Workers Solidarity Movement

The Court of Appeal has reserved judgement on a legal challenge to the exclusion of women from N. Ireland from NHS abortion services.

Last May Mr Justice King ruled in the High Court that the residence-based exclusion was lawful, despite the fact that people living in the North pay the same amount of taxes as everyone else in the UK and should therefore be entitled to the same services. The case was brought forward by a woman known as A in order to protect her identity and her mother.

Three years ago, A, like many other women from the island of Ireland, had to raise the nearly £900 to avail of an abortion in England.

The National Union Of Journalists (NUJ) has expressed concern over Denis O'Brien silencing of media and the role his control over much of the  media plays in the lack of media opposition.

The NUJ are concerned that the media failure to defend Dáil privilege may shatter public trust. Then more cynical amongst us might think that would be a good thing, for too long media outlets in Ireland have been spoon feeding the population with one side of the news in the service of those with wealth and power. O'Brien is at least doing us the 'favour' of making the control those with power over what can and cannot be reported very obvious.

NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley has warned that faith in the media would be shattered if proprietors and editors did not challenge threats to parliamentary democracy and freedom of expression.

Yesterday, members of the Kildare Palestine Solidarity Campaign carried out a boycott Israeli goods action in Tescos in Newbridge. This fairly straightforward action consists of a group entering the store with a trolley or two and filling them up with all the Israeli goods that they can find and then bringing these to the customer service desk and making a formal complaint to management.

Included in the haul were Israeli produced grapefruit, cosmetic products and baby potatoes which Tescos were asked by activists to cease purchasing and stocking due to the ongoing state of illegal occupation and apartheid in Palestine. This action follows on from the previous one in the same store that took place on Thursday 2nd April 2015.

The saga of Denis O'Brien trying to stop the media reporting on his relationship with IBRC continues this evening. A short while ago a story reporting on what was said about the deal in the Dáil today vanished from the Irish Times website. Our picture is the screen grab of that story.

Last Thursday the local branch of Dunnes stores in Gorey Co. Wexford, closed due to an injunction which was brought upon the store by banning the managing agent for the receiver of Gorey shopping center. The injunction was to close the door which leads directly to the car-park. The effect of the door was that customers bypassed the smaller shops in the shopping mall. Dunnes Stores never asked the management for permission to construct the door; it was a clear breach of the lease.
 

I remember being in a tent at Electric Picnic perhaps 3 years ago when Christy Moore belted out the Pogues 'Thousands are Sailing' to 15,000 very emotional people. For sure there were other sources but a good part of the emotion was the sense that it was all happening again.

In a disgraceful if not unexpected scene the High Court has again taken the side of property speculators and ordered the arrest of the remaining squatters at Grangegorman - 19th May. The judge also imposed a 14-day prison sentence on one of the occupiers who said he had not yet vacated the premises because he wanted time to bring an appeal to the Supreme Court

There were more arrests of water charge campaigners in Dun Laoghaire yesterday (19 May) and two of the four arrested are up in court around now.

Dun Laoghaire court remanded one of the water charge protesters arrested 19th May to Cloverhill prison for a week. An emergency protest called for the 20th blocked the quays and O'Connell St. for an hour in the evening demanding his release.

Stephen Bennett  is a well known water charges activist in Dublin who has been successful in defending himself in numerous cases brought by the Garda. He was remanded after refusing bail conditions that would have denied his freedom to protest in future. These conditions were clearly intended to remove him from the streets.

Taking advantage of the fact that a lot of local water charge groups were not seriously mobilsing for the April 18th march we called a last minute Anarchist Bloc to encourage people to attend via our Dublin radical events from WSM group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/radical.dublin)