There is nothing like a knock on the head to wake you up and make you reevaluate the things around you. Sitting here with a bump on my left temple that is as stubborn as ever and refuses to go away . I can only sit back and think about the severity of the health care system here in Ireland. I must admit I'm coming from a completely biased perspective, someone who grew up with a public health care system, but here it is anyways.

At least one person has been reported killed during the stamping out of the 'CzechTech' party. In video footage the police can be seen arresting party goers and brandishing a gun while attempting to prevent these arrests being filmed - on land that was legally rented by the party organisers. There are reports of heavy use of CS Gas and photographs of watercanon and large numbers of riot police being deployed. It is reported that the person who died at the music festival which has been running for twelve years had been blinded by CS gas and fell in front of a riot van.

The Czech Prime minister has reacted strongly stating that " These are no dancing children. .......... This core is build from people with dangerous anarchist's thrives and they are internationally connected.......... and hour after hour thousands come and the police forces cannot stop them."

The Intenational Indymedia Network has reported that a number of demonstrations in Prague against the police action have taken place - with 5,000 people attending last Saturday, 31st and calling for the resignation of the Czech Minister for Justice, Frantisek Bublan - a call supported by the Czech league for Human Rights. A demonstration is to take place in Dublin at 5.30pm on Wednesday 3rd August while the Czech Prime minister has decided to change the law so that "this will not happen again" - the law of assembly that is.

UPDATE:WSM report of demonstration at Czech Embassy

Further Info: Here and 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7

Indymedia.ie tops 120,000 visitors in July

July was another record breaking month for Indymedia Ireland. On Tuesday July 26th, we surpassed the 3 million hits mark for site traffic in a month for the first time ever. Over the month we averaged 115,000 hits a day - an increase of a whopping 30,000 a day on our previous all time record which was last month (June 2005). Web traffic normally drops off substantially over the Summer, so this performance is a testament to the increasing quality of contributions to the newswire and our making inroads into broader audiences.

Although we don't normally retain IP addresses (to help enhance user privacy) statistical analysis of the samples that were retained in the past show that we will have received over 120,000 different readers in July alone (measured by unique IP addresses) . 1.1 million pages on the site and 3.55 million files were downloaded. In less technical terms, we are doing very, very well indeed. In more paranoid terms, we are transitioning from being a mosquito to being a serious pest in the house of Herr McDowell and chairman Bertie. Not bad for a bunch of volunteers organised as a collective with a budget that might as well not exist.

So, what does all this mean then? If you publish a story on the Indymedia Ireland newswire, it will be seen by many more people than you probably imagine. We must admit we are pleased with these readership figures, but we are constantly looking for ways to improve the site, and expand into other media beyond the internet. We always need more people to get involved in operating the Indymedia Ireland machine.