Abstract: There is an overwhelming failure to recognize human rights in birth in Ireland. In December 2011 the Fine Gael and Labour Government passed legislation, called The Nurses and Midwives Act, 2011, which governs the way midwives are insured to attend homebirth in Ireland. Midwives who make an individual assessment, that the mother and baby are safer birthing at home than in a hospital setting, desite falling outside generalized guidelines, are punishable by law with a €60,000 fine and/or a 10 year prision sentence. Women who make an informed decision, against the uninformed terms, are threatened with having their midwife barred from attending them in childbirth and having their baby taken into State custody at birth.

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What was the point of Enda Kenny's tears? None other than to create the illusion of a moral contract between the rulers and the ruled. read full story / add a comment

A Do It Yourself guide to sabotaging 'water meter ready' stopcock chambers . read full story / add a comment

Last month, the De Silva report into the 1989 murder of Pat Finucane highlighted the scale of collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and undercover units of the British Army in the late 1980s.

A new report published today by Spinwatch and the Pat Finucane Centre traces the roots of this covert relationship to the earliest days of the Northern Ireland conflict.

COUNTER-GANGS: A history of undercover military units in Northern Ireland 1971-1976 shows how the application of colonial counter-insurgency theory led to the recruitment of paramilitaries by plain-clothes army units in the early 1970s read full story / add a comment

The anti-abortion movement was not cowed by the outcry over Savita's tragic death nor by the huge popular response marching in November. The Government plans legislation only to allow abortion when the woman's life is danger and the criteria for establishing that are not yet known. All opinion polls on the subject show a huge majority in favour of liberalisation of the laws -- a majority which is also rising over the years. The abortion rights movement has been publicly quiet for some time now while the opposition is loud and in public view. Can the movement for abortion rights summon the necessary militancy to achieve its objectives? read full story / add a comment

Good news from Northern Ireland . AFAR is delighted in The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) stance in updating the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 to ban any dog docked after this date from being shown in Northern Ireland. Dogs docked before this date may still be shown under current legislation.

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Press statement - Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes (CAHWT) 11 Feb 2013
Eyewitness reports of Garda violence at South Dublin County Council

19 year old protester hospitalised: plainclothes Garda ‘smashed my head on wall’

Campaigners against the property tax – who staged one of a number of peaceful protests at Councils today – have questioned why Gardai at South Dublin County Council used brutal and unnecessary force against them, including some plain clothes Gardai. Cannisters of pepper spray were also waved at locals who were manhandled and handcuffed. One is currently being kept in Tallaght Hospital for observation of his injuries. read full story / add a comment

How we are being made to like a bad Anglo deal and only long term solution is for us to have a government without FF or FG and what they could do if/ when they get into power. read full story / add a comment

The government inter-departmental committee setup to establish the facts into State involvement of the Magdalen Laundries was published on Tues 5th Feb in an attempt to deal with the issue for once and for all. What the findings show is that there was significant involvement and the laundries seem to have been used by a variety of state institutions for dealing for young women in terms of the justice system and social services that the state was unable or unwilling to deal with and the interface with reformatories and industrial schools.

In the aftermath the government has only offered a partial apology to the victims and they feel this is not good enough read full story / add a comment

As the Irish Council for Civil Liberties have abrogated their role in defending democratic civil rights, at least with regard to the right to protest, can the Left in the Dail step into the breach and play an important progressive role? Or will it allow political sectarianism and self-interest to narrow its vision? read full story / add a comment

VIDEO VERSION:
http://youtu.be/3gQkDTYbmG8

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu has recently recorded a special video message of support for Afri - action from Ireland - the justice and peace group of which he is patron. In his 4 minute message the acclaimed campaigner and spiritual leader celebrates Afri's 37 years of activism and says 'independent voices like Afri's are more essential than ever in our world today'. He also refers to the importance of Afri's approach of linking the global with the local including their anti-apartheid campaigns as well as solidarity work with Philippines, East Timor, Latin America, the Niger Delta and the people of Rossport in Co. Mayo and what he calls their 'admirable struggle against Shell'. read full story / add a comment

VIDEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFuLbx_UkW4
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The Anti Eviction Taskforce (AET) have written to all Government Ministers across all political parties on behalf of all distressed mortgage holders in Ireland today, delivering a mandate to bring a motion before the Dáil to ban eviction in Ireland. This letter will arrive on the desks of all Ministers on February 4th 2013.

