if ever.

Shell to Sea plan further protests on Norwegian Constitution Day, May 17th.

... read full story / add a comment

Micheál Ó Seighin, Willie Corduff, Brendan Philbin, and Philip and Vincent McGrath were brought before the courts again today to receive the final judgement from Justice Joseph Finnegan, the President of the High Court.

The five were imprisoned last year for three months, for refusing to obey his order to cease protesting against the scheme by Shell and Statoil to install a dangerous, experimental, raw-gas pipeline through their village.

... read full story / add a comment

Garry Toner, an Equality Studies student here in UCD is trying to organise an awareness campaign at a national level in relation to the rights of people with disabilities after an incident that occurred last weekend.
... read full story / add a comment