UPDATE: ALL CHARGES DROPPED IN COURT TODAY 27/1/05

"Our politicians should be reminded that the killing of one Iraqi person is as much a crime as the killing of Jean McConville"

The 27th January 2005 is the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. A minority of German people, and others, perpetrated the Holocaust but the majority contributed indirectly by their silence. Since 20 March 2004, over 100,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed in an illegal war. The people of Ireland have been complicit in these deaths because we allowed the US military to use Shannon Airport, as a vital part of its war logistics.

On the 27th January 2005, the Shannon boat people, Edward Horgan, Aron Baker and Eibhlin ni Hir, go on trial in Ennis Co Clare, for protesting against this illegal use of Shannon airport. They were arrested during the Bush visit in June 2004, in a small rowing-boat, while peacefully protesting on the river Shannon. They could face a large fine or imprisonment. It took the combined forces of the Irish Navy, the Gardai, the Irish Air Corps, the Shannon Foynes Harbour Authority, with a US warship standing off Irish territorial waters, to arrest this fearsome trio, who were armed with a protest sign saying "Bush Go Home".

This protest was their way of breaking the silence of complicity. Please help publicise the ongoing abuse of Shannon airport, and the killing of innocents in Iraq, by contacting your local media, politicians, and other contacts. During 2004, 158,549 heavily armed US troops passed through Shannon airport, on their way to the war and occupation of Iraq, and we allowed this to happen. It was the likes of this that made the Holocaust possible.

We three appreciate your support, but it is not we who need support, it is the people of Iraq. They also need your peaceful actions to deny Shannon Airport to US troops and munitions. Our politicians should be reminded that the killing of one Iraqi person is as much a crime as the killing of Jean McConville. The killing of 100,000 Iraqis is 100,000 crimes against humanity.

Edward Horgan.

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Funding for the Community Workers Co-Operative (CWC) has been withdrawn. In a brazen and cynical move by Ministers Eamonmn O Cuiv and Noel Ahern, the coalition government have moved into an even more extreme right wing position by silencing this alternative voice which has distinguished itself with its honest and direct analysis of Irish social and economic issues, from a community development perspective.

The Community Workers Co-Operative was founded in the early 1980s by a group of community activists supported by academics who were committed to social change, and who saw little evidence of government commitment to tackle poverty and inequality. This writer joined the organisation at a time when Ireland's action against poverty and inequality had been marked by the first Combat Poverty Programme. Older readers will remember how these projects were dotted around Ireland, and how they challenged local and national structures and practices which perpetuated powerlessness.

The Law Society of Northern Ireland are in the process of closing down the law practice of Pádraigín Drinan. She can no longer represent her clients and they are asking the High Court in Belfast to freeze her assets immediately.

The reasons given by Ms Bryson of the Law Society of Northern Ireland for these actions depends on who is asking. She has told Pádraigín that it is because she failed to respond to letters from the society (Pádraigín maintains that she answered the questions fully in other correspondence). She has told others it is because Pádraigín had not amalgamated her practice with that of another solicitor. One person even got a call today saying, 'Watch what you're getting into, this is about financial irregularities". This is nonsense, as you need to be making money to be irregular with it, and a huge portion of Pádraigín's work is done 'pro bono' (for free).

Spearheading the appeal to defend Ms Drinan, one friend and colleague told this Indymedia reporter "Pádraigín has a long history of defending the dispossessed. She's a champion of the poor. She fights for those in society who have no voice. Immigrants, the residents groups, Dominic McGlinchey (raising his sons after their father's death), and above all she does what's right and speaks out against injustice no matter who is perpetrating that injustice".

She went on "What is needed at this moment is to get the word out to as many people as possible, unions, politicians and activist groups, and to ask them to contact Ms. Bryson of the Law Society of Northern Ireland and ask her why Pádraigín is being persecuted. To ask her which of the three reasons given is the real reason Pádraigín's ability to practice has been taken away. Indeed what people should be asking is "is this not in fact punishment for the political orientation of her clientele? Is it not about the fact that she is trying to keep loyalists from again invading nationalist communities in the coming marching season?"

It would be fair to say that left libertarian politics has experienced something of a renaissance in Ireland in recent years. However there are many arenas of struggle where its theory and practise is relatively undeveloped. This conference focuses on two such areas: the environment and women.

Ideas for Change is being organised by the NUI Galway Ecology Society. Taking place on Saturday January 29th it will feature discussions, both practical and theoretical, on the environment and popular ecological struggles, and on feminism and the struggle for reproductive rights.

The Sixth Grassroots Gathering was an earlier and more ambitious conference which the Ecology Society was involved in organising. This is our 'end of year report' for 2002/2003.

A recording of the 2005 Amnesty Lecture at Trinity College Dublin which took place on Thursday January 13th, is now available for download. The lecture was entitled "American Exceptionalism & Human Rights" and was given by Professor Michael Ignatieff. Lecture MP3 Here. Q&A MP3 Here

A comprehensive biography of Michael Ignatieff is available here.

In this lecture in the Edmund Burke Theatre in Trinity College Dublin, Ignatieff deals with what he terms "American Exceptionalism" and Human Rights in todays world. He talks about the many contradictions that the current US administration operates under. Controversially, he describes the US as both a leader and an outlier of human rights, and talks about this in relation to the US "project" of democracy in the Middle East. He also brings into question the concept of our own neutrality, among many other topics and values that the liberal communties and human rights advocates tried to achieve in the run up to the war in Iraq.