The report into the activities of the former Minister, Denis Naughton, on rural broadband is a total whitewash.

Naughton held eighteen meetings, and five dinners with representatives of Granahan McCourt. Minutes of these meetings were not kept and there were often no civil servants present. Yet the company was a bidder for the lucrative broadband contract.

But aside from Naughton’s unusual behaviour, there is an even bigger scandal looming.

Rural broadband was originally supposed to cost some hundreds of millions. But the latest estimate puts that figure at a staggering €3 billion. read full story / add a comment

Council planner ‘unable to do any enforcement files’
Blames 40% reduction in staff

A west Cork County Council’s planner was ‘unable’ to investigate an enforcement complaint ‘due to workload commitments’ as his ‘planning applications have to take priority’. [1]

Publication of internal mails detailing a ‘significant matter’ comes a week after Dr Áine Ryall of UCC called the lack of enforcement of environmental laws ‘a national scandal’ at a recent EU Law Conference. [2] read full story / add a comment

The Patrician Hall Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone Thursday March 22nd. read full story / add a comment

Last August (1990) I was among a delegation from Irish Northern Aid (Noraid), which visited current prisoners in Long Kesh.
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Today the High Court delivered its judgment in the case of Friends of the Irish Environment vs. Fingal County Council.

While dismissing FIE’s challenge to a decision to give Dublin Airport Authority more time to build a third runway at Dublin Airport, the court nevertheless recognised for the first time a constitutional right to environmental protection “that is consistent with the human dignity and well-being of citizens at large’”.

This is the first new constitutional right to be recognised in several decades. read full story / add a comment

State Terrorism In Our Time read full story / add a comment

These are my initial published thoughts on the terrorist attack I and my partner survived and endured 17th August 2017.
Fadó Fadó, long time ago, when many more readers came to this corner of the internet, I published a series of articles in reaction to a terrorist attack on Madrid, the 11th of March 2004. I promoted a simple design back then, to my surprise the idea found traction and was accepted by countless people. i had thought my suggestion was easy to reproduce and helped people express collective mourning, to show publicly their fellowship with a community in shock. My design was a black ribbon, one which was easy to knock up variations upon and print out. I admit the ribbon idea was based on my much younger years when I had worn a green ribbon in support of a complex idea back then : the inclusion of political prisoners in a tentative British Irish peace process. Am I turning some off the provenance? OH talk to me about my youth why not? The idea of a black ribbon took off the weekend of March 11th, 2004, whilst the then government of Spain falsely attributed an attack by Salafists in the ambit of Al Qaeda on Madrid by blaming the Basque armed seperatist group ETA. IT was a few days before a general election. An estimated 80,000 people took to the streets of Spain and the Spanish state and camped out in front of government offices and the offices of the ruling party demanding the truth... I was one... the ribbon was a moment in my life... I never wanted to see it used again In the last hours the city of my home where I have lived almost 20 years has been victim of a long anticipated terrorist attack. Even google now puts a black ribbon. I return to indymedia ireland to indulge POV reflections. read full story / add a comment

Yesterday the city where I live was victim to terrorist attack which has long been anticipated and it would seem prepared for. The attack happened within 600 metres of my home. I pass on foot every day the street which yesterday became a trail of human blood dragged out by a young man turned mass murderer, to be claimed and vaunted later by so-called DAESH/ISIS and then it seems to be a trigger for another simliar attack on a tourist town. You will understand if I come to this text with attitude. I have pointed out many times the soft points in the city where I live & yesterday my wife and another our closest friend were both caught up in on ordeal which lasted hours. There are lessons to learn. These are thus my initial published thoughts on the terrorist attack I and my partner survived and endured 17th August 2017 & are party to the words I am writing and publishing now in various languages. There are lessons to learn & I feel it my duty to point out a few. Especially since a meme idea I promoted lots perhaps thought up if i can remember correctly is the go to for societal collective fetishized memorial glyph. I never wanted to see black ribbons again. But they do come back & they will. read full story / add a comment

This is opinion & analysis piece comes from Integrity Ireland who are attempting to fight corruption in the legal system and face an uphill struggle in their task and this piece illustrates well what they are up against.
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Well, it has been an interesting few weeks again, with reports of increasingly odd and bizarre ‘developments’ – especially regarding decisions being made by Gardaí, by Courts Service Staff and by senior personnel at the DPP’s Office. read full story / add a comment

To help highlight the case of the Jobstown 18 we are republishing an open letter by Irish Writers.

We write as writers concerned with the impact of proposed jury restrictions in the case of the Jobstown 18 on freedom of expression in Ireland. read full story / add a comment

March for Justice for Jobstown Not Guilty tomorrow, ahead of the trial which starts next week. 1pm at Central Bank Dame St in Dublin. Please watch this information clip, share and join the protest tomorrow. read full story / add a comment

With the Greyhound Industry Bill due before the Oireachtas in the coming weeks, legislators need to be lobbied to ensure that any greyhound owner or trainer convicted of “blooding” greyhounds be banned FOR LIFE from access to, or ownership of, animals of any kind.

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Protest At Pro-Cathedral Over Tuam Death Camp

The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has faced scandals before but nothing compares to the Mass Graves at Tuam and other locations. read full story / add a comment

Garda Maurice McCabe was an honest Garda who was horrified by the way that ‘respected’ and well connected people got their penalty points written off.

When he reported this practice, he was immediately ostracised. Senior officials saw him as a dangerous outsider who was upsetting local networks of privilege. Far from being ground down, Maurice McCabe started to look at other malpractices.

He blew the whistle on how Gardai in the Cavan –Monaghan area deliberately reduced a charge against Gerard McGrath who had viciously assaulted a female taxi driver. read full story / add a comment

There is more than a whiff of corruption arising from NAMA. The most obvious case has already been highlighted with Project Eagle in Northern Ireland.

Here a giant US company Cerberus paid a €7 million fixer fee to secure assets originally worth €6.5 billion for just €1.34 billion. Even though Michael Noonan was informed that another company had withdrawn from the bidding after it was asked for a ‘fixer fee’, he still allowed the sale to go ahead.

The main fixer was Frank Cushnihan, a well connected insider among the Northern political elite. It is alleged that Peter Robinson and his son Garret stood to benefit from this fee. Astoundingly, Cushnihan was also acting as an advisor for 58% of NAMA’s Northern debtors. read full story / add a comment

In the months leading up to the Olympics there was a clear political campaign to kick Russia out of the Olympics and this was all part of the broader strategy to make Russia the number one enemy of the West and to restart a new Cold War which the USA has managed to more or less achieve.

However it was surely obvious to anyone who follows sport that there are plenty of others taking drugs and nobody is squeaky clean. Therefore it comes as no surprise to discover the US athletes were taking drugs but what does come as a surprise is the influence of the global US machine on the likes of bodies such as World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) who seem to have one set of rules for some countries and allows them to take drugs with "doctor's note" and other rules for other countries where no such exemptions or rather turning of a blind eye are allowed.

All of this has come to light as a result of recent hacking of WADA. Naturally it is blamed on the Russians. Whether it is or isn't is in material. What matters is what was found and blaming the hackers whoever they are, is simply away to distract from the issue. read full story / add a comment

On Sept 6th - Tuesday in Castlebar District Court, latest hearing in the State’s attempt to criminally prosecute two prominent I-I members for speaking up in Court when a judge, aided and abetted by others in the pay of the State, broke just about every rule in the book! read full story / add a comment

We will assemble outside SuperValu Car Park in Westport town at 11am on Sunday 4th September.

Judge Seamus Hughes had a total of six penalty points wiped from his driver’s licence on three separate occasions between 2011 and 2012, Phoenix Magazine claims.

The Wesport native, who is also a former Fianna Fail TD, clocked up the first offence on March 28 2011, shortly after taking over from retired judge, John Neilan in District Number Nine. read full story / add a comment

Dormit in Pace
2013:

Sitting in the cells beneath one of our country’s circuit courts, my travel-weary eyes settle briefly on my hands. Their stillness and my stoic-like composure belie my internal turmoil.

I cast a cold eye over my surroundings - stale urine and solid waste regurgitated from a steel toilet lays siege to the senses. Cigarette butts litter the floor; confetti of condemned men. Crude misspelt graffiti bears mute testimony to the length of their sentences and the shortness of their education. A reasonable inference using the inverse square law - my maths teacher would be proud. read full story / add a comment

Background to the internment of Tony Taylor

On 6th March 2014, after almost three years on remand in Maghaberry prison, Tony Taylor was convicted and sentenced to seven years - three in custody and four on license - for Republican activity. Tony was also given a lengthy sentence in the early nineties after being injured in an explosion in his native Derry.
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