To explain the logic behind this mandate: The Government and Financial institutions continue to ignore the issue of distressed mortgages, which is resulting in much family distress, family break-up and, in some cases, suicide. While, as yet, eviction is not an everyday occurrence, it is only a matter of time before eviction becomes common place. This threat, along with the inaction by both the Government and Financial Institutions to devise credible resolution is disabling distressed mortgage holders and resulting in impasse. read full story / add a comment

Re- THE BAN BY DUNNES STORES ON ANIMAL CHARITY COLLECTORS.
……POSSIBLY A REASON FOR THE 'CHARITY COLLECTORS 'STOPPAGE BY DUNNES STORES
ARE BLOODSPORTS PEOPLE REALLY THIS NASTY???

We refer to the ban by the Dunnes Store’s chain on allowing Animal charities to collect at their many shops.
This has shocked many welfare groups as no explanation has be given despite radio and newspaper coverage.

We were informed yesterday by a posting on the PRO RACING and COURSING forum GREYHOUND NUTS that the once vocal Pro stag- hunting group Rise [rural Ireland says Enough]were behind the ban by Dunnes Stores. We enclose the page from the blog below which is run by Tom Brett of Cork.

Unfortunately as Dunnes Stores will not answer questions put to them we cannot verify this revelation. We invite you to investigate further in an effort to explain the strange ‘less than compassionate ‘ stance that they have adopted.

AFAR feels to alienate any worthwhile cause without explanation is unjust. read full story / add a comment

It seems the Jewish holocaust is indeed much more important to revisionists than the so-called Irish Famine or original European holocaust, which in 1847 the Cork Examiner (now Irish Examiner)- referring to the on-going crime in Ireland, called a "Holocaust" as did many writers including Michael Davitt in his 1904 "The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland". Being as it is that Jews were not victims in the well documented food removal genocide perpetrated by the British regime against the Irish people in the mid 19th century, could it be that in today's politically corrected Ireland Jewish suffering and crimes perpetrated by the NAZI regime in Germany trump the long ignored and now much denied suffering caused by a deliberate policy of state orchestrated genocide perpetrated against the Irish themselves a century before by the racist, colonial power Britain? read full story / add a comment

Last Thurs 24th Jan 2013, the Irish and British governments agreed on a memorandum of understanding for energy trading between Ireland and the UK. This will pave the way for the export of Wind Energy to the UK. This would likely make use of the electric interconnector completed last year between the UK and Ireland although it may need additional cables.

The wind resource in Ireland is probably greater than what the Irish electrical grid can cope with and hence the idea is that the surplus wind energy can be exported to the UK which has a far larger electrical demand than here and could probably take every watt exported.

Unfortunately it seems that there is a bit more to this though the official green good news because apparently there are plans by a number of companies to erect up to 2,300 wind turbines in the Midlands of Ireland. Is blighting our landscape for the UK the way to solve the energy problem? read full story / add a comment

The Socialist Party has ended its membership of the ULA. We do so with regret as we initiated the negotiations that led to the ULA and are genuine in our preparedness to work with others on the left in a respectful, democratic and principled fashion. read full story / add a comment

Statement of the Communist Party of the Irish Republic: Deformed Justice from Two Deformed States read full story / add a comment

Harris announced on 13 January that he, like the Sunday Independent paper edited by Anne (formerly Mrs) Harris, has been ‘silent’ on loyalist flag riots in the North of Ireland. The riots started out as an attack on the moderate unionist Alliance Party. Alliance brokered a compromise on Belfast City Council that permitted flying the Union Jack flag on 18 ‘designated’ days per year. The SDLP and Sinn Fein plan had been for either a shared no-flag space in the council or for parity of esteem by flying the Irish Tricolour with the Union Jack. Unionists don't do compromise.

The DUP and UUP, egged on by the unionist Newsletter, put out 40,000 leaflets attacking Alliance MP Naomi Long and her party generally. Long took DUP leader Peter Robinson’s seat at the last British general election. A sore point. read full story / add a comment

Abortion Rights Campaign established in Dublin today, 19/01/20130

At a national pro-choice meeting in Dublin today, the name and aims of the newly established Abortion Rights Campaign were announced. Groups and individuals from across the country, including Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Belfast came together to discuss and agree the next steps for the movement.

The aims of the campaign include legislation on the X & C cases and repeal of the 8th amendment to the Irish constitution. Actions and events are being organised across the country over the coming months.

Speakers at the event included Clare Daly TD who said, “The Abortion Rights Campaign is not a sprint, it's a marathon and we're here for the long haul. In the meantime, we want the immediate introduction of legislation for the right to safe, legal abortion when a woman's life is at risk, including from suicide. We also want the simplest, broadest legislation that includes the right to abortion in the case of fatal foetal abnormality. We will keep the pressure on until we get this." read full story / add a comment