The environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment has called on Taoiseach Micheal Martin to clarify the Irish government's position in relation to efforts to allow the EU to subsidize nuclear power plants. According to a document seen by Friends of the Irish environment, several countries, including France, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, want the EU to allow subsidies to nuclear plants in return for backing a higher EU 2030 climate target. However, other countries including Luxembourg and Austria, are rejecting these plans. The position of the Irish government is not clear. read full story / add a comment

By a vote of 84 to 13, the Senate passed corporate transparency legislation as part of the annual vote on the National Defense Authorization Act. read full story / add a comment

Campaigners for opening of Court records claim initial victory
High Court Direction to release records welcomed

A new ‘High Court Practice Direction’ issued by the Court Service on 13 November 2020 has been claimed as an initial victory by campaigners seeking access to Court records after the judicial process is completed. [1]

The Direction issued recently by Mary Irvine, President of the High Court, allows any member of the public to seek access to the written submissions provided to the Court by parties in proceedings after 11 January 2021. read full story / add a comment

Ireland’s health care languishes in the doldrums. read full story / add a comment

Oscailt v3.9, the software used by Indymedia Ireland, has been released on it's SourceForge homepage and is available for wider use in setting up similar grassroot types of publishing sites. It runs on the PHP language and off the MySQL database. Oscailt is OpenSource software and is licensed under GNU General Public License (GPL). As with previous releases it comes with a basic installer and HTML Install and User Guide documentionation which are also available online. read full story / add a comment

Music can uplift, inspire, or soothe us at any stage of life. We might react with smiles or tears when we hear a certain song, depending on the kind of event that it prompts us to recall. 'Magical moments' welcomes art and writing related to memories of joy, awe, peace or happiness. read full story / add a comment

Atlantic Bays stripped of wild fish to eat lice off farmed salmon
Records show 1.6m wild fish destroyed in 4 years

More than 1.6 million wild fish were taken from Ireland’s Atlantic bays to eat the lice off farmed salmon between May 2015 and November 2019. The figures, released to environmental groups through Access to Information on the Environment requests, are the first official record of salmon farming’s practices on these wild fish. read full story / add a comment

The filthiest places in any country are the slaughterhouses. Animals are defecating and urinating in terror. Their blood spills everywhere.
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The letter below was sent to the Egyptian Ambassador to Ireland, H.E. Soha Gendi, after a phone call to the embassy. The ambassador was not available to answer but her consul, Mr. Mostafa Mohamed Youssef, debated the issues raised and requested a written complaint. No reply has been received so far read full story / add a comment

All seven known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 were protesting against the presence of nuclear weapons in Kings Bay in Georgia USA. Martha was the sixth defendant to go to prison. She goes there in honour after four friends testified on her behalf. One of them told the court that in a future nuclear holocaust when stricken children would ask their dying parents 'why didn’t somebody stop this, while we still had a chance to stop it? ' the response would be be: “Some people DID try to stop this. But we prosecuted them. And we locked them away.”] read full story / add a comment

G20 finance ministers held an extraordinary meeting and announced further plans on debt reduction for developing countries affected by the COVID-19 economic crisis. read full story / add a comment

It was announced on Monday by BillBoard the music industry website that Ticket Master is rolling out a system whereby you will have to prove you were vaccinated before you could go to any concert organised by them. Ticket Master control probably close to 60% of all concert sales in the USA and Europe.

In other news it was announced something similar would be rolled out for attending Premier League football matches. What we see here is the full rollout of the Global Totalitarian Police State. In a very short span of time this will apply to everything from staying in Hotels, using AirBnB, travelling by plane, train, ship and bus. In fact it will be everywhere. It amounts to complete and utter control of each person.

These vaccine certificates will be digital which means they are a way of tracking each person. You might think well sure, I will just take the vaccine but already the media are letting it be known, that the vaccine will wear off and you will have to get regular boosters. You will also be tested regularly.

