International Parental Child Abduction is not a new trend as globalization bring people into a social setting normally not experienced in previous years . Relationships develop of course and love ,children and break ups are also to be expected. The removal of an Irish infant from Ireland is a crime under International law and the Non Fatal Offences Against the person Act under the Irish Statute book. There is also an international agreement called the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Parental Child Abduction which the Irish State signed in 1980.

The issue surrounding this legal instrument outside of the EU is vague with countries such as the USA providing little or no support to victims of this cruel crime and Irish Department of Foreign Affairs complete reluctance to challenge the USA whom citizens are responsible for the abduction of Irish infants born in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

Magaretta D'Arcy, a 79 year old peace activist who is also undergoing cancer treatment was arrested at home in Galway but NOT for bankrupting the country and saddling it with billions of debt, NOT for corruption and other white collar crime, but for the crime of having a conscience and actually caring about her fellow human beings. That's correct. In this country you can destroy it in all sorts of ways and you will be fine as no banker, politician, developer, bond holder or other types of people who have been involved in economically destroying this country, and causing widespread austerity, hardship and misery which in itself has led to many suicides and so forth. None of these people have come before the courts or been jailed. However for the really serious crimes of still having your humanity at 79 and doing something about it instead of shutting up and doing nothing, for these crimes, the state will bring the full force of the law against you and will always find some narrow argument to shut out the wider context of your action, to convict you and get you quickly behind bar. In that way the state quickly ensures that this dangerous contagion doesn't spread and it serves as a lesson to all as to what might happen to them. read full story / add a comment

The series looks at the influence that the industrial dispute had on several different artistic disciplines from Literature and Song to Poetry, Drama and History. read full story / add a comment

On Saturday 14th December 2013 the Stoneybatter & Smithfield People's History Project held a public talk. read full story / add a comment

Why should the Irish in particular care about Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning and want to offer their ongoing support and solidarity as she begins a 35 year jail term in a US military prison?

For one, Manning has Irish roots on both sides of the family. Maternal grandfather Billy Fox was from Rathmines, Dublin and two paternal great-grandparents - both Mannings - were also Irish, from county Cork. An Irish grandfather gives Chelsea the right to claim Irish citizenship and an Irish passport if she so wishes.

For another, Manning passed through Shannon Airport as a US military intelligence analyst en route to Iraq. We have been reminded this week about the ongoing US military use of Shannon (troops, weaponry, rendition flights etc.) by the jailing of 79 year old Margaretta d'Arcy in connection with her protest against these abominations.

What's more, we know something about the impact of resistance at Shannon on both US and Irish governments thanks to US diplomatic cables released by Manning and published by WikiLeaks. One classified cable reveals how negative public perception of Shannon as a warport in the wake of the Pitstop Ploughshares acquittals led to the Irish government placing more restrictions on its military use and how this was forcing the US to reconsider its position. Then US Ambassador to Dublin, James Kenny, wrote: "we would appreciate Washington’s judgment as to whether the process of notification of almost everything of a military nature (including by contract carriers) through Shannon is becoming too difficult to make the airport a preferred transit stop."
http://humanrights.ie/civil-liberties/wikileaks-the-sig...ions/ read full story / add a comment

A colossal pod of 250 plus Bottlenose dolphins including babies, juveniles and one baby albino dolphin is being held captive overnight in the cove right now. It will be a total of 19 hours before they will endure the torture of being ripped from their family and selected for captivity. Those not selected will be slaughtered for human consumption. read full story / add a comment