Dublin's much loved Moore St. market, one of the most organically diverse, culturally & historically layered streets remaining in Dublin city centre is under serious threat of extinction from a €500 million multi-story commercial development. Plans are soon due to be fully unveiled to the public.

Take a walk along Moore Street and one will notice the disappearance of the many ethnic businesses which have enlivened the street over the past several years having recently been served eviction notices. The beginning of a process which may eradicate and at best sterilise the Moore Street market.

The developer behind the Dundrum shopping centre has in the past few years bought most of the property in an area encompassing Henry Street to Parnell Street in the north/south direction and O'Connell Street to Moore Street in the east/west direction. Most of the buildings are to be demolished to make way for a glorified shopping centre to include two canopied multi-storey shopping streets.

Related Links: Public Meeting - Save Moore St | Save 16 Moore St | Victory for 16 Moore St. Campaign | Alive Alive O- moore street screening | James Connolly's Grandson In Fresh Call To Save 16 Moore Street| Through streets broad & narrow: crying five for 50, and ten for a pound. The end of Moore Street?

As Seomra Spraoi prepares for the official launch of its big new social centre off Capel St in Dublin this weekend, we look at how far the project has come since the collective formed three years ago.

"So, in a year or two will someone be able to come to Dublin and make a documentary about an autonomous social centre here? Or will fundraiser gigs, political meetings and workshops always have to take place in Teachers Clubs or the upstairs rooms of pubs? ... Will there be somewhere indoors to go after street parties?"

These were the opening lines of the first Indymedia article published by or about the Seomra Spraoi collective, on December 1st, 2004. The collective had been formed just a few weeks before, with the aim of creating a space in Dublin to emulate the autonomous social centres of other European cities. The article was written to publicise Seomra Spraoi's first event, a screening of films about European social centres, followed by a social at the Nicholas of Myra parish hall off Francis Street. The headline was "Give us some space!" and the article included such chin-stroking lines as: "Many questions have to be answered on the long road to establishing a social centre in Dublin."

Related Links: Grassroots Gathering Follow Up Meeting | Three Minutes of Infamy: An Intro to the Groups Using The Space | Give Us Some Space: An Intro To The Initiative | The Seomra Spraoi Blog | Seomra Spraoi's Carfree Day Scavenger Hunt/Launch Weekend | Trad Music Night to Launch Seomra Spraoi | 3rd time lucky for community garden in Dublin 8 | Photos of Seomra Spraoi's final weekend at Ormond Quay | Seomra On Myspace | Totally Dublin Article About Seomra Sproai | Sunday Tribune Article About Seomra Sproai

Choice Ireland staged a protest outside the Women’s Resource Centre, a rogue pregnancy counselling agency on 50 Upper Dorset Street on Saturday, 18th August 2007. Choice Ireland is a diverse group of Pro-Choice activists campaigning for free, safe and legal abortion services in Ireland.

Rogue crisis pregnancy counselling agencies advertise themselves as providers of legitimate pregnancy counselling services but they are known to use manipulative tactics, provide misleading information and intimidate women. The sole purpose of these agencies is to stop women from travelling outside the State to terminate a pregnancy. When Choice Ireland activists attended this agency, they were told that having an abortion would increase their risk of developing breast cancer, becoming an alcoholic and abusing children. These are blatant lies designed to scare vulnerable women in a crisis pregnancy situation.

Related Links: Choice Ireland Founding Documents · Report of previous protest outside this agency

On Saturday 30th of June, 2007, Choice Ireland held a rally at the Central Bank Plaza at 2pm. The theme of the rally was "Fight for a Woman's Right to Choose". In attendance were Senator David Norris as well as Ivana Bacik and a representative from Doctors for Choice, who spoke on their different experiences of the issue of reproductive rights, as well as the status of the campaign in the light of a recent M-R-B-I poll that presented that a majority of people now support legislating for abortion rights in the Republic of Ireland.

It was a busy Saturday noon, and Dublin's hive-like activity carried on as usual. While tourists, emo/goth teens and shoppers walked around, some people were handing out fliers in order to try and get some last-minutes attendants to the rally which was about to begin. Choice Ireland had been slowly gaining notoriety due to their work during the recent D case, in which a young woman was denied the right to travel for an abortion since she was in the care of the Health Service Executive. Moreover, recent polls commissioned by the Irish Family Planning association show a great change in attitudes to abortion in Ireland. Capturing the mood of those polls, Choice Ireland held a brief leafleting event in front of Dail Eireann on June 27th, with a suitcase or backpack for each Irish woman that, statistically, travels daily for an abortion either to the UK or elsewhere in the European Union.

Related Links: Images and Audio From Previous Rally | Alliance for Choice Calls "D" Case A Tragedy | Teenager Seeking Abortion Challenges HSE | Report of Rally In Support of Miss D | Doctors For Choice Advocate Choice | Founding Documents of Choice Ireland | Revolutionary Anarcha-Feminsit Group Hold Meeting On Choice and Class | A UCD Student Reports On Her Experience with Rogue Clinics | European Court Of Human Rights Turns To Restrictive Irish Abortion Law | Report From Rally At Rogue Information Clinic | Choice Ireland

From the newswire: The Independent Workers’ Union exposed the latest case of the exploitation of migrant workers in the Celtic Tiger Economy. The case concerns seven Chinese females all working for Klean Fit limited located at unit 1, Old River House, Templegoue, Dublin 6 West.

The dispute arises with the owner of the company, Ms. Anita Ryan, who has issued a series of bounced cheques to the workers as wage payment. This now results with the employer owing the workers €11,323.51 between them.

She is also holding on to the workers P45’s which is causing them untold hardship and problems obtaining further employment and claiming social welfare benefits.