The latest Christian Aid report, ‘The climate of poverty: the facts, fears and hope’, launched to coincide with Christian Aid Week (14-20 May), highlights that climate change is now threatening development goals for billions of the world’s poorest people.

The report reveals the stark reality that a staggering 182 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone could die of disease directly attributable to climate change by the end of the century. Many millions more throughout the world face death and devastation due to climate-induced floods, famine, drought and conflict.

The report calls on the Irish government to lead rich countries in taking urgent action to curb global warming.
For a full copy of the report, please email [email protected] or visit www.christianaid.ie

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8PM EENGO 10a Lwr Camden Street Dublin 2

regular Shell to Sea Activists meeting,
8PM at EENGO
(above the Bounty Stores) read full story / add a comment

Socialist Workers Party public Forum read full story / add a comment

For the second week in a row, Students’ Initiative organized protests across the country against the radical right. More protests planned.
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The editor-in-chief of the conservative daily newspaper, Berlingske Tidende, is satisfied that he has now been charged with leaking classified intelligence documents in his newspaper in February 2004. The two journalists who wrote the articles about the leaked documents had already been charged at the end of April. Their editor expects all three to be acquitted if the case against them proceeds.

In a series of articles in the newspaper from 22 February 2004, Michael Bjerre and Jesper Larsen published excerpts of reports which they had obtained from Major Frank Grevil of the Danish Defence Intelligence Service (Forsvarets Efterretningstjeneste, FE).

Grevil, a secret agent who helped to write FE’s intelligence assessments of Iraq’s weapons capabilities for the Danish government, felt that Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen had exaggerated existing information about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction in order to persuade the Danish parliament to participate in the ill-fated invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Grevil himself has been sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, but is appealing his sentence in the European Court of Human Rights, on the basis that evidence that might play a decisive part in his defence has been withheld.

More detail about the most recent development, plus link to background article, below. read full story / add a comment

Joe Higgins demands for social housing
Government aids “speculator landlords” and “profiteering developers” read full story / add a comment

This month’s Featured Readers – Mike McCormack, Jan Schlegel & Mags Treanor - are all fiction writers. read full story / add a comment

The conference will open with a keynote address by Marian Harkin, independent Member of the European Parliament for the North West of Ireland. read full story / add a comment

Christy Moore and Dr. Owens Wiwa, Vincent and Maureen McGrath

to Lead Annual Famine Walk from Doolough to Louisburgh

on Saturday May 20th 2006

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In a letter to the Ombudsman of the Danish Parliament, staff at the Danish Prime Minister's Office have invoked "very wide powers of discretion" under the legislation, to defend Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen's persistent refusal to be interviewed by prize-winning journalist Bo Elkjær.

In response, Elkjær points out that Fogh promised to give him an interview when they met at the offices of the Danish Union of Journalists in Copenhagen in January 2004. On that occasion, Elkjær had just been awarded the prestigious Cavling Prize for his work in exposing the lies by which Fogh and his cabinet persuaded the parliament to support Denmark's invasion of Iraq.

By Elkjær's account, staff at the Prime Minister's Office have made the excuse that Mr Fogh "did not have space in his calendar," even though Elkjær has given the Prime Minister's Office complete freedom to set the time and place for an interview. Fogh's staff have repeatedly failed to keep promises that they "would call back".

One of Elkjær's intentions for an interview is to ask why, at a press conference on 21 March 2003, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen "emphasised a nuclear threat [from Iraq] that the government several days before, in an internal paper, had clearly and unequivocally rejected."

"It is clear from the records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the government had several days previously arrived at the definitive conclusion that Iraq did not have a nuclear weapons programme, or indeed any nuclear programme at all," says Elkjær.

Please read Billy O'Shea's translation of the latest exchange below. read full story / add a comment

July 15th will be an International Day of Action Against Climate Change. As G8 energy ministers promise trillions in new subsidies to the industries destroying our planet and our future, we will take action to shut them down! This is a call for autonomous, decentralized actions appropriate for your town, city, or bioregion. read full story / add a comment

Critics of Hugo Chavez have renewed their charges of authoritarianism against the Venezuelan leader. How well do these claims stand up? read full story / add a comment

An American satirist has given George W. Bush a concentrated recap of some of his immoral and illegal offences. Bush was a captive audience as the speech was delivered at a dinner attended by White House press correspondants- and he was sitting two seats from the speaker. read full story / add a comment

Time and tide waits for no man or woman the organisors of River fest in Limerick learned when canoeists had to wade ashore read full story / add a comment

Hundredss of families in the Mid West were disappointed at being turned away from visiting a French naval ship in the port of Limerick because of an insurance cock up read full story / add a comment

Nowadays none of us want to believe that we are living - or struggling to live - in a "top-down" patriarchal society. read full story / add a comment

Review:
Eoin O’Duffy – A Self-Made Hero by Fearghal McGarry, Oxford University Press, 2005, €35/£25

Fearghal McGarry first made his mark as a historian with Irish Politics and the Spanish Civil War (1999), described by me as “the definitive textbook on the subject” in the Fall 2003 issue of Irish Literary Supplement. This was in the context of a review of his second book, Frank Ryan (2002), a biography criticised as both disappointing and sensationalist, with little evidence of the depth of research and analysis required to do justice to its subject. The hope was nonetheless expressed that the author’s future work would demonstrate a return to the “high standards of scholarship, balanced presentation and conscientious evaluation” that he had previously shown. read full story / add a comment

A snapshot at the fortunes of Ireland's top capitalist. Tony O'Reilly isn't going to be running out of money anytime soon. read full story / add a comment

This coming Thursday May 18th many asylum seekers have to sign at the Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) for deportation from the Irish state. read full story / add a comment

An Irish Times editorial on May 1st laid out the various options open to the UN Security council for dealing with Iran’s nuclear threat. These options ranged "from a solemn statement warning Iran to comply to consideration of sanctions or military force under Chapter VII of the UN Charter." The paper of record nailed its colours to the mast by favouring negotiations and UN action while declaring that "military action by the US outside UN auspices would be a dangerous folly." read full story / add a comment