How far are the rights of the dead to be respected, upheld and vindicted by our judges and our courts? Has anyone the right to act in the name of a dead person? ... read full story / add a comment

The Israeli-Lebanese+Gaza conflict and wildifires in California.
I can't help but think both situations are alike. Both cause destruction and can easily spread.
... read full story / add a comment

This article provides some background to the terrible events at Daechuri, and the neighbouring village of Doduri, where the South Korean state is using powers equivalent to the Irish Compulsory Purchase Order to clear the local farmers off their ancestral lands for a proposed expansion of the existing Camp Humphreys military facility, previously a Japanese military base. The farmers have been moved off their lands with extreme brutality, and the village is now surrounded by thousands of troops and police, villagers have been served with eviction notices and the area is enclosed by barbed wire. Protest by letter and e-mail to the South Korean Embassy: 15 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, Ireland.
City: Dublin
Phone: + (353 -1) - 660 - 8800/8053, 668 - 2109
Fax: (+353-1) - 660 - 8716.
Updates on the situation can be found on: http://antigizi.or.kr/english/
http://www.saveptfarmers.org/Daechuri_background
http://saveptfarmers.org/blog/
Brian Mac Grath. ... read full story / add a comment

Imfamous club closes after five months ... read full story / add a comment

Art/Conflict: 2 X Zones is a feature length documentary shot on DV in 2004/2005 in Ireland and The Basque Country. The documentary is based on a multiplicity of interviews conducted over a year long period in Ireland and the Basque country. It takes a look back at these localised conflicts from the perspective of a post September 11th World and explores how fine artists in The Basque Country and Ireland from the late 1960's onwards understood their roles in the midst of situations of ongoing civil conflict. It relates the insights garnered by artists in the midst of two localised conflicts in the late 20th century to the present where terrorism, civil conflict and 'cool war' have along with the market been globalised. The documentary exemplifies the possibilities for low-budget cross cultural documentary filmmaking in an era of cheap and ubuiquotous digital filmaking hardware. Interviewees include Patrick Ireland, Txomin Badiola, Willie Doherty, Shane Cullen and Amanda Dunsmore.

Directed and Shot by Aisling Crudden. Edited by Eamonn Crudden. Offline edit by Arnaud Rigaud.

For further information/screening copies etc contact acrudden (at) hotmail (dot) com
... read full story / add a comment

The government policy of privatisation is being undertaken by stealth, Community Alliance are taking any opportunity available to alert the public and promote discussion on the issue to be open it for discussion ... read full story / add a comment

(Originally written in response to this article - ed)

I am one of the legion of the amused who watched as (mainly British) critics lashed "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" before they'd even seen it - a fact which in itself speaks volumes for their motives. I have seen it, and in terms of historical accuracy it seems pretty close to what I've read in IRA veterans accounts and heard from their mouths. True, in real life there were some decent individuals - there always are. There was a Black and Tan who allowed an IRA captive to nip in and see his dying brother when the Tan's officer's back was turned. Yet there were also ones like those who slit Kathleen Clarke's sister's hand from fingers to wrist with a razor. I think critics of Loach would do well for their own sakes not to make too much noise about the depiction of the Tans.
... read full story / add a comment

This 25 minute long film was produced very quickly in the immediate aftermath of the riots in Dublin in Febuary 2006 and was only ever to date screened at the anarchist bookfair which took place within a short time of the events depicted.

It was basically made by combining a text opinion piece/story about the events with footage uploaded to indymedia ireland in the very immediate aftermath of the riot. I (aaronrip) took the two, voiced one (chekov's text) and cut up the other (kev footage) and within a day or so had an acceptable film.

Hope others will try this method of instant filmaking about events in the near future. The generally copyleft nature of material uploaded to Indymedia makes this possible and easy. If you can't/don't want to write 'voiceovers' then steal/channel them.

Dedicated to the charming and busy Revolt Video heads ;-) ... read full story / add a comment

As a person with many disabilities I have spent over three years writing via net for broadband........all I end up is paying for broadband since 2004, then the 1892 account t that ran tadjacent and my own account.......was running up a bill, on the basis that I had no broadbank.
I write emails because I am phone phobic and limited to certain tasks a day otherwise it is confusion and I advised Disability section broadband all about these criteria. Now I am cancelled with aq bill. I lose out on the rent change paid by government.......

All I asked was that a service man put in the equipment as my intellectual abilities make it difficult!!!! But no........Service is Irish style, lots of advertising and no action or no thought. Has anyone else fallent into trap............ ... read full story / add a comment

Chapter 9 of Book II.

