A wreath-laying ceremony to honour and remember the three busmen who were killed will take place in Sackville Place on the 4th of December at 11.30 am at the site of the pavement memorial: ‘A Fallen Bouquet’.
All welcome

Forty years have passed since that dark winter evening of Friday, 1st December 1972, when at 7.58 pm, the first ever car bomb exploded in the Republic of Ireland. It occurred beside the famous Dublin landmark, Liberty Hall, where the ITWGU had its headquarters. There were no fatalities but many people were injured. Several minutes later, a second explosion occurred at Sackville Place, off O’Connell Street, killing bus driver George Bradshaw, aged 29 and bus conductor Tommy Duffy, aged 23. Both of them were married men. George and his wife Kathleen had two young children. Tommy and his wife had a daughter and Monica was pregnant with their second child.

Three minutes before the first bomb exploded, an anonymous telephone call was made to the 'Belfast Newsletter', giving a warning that bombs planted at Liberty Hall and behind Clery’s would explode at 8.05 pm. The person who received the warning told Gardaí that the caller had spoken with a ‘Belfast English-type accent’. The warnings came too late as was almost certainly the intention. The result was devastating, two men dead and 127 people injured. Damage to property was extensive.

Related Links: Justice For the Forgotten |
Answers still outstanding about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings |
Wikipedia page on the bombings |
An Phoblacht article on the unveiling of the memorial to the three CIE workers |

€1,600 billion. That is the figure for Irish Oil & Gas reserves already licensed revealed last Tuesday morning (Sept 11th) in a detailed report from Shell to Sea using the energy corporations own reports and estimates. People in Ireland will see almost no benefits from this incredible wealth because the Irish state gives these reserves to the corporations at the cheapest terms in the world.

In these links, some from ShellToSea and some from Indymedia, one can get an idea of the scale of scandal that lies before us, the deep level of corruption, consequences and how we are all suffering now from the financial crisis -caused by a slightly different form of corruption from much the same layer in Irish society and yet we are being robbed not just of our resources, but the very fabric of our society is being torn apart (health, educational, social & civic) , national sovereignty given away, and our taxes increase to pay for the gambles and speculation of the bankers, developers and bondholders -i.e the elite.
Related Links: ShellToSea First find the oil, and then raise the taxes | Our oil and gas might as well be off the coast of Brazil for all the good it will do us | News release: Devastating report exposes State's mismanagement of oil & gas resources | News release: New evidence of Shell's covert surveillance emerges | News Release: Rabbitte's betrayal further exposed by Providence's 1.6 bn barrel oil find | Drillers to earn €53bn from Irish oil find | Norwegian Fisherman warns of destruction of seismic survey
Indymedia: Resource Wars: a feature of the 21st century? -shows how the resource theft is a global phenomena | One Gas Well to Secure Ireland's Energy Supply!!! | Business as usual for Gardaí – trying to smear women in ‘rape tape’ controversy - perfect illustration of how the corruption from the whole resource issue permeates into human rights abuses. | Review of the Corrib Gas Project Oral Hearing | Farmers group wants Ireland to follow Iceland and burn the bondholders | Mandate To Default On The Unjust Bank Debt That Is Sinking Our Economy - just like the resource theft, we've been fooled again by being landed with the banking bailout bill | Press Statement: “Wealthy Elite will still have political power after election,” says 1% Network -demonstrates nothing changes. | Shell to Sea distribute 1000's of 540 billion notes | The Unfolding Crisis and Ireland's Economic Ruin -Our descent into the financial black hole. | Students Occupy Department Of Finance -See how the govt brutally attacks our young people because they have to make cuts to save the bankers & speculators losses.
Fracking is the next diaster! Poland and Fracking - Lessons to be Learned - Ban Fracking In EU | Fracking in the Lough Allen & Clare Basins | Renowned Investigative Journalist Greg Palast Talks about Fracking in Enniskillen, Carrick on Shannon and Dublin -link to video of full talk.

