After nearly a fortnight of political turmoil, which Bertie really wishes would have died down by now, today seems to be the D-day on which all of his future will be decided. After his Nixon-esque interview on Six-One, the FF strategists were surely hoping that his personal life being laid bare for the cynical public, as well as his stated intention to pay back the "loans", were enough to silence the hounds. However the Manchester payment, by some group of businessmen, for some vague reason or other, is going to cause him enormous damage, and it remains difficult to see how he could come out on the other side of all this with his image as a simple man of the people intact. Surely even FF are going to be wondering if sticking with their leader is worth it. In the last general election, his face was the face of Fianna Fail, adorning the posters on the lamposts, with the slogan 'A Lot Done, More To Do'. They face losing the next election if Bertie is still at the helm and is the brand of FF.

But by the end of play today - if McDowell does pull the plug and Bertie gets the chop in an internal putsch, and we're all watching a leadership contest, or maybe even a general election nine months sooner than expected - will whatever happens make the slightest bit of difference? I find it hard to believe so. I dont think that any replacement for Bertie will be any less susceptible to corruption. Fianna Fail has always been the friend of the builder, developer, businessman, and whoever else is interested in getting access to the tent at the Galway Races - for the right price.

The Combined Residents Against Incineration (CRAI- which includes residents of Ringsend, Irishtown, and Sandymount) handed over 3,000 objections on Monday afternoon to An Bord Pleanala. The signatures were collected from people across Dublin, including members of the Crumlin and Ballyfermot Anti Bin Tax campaigns, against the proposed incinerator for Dublin Bay.

CRAI opposes the siting of an incinerator on the Poolbeg peninsula on grounds of health fears and traffic and environmental concerns. They are calling for alternatives to incineration such as public recycling and for democracy in planning and development.

Dublin City Council along with the other Dublin Local Authorities, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin County councils have applied to An Bord Pleanala for approval on the Poolbeg Peninsula of an incinerator that will burn 600,000 tonnes of household, commercial and industrial waste per annum.

You have ten minutes to move

People power and peaceful resistance effectively completely defeated Shell’s first concerted effort to break the picket at the refinery site at Bellanaboy this morning. Early signs that a confrontation was imminent were apparent by the dawn arrival of seven carloads of extra security guards who sped into the compound. People on alert began to determinedly gather in front of the gates and banners and placards were distributed in readiness for the long prepared for initial showdown.

At 7.40 a.m., 8 local Gardai and 2 special branch arrived, videoing and viewing the crowd of up to 150 protestors from across the road. Superintendent Joe Gannon approached and addressed the now shoulder-to-shoulder protestors comprising of women, children, men, old and young, who were effectively blocking the gate entrance. He announced the Gardai responsibilities to protecting the protestors from harm and enabling the legal right of people to access their place of work. He informed us that the workers would arrive at 8 a.m. at which time the Gardai intended to facilitate their entrance onto the site. He then gave us 10 minutes to discuss our course of action, in light of the information he had just imparted, and retreated to the line of waiting Gardai. He did not return to collect a verdict on this statement. Nobody moved as people stood resolute. His speech served only to reinforce the word amongst the picket that we were maintaining our right to peaceful protest. It strengthened our resolve and emphasised that peaceful resistance was our objective.

More: Past Indymedia Coverage | Rossport Solidarity Camp website | Shell to sea campaign

Photo Series from GNIB, Sept 20th

''Caoimhe of Residents Against Racism writes: ....one of the women with us was given another date and left with one of the RAR members. The other two women were brought upstairs. We told them not to sign anything and to say that they didn’t want to speak to anybody from their embassy. As soon as the women were brought upstairs, the porter/receptionist came over to the other RAR member and myself and started shouting at us to leave the building if we had no business in it. I informed him that we did have business there and he just kept shouting. He was quite aggressive, pointing his finger in our faces and blatantly trying to intimidate us. We were then kicked out of the (public) building.

One of the women who were brought upstairs, had a judicial review pending and didn’t have her two children with her. She rang us from upstairs (on her mobile) saying that the Guards were trying to make them sign the papers and were bring aggressive towards them. She said that the guards told her that they were deporting her. She also said that she hadn’t signed the papers. It is completely illegal to deport somebody who is still in the legal process. At this stage we informed supportive T.D.s of what was happening, who faxed letters to the GNIB and McDowell, reminding him that this woman had a judicial review pending. She was freed, an hour later....''

The Othala work camp

The purpose of this article is to describe my experience of an International Volunteer Project so that well-intentioned potential volunteers will have some idea of the kind of conditions they may face. Service Civil International (SCI), the organisation that promoted the project describes itself as: “an international non-governmental organisation committed to the promotion of peace and understanding through voluntary activities. These activities consist primarily of 2-3 week long international volunteer placements involving volunteers from all over the world. These projects range from working with marginalised people to ecological, arts and cultural projects, amongst others.” The Irish branch of Service Civil International is called Voluntary Service International (VSI).

In my job I get four weeks of annual leave each year. This year I decided to spend two of those weeks participating in an SCI International Volunteer Project. After perusing the project booklet and considering various options, I plumped for a project (or workcamp) called “Othala” in the village of Weenermoor in the North West of Germany, near the Dutch border.