Been a while since I last published from Book II. This time I have a go at proving the existence of God, as was promised in an earlier chapter, in which the groundwork was laid. ... read full story / add a comment

Running parallel with the vicious media campaign of vilification against the McKevitt family was a campaign of intimidation and harassment conducted by members of the Garda Emergency Response Unit ERU. The overt campaign was directed at the entire McKevitt family including the three youngest children who were aged 8, 6 and 5. ... read full story / add a comment

I was suprised to read in todays Belfast Telegraph Frank Bunting offering any opinion on the cash crisis at the SEELB. The conduct of the INTO in this matter has been disgraceful. ... read full story / add a comment

Short video about the mass media and the butchering of life in Iraq, contains some graphic images. ... read full story / add a comment

Hidden additives. ... read full story / add a comment

I met people after and they asked, but was it art????

Another person said it's art if thats the context that it's made in.........

... read full story / add a comment

A taste of some images from the final year show of graduates from the DIT photography course. ... read full story / add a comment

Voters went to the polls in Mexico, a federation of 31 states and one district yesterday the 2nd of July to directly elect their new President. There are roughly 106.5 million Mexican citizens and their state ranks 12th in the World GDP and 4th for "per capita income" in Latin America.

The "not voting" thing was very simple for Mexico, 2005 saw Chiapas agree to send Sub Comandant Marcus out on a nation-wide "other campaign". Officially 99.4% of ballot offices were opened without incident, and 58.91% of the electorate voted. That means an abstention of roughly 41%.

The "voting" thing has produced a result so narrow that the Federal Electoral Institute can't call the election yet. The mechanism used dictates that the candidate with "plurality of votes" shall win, even if that candidate hasn't got more than 50%. If the IFE can't call the results, it means there is less than 0.3% difference in the results. there is no mechanism for a "run-off" election which readers will remember occured in the recent Peruvian presidential elections. ... read full story / add a comment

Archives dating from the period 1922-1939 are to be opened by Pope Benedict on the
18th of September 2006.

"Giving new insight into what the Catholic Church knew and
did as Europe saw the rise of Nazism in Germany and the
Spainish Civil War"

The files are known as the Secret Archives and files of its
Secretariat of State for the Pontificate of Pius X1.

Reuters/ Irish Times :- (1-07-06).

www.ireland.com

Googled the Holy See, (as one does) to see if more info can be had on
Benedict's criteria for choosing this specific time-frame, such as-
have the archives up until 1922 been opened before and this is part of a synthesis
of release, or why the abrupt stop at 1939?

Reading history in a linear fashion rather than as something which often
involves mass-movement or community consciousness would tend to
point to this era being crucial.

The period preceeding 1922 would hold an unlimited fascination in terms of
labour movement and the assasination of such figures as Rosa luxemburg
(Jan 1919). The Spainish Civil war is mentioned also in the hopeful
analysis of that specific time encapsulation, the assasination of Lorca
comes to mind. The 17 year period of file and archive release necessarily reduces
the reading of the archive within a specific narrow framework which does
not account for the build-up to facism which would definitely preceed the
watermark indicated. The archives would contain some fascinating
documentation of that period in world history but are they part of an ongoing
cycle of release or are they an isolated example of a criteria of choice with regard to
the Shoah?

informations on the secret archives are to be had on the Vatican website
www.vatican.ca
http://asv.vatican.va/home_en.htm
http://asv.vaticanva/en/studi_stud,htm

In terms of bureaucracy and official secrets, many governments
wd have a specific period of time during which state papers are sealed
and released. The opening of the secret archive in an Independent
State such as Vatican city would probably have a different criteria
for selecting and approving the dates for release of such documentations.

... read full story / add a comment

Just after returning from watching Ken Loach's Palm D'or reaping drama The Wind That Shakes The Barley and like most feel slightly compelled to add one or two words to the flurry of type and hype that has accompanied the movies release on these shores. The Wind That Shakes The Barley is a typical Loach movie betraying many of the core techniques of his previous outtings. Again he relies on plunging a shallowly crafted personal relationship, this time between two brothers, into a set of tragic circumstances. These circumstances provide an emotional cover for his overly didactic political approach to popularising alternative historical mythologies that challenge the authors of a victors' history. This time the contested historicity is the rabid nationalism of the Irish text book, that sweeps aside socialist and labour based movements in the process of consolidation of the free state. ... read full story / add a comment

Is the curriculum at second level largely dated and irrelevant? Does the Leaving Certificate Exam serve any worthy educational purpose any longer? Has it, even, any practical benefit worth the considerable cost? ... read full story / add a comment