Monday the 24th of September at 5pm is the deadline for making submissions to An Bord Pleanála on the South Dublin County Council & Coillte plans for what is known as the Dublin Mountains Project for the Hellfire Club & Masseys Wood nearby. The plan is one dreamed up by the council and will cost € 19 million of taxpayer money i.e. collected property tax etc for what is basically a bit of a white-elephant project that will damage the environment, limit public access and charge a fee for what is now free and is expected to run at a loss for at least first 3 years, but yet the private contractors running it will be "insulated" from losses. In essence the project will put an valuable amenity that is in public hands effectively into private hands and give them a license to milk the public forever on it. If this gets through, it will be replicated all over the country in that arrogant and greed driven way we are all familiar with from the Celtic Tiger days and again today. read full story / add a comment

Caribbean islands recovering from Hurricane Irma, now confront Hurricane Maria. read full story / add a comment

Several foreign based volunteer networks are placing unsuspecting travellers in exploitative and manipulative situations and cashing in on free labour with no rights or security. read full story / add a comment

On behalf of Caribbean Catholic Bishops, Bishop Gabriel Malzaire called for islands dealing with Hurricane Irma to receive debt relief. read full story / add a comment

Cyclehack Dublin is running a three-day event this weekend to “test new cycling innovations” to improve cycling in Dublin.

“Whatever your background, if you want to brainstorm solutions for improved cycling experience in Dublin and prototype them, come meet other like-minded individuals for a weekend of hacking,” said the organisers.
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Age Action, Ireland’s leading advocacy organisation for older people, has expressed its opposition to another increase in the State Pension age.

The organisation was responding to media reports today ( http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/now-we-face-workin....html ) on proposals from the ESRI to increase the State Pension age to 70. read full story / add a comment

This September sees the much-anticipated return of The 5th Wexford Documentary Film Festival, a jam-packed 3-day festival of international, national, and local films. The festival takes place in the picturesque fishing village of Kilmore Quay, County Wexford from Friday 22nd – Sunday 24th September 2017. Screening of films will be in the local Stella Maris Centre, and in many interesting and unexpected off-site venues throughout the village. The festival includes post screenings Q&As with international directors, discussions, lively debates, and a variety of film workshops. The Wexford Documentary film festival is gaining strength and popularity, by providing the public with the opportunity to see award winning national and international documentary films and 2017 is no exception! read full story / add a comment

Akbayan Partylist condemns President Rodrigo Duterte’s denial of his policy to kill under the War on Drugs.
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In the face of the worst housing crisis since rackrenting of the 19 th century why is Irish society so hung up on cement houses that resemble bunkers.There are numerous alternatives to cement and concrete and most western countries and developing world universities are exploring and investing in education for engineering and architectural studies called biotecture and geotecture knowledge transfer degrees read full story / add a comment

As Hurricane Irma heads to the US coast, a religious development group is calling for debt payments to be suspended until Antigua and Barbuda and other severely impacted Caribbean nations recover from the storm. read full story / add a comment

On the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War and the upcoming 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Cillian Gillespie looks at how the occupation of Palestine can be ended and how a just and democratic solution, upholding the national rights of both Palestinians and Israeli Jews, can be brought into existence. [The following article was written before the Israeli government attempted to drastically restrict Palestinian Muslims for entering the Al -Asqa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem. read full story / add a comment

The failure of the economic recovery in Ireland to deliver for the needs of working-class people is becoming increasingly clear, if anything living standards are worsening. The past number of weeks and months has seen the publication of reports with ample proof of this.

There are now a record 687,000 people waiting for treatment in public hospitals, the vast bulk of whom are waiting to see a consultant as outpatients for the first time. On the census night in 2016, 7,000 people were classed as homeless, rising by 81% since the census of 2011. Today it is estimated that there are 8,000 living in homeless accommodation, including nearly 3,000 children. Many are now being threatened with eviction from their homes by vulture funds with an alarming rise in the number of summary judgements. read full story / add a comment

The Girl Against Fluoride has campaigned against Water Fluoridation for a number of years and published here and is now announcing the end of the campaign with this letter sent out to supporters a week or so ago.

I would like to thank you for your support of The Girl Against Fluoride campaign. I would also like to take this opportunity to fill you in on what’s happened in the interim since we started the campaign in 2012 and to share our plans moving forward. read full story / add a comment

The German minister of the Interior announced today (Fri 25th Aug) early in the morning that Indymedia Linksunten, a local German IMC, was declared illegal.

This seems partially as a result of the media coverage the site gave to the recent G20 protests in Hamburg that embarrassed the government on the world stage and for the crime of airing the grievance of the populace that they don't like predatory capitalism.

It comes also as the government faces into an election and that the entire political system shifts further to the right and all things Left are to be discredited such as free health or education, equality etc. Instead fear is the new norm these days and at the very same time when it is plain to see that practically all European governments are now simply vassals of the USA as evident in the way their foreign policies match in lockstep the dictates of the US war machine and the financial policies imposing austerity, privatisation and the stripping away of the social gains of the last century match those of the "Washington Neo-Liberal & Banking Parasitic" class.