"Is there a safe way to frack? Probably: but not profitably; and
certainly not within the geology of a little emerald isle. "
- Greg Palast, investigative Journalist

Related Links: Poland and Fracking - Lessons to be Learned - Ban Fracking In EU | Counties and Townlands in the Fracking Zones - Are You Living in a Facking Zone? Find Out Here. | Response to the article 'Frank Convery, Yvonne Scannell, Fracking and Local Credibility in Ireland' | Fracking Ireland - Business Group Accept €20,000 From Tamboran | Local Fracking Talk Brings Revelations | Open letter to the members of the 31st Dáil Éireann. Hydraulic Shale Gas Fracturing - Tamborans claims - Chemicals involved in the fracking procedure

On the 20th of April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oilrig blew out in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven men instantly, then destroying 600 miles of coastline.On 9 September 2010, a natural gas pipeline exploded in San Bruno, California, burning eight to death, one of several recent pipeline explosions in the USA. In 1992, in Chicago, a gas pipe leaked and 18 houses exploded, incinerating three people. What do these deaths have to do with plans for “fracking” for natural gas in Ireland? Everything. It was my job to investigate these three explosions, the Deepwater Horizon and California explosions as a reporter for the UK news show Dispatches, the earliest as a US government investigator. In all three cases, the deaths were preceded by the same reassurances about the safety of drilling and piping that I read now in the debate about fracking in Ireland. First, the Deepwater Horizon. Eleven men died when the 'mud' – drilling cement meant to cap the wellhead – failed and methane gas blew out the top of the pipes and exploded. The Shannon Basin is not the Gulf of Mexico, but your safety will be just as dependent on Halliburton’s mud.

Today's occupation is happening at 66-67 Great Strand Street, Dublin 1. Come down and support the occupation - get involved in the debate during the day.
You might be thinking: has the notoriously secretive agency finally read the part of the NAMA legislation that says NAMA should contribute to the social development of the State? Or wondering if perhaps the Labour party is coming good on its pre-election promise to use NAMA buildings for culture and the arts? Maybe the accountants and property hacks that sit on NAMA’s board have recognised that the N and the A stand for national assets?

What’s really happening is the launch of new campaign group Unlock NAMA.

Related Links: Map to the Great Grand Street site | Unlock NAMA website (www.unlockNAMA.org) | Unlock NAMA facebook page | Politico.ie story | Photo's of the occupation on Come Here to Me
Indy Links: Welcome to NAMAland | NAMA: An activists guide | NAMA Board Gets a Pay Increase | NAMA = Class Robbery = Capitalism At Work NAMA Key Data for Tranche 1 and 2 Loans

nama_wasting_this_building.jpg 0.02 Mb Signs of neglect of building by NAMA even though they are supposed to make these buildings available for social development of the state 0.03 Mb

The Force Research Unit (FRU) was a covert military intelligence unit set up by the British Military of Defence sometime between 1979 and 1981. Its motto was ‘Fishers of Men’. Its remit was to recruit and run double agents in the paramilitary groups in the 6 counties. At its peak the FRU had up to 80 officers and about 100 support staff dealing with hundreds of informers. The FRU were in collusion with loyalist paramilitaries during the 1980’s and 90’s that led to the murder of dozens of catholics including high profile solicitor Pat Finucane. Despite having been exposed in British Tribunals and in the press of collusion with loyalist paramilitary gangs, a rebranded FRU has been involved in illegal operations in Iraq and Libya showing that the British establishment not only knew about the collusion but also actively encouraged it and rewarded those of its officers who were engaged in these activities.

Related Links:
South African arms | The story of Brian Nelson | The Stevens report (pdf) | Gordon Kerr (times online) | illegal surveillance operations in the Irish Republic | Brigadier Kerr ‘led rogue spying on Russia’ | the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes |