The relentless campaign by the US and UK government to silence and torture Julian Assange for the so-called crime of exposing their murderous crimes in Iraq and elsewhere, continues with the first day of the extradition hearing where they plan to stitch him up and send him to the US where they will put him away for the rest of his life.

The farce is that he is being held in prison for breaking bail on another trumped up charge from almost a decade ago and which has long since been dismissed. This is purely a political show trial and a warning to real journalists to shut up and do not dare report on the crimes of the elite and powerful. read full story / add a comment

Climate Case Ireland, brought by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), is a legal challenge to the Irish government’s 2017 National Mitigation Plan, a key plank of the State’s climate policy. FIE argues that the government’s decision to adopt a Plan that allows greenhouse gas emissions to increase by about 10% between 1990 and 2020 (instead of decreasing significantly over this period as the government has accepted is necessary to help avert dangerous climate breakdown) constitutes a violation of citizens’ constitutional and human rights and Ireland’s Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015. read full story / add a comment

A public consultation on a review of sustainable transport policy is set to this Friday 28th Feb at 5:30pm after the deadline was extended.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport said that the review was started after a commitment in the May 2016 Programme for a Partnership Government “to ensure services are sustainable into the future and are meeting the needs of a modern economy”. read full story / add a comment

In the aftermath of the election that cemented their historically poor results of four years ago, Labour leader Brendan Howlin resigned, triggering a leadership race. The race will pit Alan Kelly, the most prominent figure remaining from the 2011-16 cabinet, against Aodhán Ó Ríordáin. read full story / add a comment

General Election 2020 was historic. It was only the second time that the combined vote of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael went below 50%. 2016 was the first, when it dipped just below 50% by 0.2%. However, this time it plunged to just 43.4% — an historic low.

The election unfolded around the desire that emerged from below for “real change” and included the widespread understanding that this could only be achieved by a rejection of Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.

Sinn Féin were the winners, receiving the biggest share of the popular vote at 24.53%, but Fianna Fáil have taken the most seats, as Sinn Féin didn’t stand enough candidates to maximise the full value of its surge in support. read full story / add a comment

The Arts Council today launched their new policy Paying the Artist. This sets out a vision and plan to create change over the period 2020–2022. We, in Visual Artists Ireland, welcome this firm show of support for individual artists, and recognise it as part of the on-going support that the Arts Council has given our work in this area, particularly since our 2011 campaign Ask! Has the Artists Been Paid! which led to the concrete changes that have been building over the years, and impacting all art forms. We want to thank all of the supporters that we have had over the years on this campaign, especially those who worked with us on developing our approach that is aimed to benefit all artists. We are also very grateful to our sister representative organisations, all of whom bring the experiences and realities of their own artists and organisations. Listening to them and learning from them has been truly an amazing experience. We want to thank the Arts Council for their open ear, and thank them for the acknowledgement of our reports such as The Social, Economic & Fiscal Status of the Visual Artist in Ireland, which formed the basis for our campaign, and the role that we and other representative and resource organisations have played during the consultation process and will play into the future roll out and support of this policy area. read full story / add a comment

Who are we?
We are a new group, emerging loosely from the tradition of climate camps. We are building a movement on the island of Ireland to resist climate change and its driving force, capitalism. Capitalism is a system built on oppression and exploitation and it is causing climate and environmental collapse. We target the powerful interests that are causing the climate crisis and profiting from the current economic system. We are organising for the transformation of our communities and world into one based on equality and solidarity. read full story / add a comment

Since 24 till 27 of February the featured event of the ICT industry- the MWC is going to be held in Barcelona. This gathering is arranged by GSMA, one of the most important organization in the world and more powerful than many governments. This year more than hundred thousand of CEOs and businessmen will attend MWC. All of them are ready to pay around the 800 -5000 euros for each access ticket. read full story / add a comment

Pope Francis addressed a small group of Finance Ministers, the head of the IMF and noted economists urging the creation of new global debt and tax policies that can reduce inequality and end poverty. read full story / add a comment

James Coughlan, the Workers’ Party candidate in Cork North Central has accused Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin of trying to sell an impossible dream of home ownership to people on the housing waiting lists which would merely make their situations worst by steering them into the arms of banks and vulture funds. read full story / add a comment

Bill Mitchell, co - author of 'Reclaiming the State – a Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World', will be speaking in Wynne’s Hotel Dublin at a meeting co - sponsored by the People's Movement on February Sat 15th next at 2:00 pm. read full story / add a comment

The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign is asking our members and supporters to make justice for the Palestinian people an issue in the 2020 Irish General Election.

We have produced a short handout with three important issues to raise with canvassers on the doorsteps, or to contact candidates about, and have initiated a campaign asking the candidates to take our three #PalestinePledges in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom, justice and equality. read full story / add a comment

Karen Murphy, ICSH Policy Director, talks to two of our housing association members about the general election on the 8th of February and the central issue of social housing. At the Irish Council for Social Housing, we strongly believe that delivering a fair and affordbale housing system is the cornerstone for a better society and a better Ireland. Karen talks to Brian O'Gorman CEO of Clúid Housing and Tina Donaghy, Director of Development at Fold Housing about 4 key commitments we in the ICSH are seeking from political parties, and the future Programme for Government. read full story / add a comment

This is an important story published on the World Socialist Website and as usual got little coverage in the mainstream media

Today, hundreds of “yellow vests” from France and protesters from other countries across Europe, including Belgium and Britain, are protesting outside Belmarsh maximum security prison in London to demand the freeing of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange. read full story / add a comment

Quentin Tarantino’s new film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is a 2019 comedy-drama set in 1969 Los Angeles and features a large ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. The story centres around veteran actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), star of the 1950s Western television series Bounty Law, and and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Dalton is worried that his career is in decline and is reticent to take advice to travel to Italy to make Spaghetti Westerns. Cliff Booth also struggles to get work in Hollywood due to rumors that he murdered his wife on a boating trip. read full story / add a comment

Release of Biomass Power Station records halted
€474 million in public money depended on Commissioner for Energy Regulator decision

The release of documentation concerning the Commissioner for Energy Regulation’s [CER] decision not to renew a 100% certificate of High Efficiency to Mayo Renewable Power Supply Ltd. for a proposed €255m high-efficiency biomass combined heat and power plant [HE CHP] in Killala, County Mayo was halted at the last moment by the Commissioner for Environmental Information [CEI]. read full story / add a comment

IMF Head Kristalina Georgieva warns of a return of the Great Depression driven by inequality and financial sector instability in a speech delivered at the Peterson Institute of International Economics. read full story / add a comment

Turf cutting on protected raised bogs reported to the European Commission.
22 of Ireland’s 53 protected bogs still being openly cut breaching EU law

Ireland’s failure to protect the 53 bogs designated for protection under the Habitats Directive in 1997 has been reported to Virginijus Sinkevicius, the newly appointed Director General for Environment. [1] read full story / add a comment

The Factory

“And such should childhood ever be,
The fairy well; to bring
To life’s worn, weary memory
The freshness of its spring.

But here the order is reversed,
And infancy, like age,
Knows of existence but its worst,
One dull and darkened page;—”

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon – The Vow of the Peacock and Other Poems (1835)

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Rathkeale, small Limerick town, is first in Ireland to adopt the American Challenge Coin concept to thank 52 of its citizens for making it a better place to be and to encourage others to lend a helping hand. read full story / add a comment