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The recent furore over Public Service Card (PSC) has highlighted the sly and underhand way the government has tried to introduce identity cards through the backdoor. In a typical fashion for the political system in Ireland, they have without any public discussion, legislation or clear thought tried to push this through to the unsuspecting public or at least most of them. Even the police state next door, the UK, rejected identity cards when the UK House of Lords rejected identity cards in early 2006. read full story / add a comment

. “The Cowboys”, written and directed by Peter Trant, is a dramatic and highly entertaining play set in a fictional town somewhere along the border. It tells a complex, darkly humorous tale of love, betrayal and revenge. After many years, away, the protagonist, Bobby Courtney, returns to his hometown for his father’s funeral. Old animosities between him and his nemesis, Johnny Murtagh, the Meat Factory Manager, bubble ominously to the surface. Two Meat Factory Workers, Sonny and Phil, observe it all. At first this duo, with their laugh-out-loud humour, appear to be outside the action, almost like a Greek chorus, but we soon realize that they are, in fact, central to events as they unfold. Behind their banter, oblique clues hint at horrors past and to come. A sense of menace permeates the action right from the beginning and tension builds inexorably as the plot moves to its shocking climax.

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These are my initial published thoughts on the terrorist attack I and my partner survived and endured 17th August 2017.
Fadó Fadó, long time ago, when many more readers came to this corner of the internet, I published a series of articles in reaction to a terrorist attack on Madrid, the 11th of March 2004. I promoted a simple design back then, to my surprise the idea found traction and was accepted by countless people. i had thought my suggestion was easy to reproduce and helped people express collective mourning, to show publicly their fellowship with a community in shock. My design was a black ribbon, one which was easy to knock up variations upon and print out. I admit the ribbon idea was based on my much younger years when I had worn a green ribbon in support of a complex idea back then : the inclusion of political prisoners in a tentative British Irish peace process. Am I turning some off the provenance? OH talk to me about my youth why not? The idea of a black ribbon took off the weekend of March 11th, 2004, whilst the then government of Spain falsely attributed an attack by Salafists in the ambit of Al Qaeda on Madrid by blaming the Basque armed seperatist group ETA. IT was a few days before a general election. An estimated 80,000 people took to the streets of Spain and the Spanish state and camped out in front of government offices and the offices of the ruling party demanding the truth... I was one... the ribbon was a moment in my life... I never wanted to see it used again In the last hours the city of my home where I have lived almost 20 years has been victim of a long anticipated terrorist attack. Even google now puts a black ribbon. I return to indymedia ireland to indulge POV reflections. read full story / add a comment

My dear Irish friends,
Let me introduce the English version of my e-book The Stone Portals devoted to the study of prehistoric Stone artefacts, the first two Chapters (http://www.astrotheos.com/EPage_Portal_HOME.htm) of which I have just posted at my site www.astrotheos.com.
I appeal to you in connection with the fact that much of the material presented in Chapter 2 is devoted to the reconstruction of the prehistoric solar calendar of the Celts, the key days of which are reflected in the festivals (Samhain et al.), and in correlation with the astronomical alignments of the Passage Mounds, and before all – of the Mound of the Hostages, which I analyzed numerically for all the data that I had.
I would not be distracting your attention if the results obtained in relation to precise determining the exact days of these festivals on the alignments of the mounds would not coincide with the same values determined by the astronomical alignment of the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, and a number of other stone artefacts as well.
From my point of view, the results obtained could contribute not only to a more complete disclosure of the properties of these passage mounds and the ancient culture of the Celts in general, but also to that that in scientific, administrative, and esoteric circles, much more attention was paid to preserving and study of these remarkable objects.

Good luck,
Prof. Sergey Smelyakov, Doctor of math, PhD
Kharkov
astrotheos@yahoo.com
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Yesterday the city where I live was victim to terrorist attack which has long been anticipated and it would seem prepared for. The attack happened within 600 metres of my home. I pass on foot every day the street which yesterday became a trail of human blood dragged out by a young man turned mass murderer, to be claimed and vaunted later by so-called DAESH/ISIS and then it seems to be a trigger for another simliar attack on a tourist town. You will understand if I come to this text with attitude. I have pointed out many times the soft points in the city where I live & yesterday my wife and another our closest friend were both caught up in on ordeal which lasted hours. There are lessons to learn. These are thus my initial published thoughts on the terrorist attack I and my partner survived and endured 17th August 2017 & are party to the words I am writing and publishing now in various languages. There are lessons to learn & I feel it my duty to point out a few. Especially since a meme idea I promoted lots perhaps thought up if i can remember correctly is the go to for societal collective fetishized memorial glyph. I never wanted to see black ribbons again. But they do come back & they will. read full story / add a comment

There will be an information event in the County Library, Tallaght from 3pm – 6pm on Tuesday 15th August 2017 where Council staff will be available to provide general guidance and answer queries relating to the proposed Dodder Greenway

This has been posted at short notice because it is happening today.

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