None of this is in anyone's interest. The question is why are they so desperate to do this? It is certainly about the opportunity to make billions, but it is more than that. Once you submit to total control like this, you are a prisoner no matter what they tell you. And who knows what on Earth they will be jabbing in your arm. One day in the far future, it could contain something to sterilize you or perhaps give you chronic illness. You will never know. read full story / add a comment

As always Thierry Meyssan carries an interesting take on current events and tends to take a broader and different view than many commentators.

The result of the U.S. presidential election marks the triumph, not of the Democrats and a senile senator, but of the Puritan current over the Jacksonians. It does not reflect the political views of American citizens and masks the crisis of civilization in which their country is sinking. read full story / add a comment

On Friday, the G20 convenes an extraordinary meeting on debt reduction for developing countries affected by the COVID-19 economic crisis. read full story / add a comment

Call for Covid-19 ‘track and trace’ for rhododendron
Spread of rhododendron ‘death warrant’ for countryside

The spread of rhododendron across Ireland’s countryside has been likened to Covid-19 by an environmental charity, Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE]. FIE have called for a ‘track and trace’ programme to be put in place to control the increasing spread of this ‘beautiful and picturesque death warrant’.

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Twelve years after losing their original case against the planning permission for a LNG terminal on the Shannon River, Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] today received a High Court order quashing An Bord Pleanala’s grant of permission and awarding costs in their favour. The proposed terminal was due to process Liquid Natural Gas [LNG] from the USA for consumption in Ireland and to be distributed throughout the EU.

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High Court to hear challenge against unsustainable fishing in Ireland and the EU

The Irish High Court granted leave today to the environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] to apply for a Judicial Review aimed at challenging the EU Regulation setting 2020 fishing quotas under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) because of its failure to meet a legally defined deadline of ending overfishing in all stocks by 2020.

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I do not know much about it. But I think science policy nationally and internationally is a delicate balance. It's difficult to form a picture of who is doing research, what are their objectives, what are the rewards. My impression is that science is mostly controlled by commercial interests. What is invented mostly is what can sell. You have copyright and secrecy backed up by law to preserve the pitch for profit. It is easy to see the sense in this because it provides an incentive for scientists and their employers to spend time and money on research.

But there is also a negative aspect to this way of doing things. Manufacturers are not wholly induced to innovate. They might see more profit from concentrating on already discovered products. Pharmaceuticals are, perhaps, an example of this. Instead of looking for new and improved drugs, they may see more profit from continuing to produce older drugs even if they are less than perfect with lots of unwanted effects. read full story / add a comment

In an article by Tommy Sheridan, he discusses the recent suspension of former leader of the UK Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn by the party on spurious grounds that he was anti-semtic. His real crime was his sympathy with the Palestinian people and willingness to call out Israel’s human rights abuses.

The other day a thoroughly decent and honest man suffered a grave injustice. A man who has a peerless record in opposing racism and anti-Semitism was suspended by the political party he has been a member of for over fifty years, has represented it in the British Parliament since 1983 and was its leader from 2015-20.

Irony died in Britain yesterday when Jeremy Corbyn was suspended by the Labour Party with the consent and probable collusion of the man who succeeded him as leader, Sir Keir Starmer.

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UPDATE: The motion was passed despite opposition. See responses below. We believe it is important to keep emailing. Make sure they understand this is serious. The ICCL had to lobby to get a sunset clause added to the first version of this Act. There is no provision that prevents another (or indefinite) extension.

The Dáil is meeting on October 22nd 2020 to pass a motion on the extension of the above mentioned emergency measures until June 9th 2021. They are also voting for more power to enforce these measures through fines and with the help of Garda Síochána.

Many of us are concerned about the proposed extension of extraordinary powers given to the State during the Covid-19 pandemic under the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 and would like to message our TDs about these concerns.

Unfortunately this article should have been published on Oct 20th read full story / add a comment