State faces further legal challenge to Shannon LNG terminal
Fracked gas as ‘Projects of Common Interest’ challenged

The State has been warned that it cannot approve the proposed Shannon LNG terminal as a ‘Project of Common Interest’ [PCI] without undergoing a Strategic Environmental Assessment [SEA] and a period of public consultation.

PCIs are key cross border infrastructure projects that link the energy systems of EU countries. They are intended to help the EU achieve its energy policy and the long-term decarbonisation of the economy in accordance with the Paris Agreement. read full story / add a comment

After a year-long debate within the Socialist Party, we have decided to leave and to establish a new democratic socialist political group, RISE. The four letters of RISE give a picture of the politics we stand for: Radical, Internationalist, Socialist and Environmentalist. read full story / add a comment

Washington DC - A bipartisan group of Senators introduced the "Improving Laundering Laws and Increasing Comprehensive Information Tracking of Criminal Activity in Shell Holdings (ILLICIT CASH) Act" to stop the creation of shell corporations in the United States. read full story / add a comment

The International Monetary Fund announces that World Bank CEO and Bulgarian environmental economist, Kristalina Georgieva, will become the Fund's new Managing Director. read full story / add a comment

Today’s initial half day strike action by teacher members of UNITE at the Delfin English Language school on Parnell Square for union recognition and improvements in conditions is the culmination of a long organising campaign. Michael O’Brien speaks to one of the strikers to find out what it is all about. read full story / add a comment

This blog entry from 16th Sept on the ShannonWatch.org website is reproduced here because while it might seem old news one week late, it will in fact be news to a lot of people since the mainstream just don't cover this, certainly not from the side of peace perspective.

The following was written by Veteran for Peace activist Tarak Kauff who is currently being refused permission to leave Ireland. He is accused of minor offenses linked to the attempt he and Ken MAyers made to inspect a US contracted military plane at Shannon Airport. read full story / add a comment

In the High Court today, Justice Garrett Simons granted Friends of the Irish Environment's application for a judicial review striking down regulations made by Ministers Eoghan Murphy and Richard Bruton in January which exempted industrial peat extraction from the planning system and granted them a period of unlicensed operation in the EPA licensing system. The Court found that the regulations were in breach of EU environmental law and were outside the powers of the Ministers who made them. read full story / add a comment

Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the first winter workshop organised by Cooley Environmental and Health Group. Next year's winter workshop is the 20th in a series dating back to the beginning of the Millennium. The workshop is slated for 25 January 2020 at 14:00 in The Strand Hotel, Omeath, Co. Louth. The title of the workshop provisionally is, "The Environment and Health 20 Years On." read full story / add a comment

The case is made for the provision of free public transport in every major town and city worldwide for a multitude of reasons. It has always been a good idea and should have been done a long time ago, but now with three major issues of our time; resource depletion, including oil, pollution and the climate crisis; they make it imperative that we move to such a system, both to conserve dwindling supplies of cheap energy, to reduce the use of vast mineral resources to make hundreds of millions of cars and to dramatically reduce our carbon emissions because climate change is happening faster than expected. The Earth's climate has turned out to be more sensitive and complex than anticipated as evidenced by the recent dramatic record breaking summer ice melts in the Arctic1 in 2007, 2008, 2012 and basically every year since then. With such a large change in the albedo or reflectivity over a huge area of the Arctic, this signifies the jump into positive feedback of the climate system, although it is not the only positive feedback. Combined with preliminary reports that frozen methane is beginning to be released from the Arctic sea floor and tundra and given that methane is 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas, it is clear we are probably at the point of things running out of control. Emissions need to be cut drastically, starting about 20 years ago. read full story / add a comment

Saudi Arabia has just now begged Iran for gasoline after the sudden cut of Saudi domestic supplies due to the new Yemeni drone attacks on Saudi major oil facilities on Tuesday.Saudi was once the world's largest crude oil exporter read full story / add a comment

