Report from the Free the Old Head of Kinsale campaign's "People's Picnic" at the Co. Cork headland, Sunday 26th August 2007.

Previous Indymedia Coverage: Announcement for this Event · 2006 Event Announcement · 2004 Article · Photos from 2003 · Report from 2003 · Court Report from 2003 · Report of Supreme Court Decision of March 2003 · All Related Stories
Related Links: Report from WSM of the 2002 Picnic · Official Record of Supreme Court Decision

Choice Ireland staged a protest outside the Women’s Resource Centre, a rogue pregnancy counselling agency on 50 Upper Dorset Street on Saturday, 18th August 2007. Choice Ireland is a diverse group of Pro-Choice activists campaigning for free, safe and legal abortion services in Ireland.

Rogue crisis pregnancy counselling agencies advertise themselves as providers of legitimate pregnancy counselling services but they are known to use manipulative tactics, provide misleading information and intimidate women. The sole purpose of these agencies is to stop women from travelling outside the State to terminate a pregnancy. When Choice Ireland activists attended this agency, they were told that having an abortion would increase their risk of developing breast cancer, becoming an alcoholic and abusing children. These are blatant lies designed to scare vulnerable women in a crisis pregnancy situation.

Related Links: Choice Ireland Founding Documents · Report of previous protest outside this agency

There was a flurry of excitement some time ago about a controversial interview with Noam Chomsky in the Guardian. Chomsky himself strongly contested the account of his views given by the article, and in due course the paper repudiated it. Reading over the text, there’s little doubt that the journalist (Emma Brockes) was trying too hard to cause a stir – with the goal of scalping a well-known figure firmly on her mind, she lost the run of herself and delivered a sloppy, inaccurate and misleading piece. What many people lost sight of during the controversy, though, was the light it shone on a troubling problem: the persistence of left-wing stupidity concerning the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

There' something about airports and August which draws media like flies to...In Ireland we're ignoring the Guantanamo slots while we fight for our right to fly to London. In the UK august 2006 saw the establishment of a climate camp at Drax power station in North Yorkshire. This year it is at Heathrow and the standard injunctions, terrorist legislation and media hysteria are being brought to bear. Indymedia.ie has received this report from a short visit to the camp:

This years climate camp is now well underway. About 1000 people have set up camp on a squatted field just north of Heathrow airport. The aim of the camp is to raise awareness of and take action on the causes of climate change. (See main body for rest of report.)

UK Indymedia is providing excellent coverage including reports from the public internet access tent which is open for a total of four hours a day, over two main time slots and is running on a mixture of wind and solar power.

Related Links: Airport Watch Watches Mainstream Media Coverage | Scouts at Climate Camp | Children from school due to be demolished by 3rd runway at climate camp | Indymedia UK News ticker | RTE repeats reports of 'anarchists' in and around the climate camp |

Derry Anti-War Coalition visit to Lebanon
Over the past week I accompanied 12 members of the Derry Anti-War Coalition (DAWC), including the Raytheon 9, to visit communities in southern Lebanon which were devastated by the Israeli war last summer. We visited Bint Jbail and A'ita al-Chaab near the Israeli border, both of which received heavy bombardment from Israeli airstrikes and incursions from armoured bulldozers, tanks and troops, reducing civilian infrastructure to dust and pebble, their hearts to shock and fear, their eyes to tears for their lost loved ones. In addition to this, the DAWC protested outside the obliterated Palestinian refugee camp Nahr-al-Bared near Tripoli in Northern Lebanon.