Reject your "idolatrous economic model," were the words Pope Francis addressed Mauritius' political leaders with on Monday. read full story / add a comment

High Court refers case to Court of Justice of the EU over Irish Courts Service’s refusal to provide public access to litigation documents

Crucial point of transparency law will be determined by Court of Justice

A challenge regarding the Courts Service’s refusal to provide public access to litigation documents relating to a High Court environmental case that concluded in 2016 has been referred to the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg. read full story / add a comment

Focus Ireland has launched a new hard-hitting campaign to highlight the trauma that the deepening homelessness crisis is causing to nearly 4,000 children in Ireland.

The emotive campaign projects images of children who are homeless on to a number of landmark buildings in Dublin* to highlight homelessness and Focus Ireland’s 4 point plan to end the crisis.

The charity is running an innovative outdoor projection campaign to shine the spotlight on the growing crisis as the number of children homeless has shot up by a shocking 356% in five years (From 828 children homeless in Sept 2014 to 3778 in July 2019* ) read full story / add a comment

The pattern of history points to another global, catastrophic conflict*. For a third time in a hundred years imperial government are about to plunge us into total war: this time nuclear war, for the old reason – power. read full story / add a comment

DemocraciaAbierta has seen a PowerPoint presentation that shows that Bolsonaro’s government intends to use hate speech to isolate minorities of the Amazon.

Leaked documents show that Jair Bolsonaro's government intends to use the Brazilian president's hate speech to isolate minorities living in the Amazon region. The PowerPoint slides, which democraciaAbierta has seen, also reveal plans to implement predatory projects that could have a devastating environmental impact. read full story / add a comment

Kenmare River mussel expansion will damage biodiversity
New Government Report ( https://www.npws.ie/publications/article-17-reports/article-17-reports-2019 ) to EU records damage from mussel longline cultivation in West cork.

A report released this week from Ireland to the EU detailing damage done to valuable protected habitats in Ireland through mussel line cultivation has been cited in an objection to new 3 km long mussel longlines proposed for the Kenmare River, a Special Area of Conservation Natura 2000 Site. read full story / add a comment

Shannonwatch are calling for an immediate review of the safety standards applied to US military and military contracted planes at Shannon Airport. A fire on an Omni Air International troop carrier brought the airport to a standstill on Thursday August 15th. This once again highlights the dangers posed by daily military traffic at a civilian airport like Shannon.

The troop carrier, which is reported to be carrying approximately 150 troops, was on its way to the Middle East. It had arrived earlier from Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma USA. read full story / add a comment

With the release of first round CAO offers this week and the new academic year quickly approaching, tens of thousands of students across the country are beginning the search for a place to live. Against the backdrop of the housing crisis, this search has become a punishing and demoralising experience for many students – campus beds are limited in number, private rents are extortionately high and conditions are often cramped or otherwise inadequate. The lack of quality affordable student accommodation has been a serious problem for a number of years now but each year the scale of crisis grows. In 2015, a Higher Education Authority (HEA) report revealed a shortage of 25,000 student beds nationally whilst also predicting an additional 25-30,000 full time students by 2024. read full story / add a comment

As we draw towards the end of the hottest summer on record, the effects of climate change are becoming rapidly more evident. From the uncontrollable fires in the Arctic circle to the devastating floods in Kathmandu, from the rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet to the scorching heat waves being experienced around the world, it is clear that a climate emergency is no longer a future catastrophe to guard against but a reality that must be faced up to right now. read full story / add a comment

Richard Boyd Barrett TD has said he and People Before Profit are fully behind the protests by the Beef Plan movement over the last number of weeks and says the protests will be a key factor in winning a victory for small farmers in Ireland.

Talks between representatives from the Irish Farmers Association, Meat Industry Ireland, the Beef Plan movement and Bord Bia began yesterday at the Department of Agriculture and Boyd Barrett says these talks have been forced by the determination of the Beef Plan farmers. read full story / add a comment