Shannonwatch are inviting groups and individuals from around Ireland to join them in organising a series of peace events at Shannon Airport on the weekend of October 11th and 12th. The main event of the weekend will be a public demonstration on Sunday 12th at 2pm, calling for an end to the US military use of the airport.

The event is being co-organised and supported by a large number of groups including Shannonwatch, Galway Alliance Against War, the Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA), the Irish Anti-War Movement (IAWM), Afri, and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC). Bus transport is being arranged from Dublin on Sunday 12th and as a result a large turnout is expected (contact details for the bus are given below). ... read full story / add a comment

Press Release - Woodland League

The public amenity forest at Gougane Barra, co Cork has been clear-felled for no good reason. This is
the claim of an internationally renowned Irish tree-scientist and a number of Irish NGOs.
In January 2014, Coillte, the Irish Forestry Board, contended that ‘sudden oak-death’ (Phytophtera
ramorum) had infested the veteran larch trees in the forest and that urgent clear-felling was essential.
Documentary evidence purporting to support this assertion dated July 2013 has been branded tenuous
at best by Diana Beresford-Kroeger the renowned Irish tree-scientist who saw no sign of the disease
while filming in the forest in August of that year. ... read full story / add a comment

Greystones Harbour was opened to the public almost two years ago, in November 2012. The marina opened for summer 2013.

However, despite written agreements and promises from the developer, the commercial fishers of Greystones have been refused access to the harbour and promised berths or moorings have not been offered to us.

We are today entering the harbour and landing freshly caught fish, against regulations, as a protest against this continued exclusion from the harbour, which only two weeks ago included the removal of mooring cleats from the harbour’s north pier in order to prevent boats tying up. ... read full story / add a comment

The filming of scenes for Star Wars: Episode VII began yesterday on Skellig Michael in Co Kerry. Many have expressed outrage at the underhanded way in which this information was kept from the Irish public until a few days ago. The Irish Independent has learnt that when negotiations began over six months ago it was feared if news of the proposed filming leaked out it could attract opposition from conservation groups. Also, At a time when Gaza is suffering a genocide at the hands of the Israeli government, the Irish government has underhandedly permitted Disney, (a company which is on every boycott list of companies which support Israel), who acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4.05 billion (wiki), to come into Ireland and film on one of our most sacred and ancient sites. ... read full story / add a comment

Good Energies Alliance Ireland (GEAI) views the latest developments where preparations for shale gas exploratory drilling has begun in Belcoo as a National, not local issue.

Dr Aedin McLoughlin, Director GEAI, expressed extreme dismay. “Make no mistake about it – any exploratory drilling, with or without hydraulic fracturing, is part of the overall fracking process,” she said. “An exploratory well without hydraulic fracturing leads to more wells with “test fracks”, leading to full fracking as shale gas is extracted. In Belcoo, the first stage is starting, with the industry bleating their mantra, “This is only drilling, it’s not fracking!” When is fracking not fracking? When the industry wants to hide what is obvious – that a good result from this first exploratory well could lead on to more wells and more wells and a full-scale fracking operation with all its environmental and social issues.” ... read full story / add a comment

We are doctors and scientists, who spend our lives developing means to care and protect health and lives. We are also informed people; we teach the ethics of our professions, together with the knowledge and practice of it. We all have worked in and known the situation of Gaza for years.

On the basis of our ethics and practice, we are denouncing what we witness in the aggression of Gaza by Israel. ... read full story / add a comment

In the past week, Israeli military forces have escalated their offensive on the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted houses, civilian-populated areas and civilian facilities in the Gaza strip. Israeli warplanes have destroyed a number of houses while their residents were inside, without any prior warnings, killing and wounding many Palestinian civilians.
... read full story / add a comment

As the death toll in Israel’s latest onslaught on Gaza surpasses 260, actions have been called around Ireland taking place this week and next. It’s important that as many people as possible turn out to show their solidarity with the Palestinians people under attack, their opposition to this latest round of brutal attacks on Gaza, and their anger at political inaction and media misreporting of the issue. ... read full story / add a comment

Yesterday, Wednesday the 4th of June, activists from No Fracking Dublin, Earth First Éire, Shell to Sea, Young Friends of the Earth and other concerned citizens gathered outside the Conrad Hotel on Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2 to protest Ireland's reliance on fossil fuels and the giveaway of natural resources by the state. ... read full story / add a comment

Volume six, issue one of Interface, a peer-reviewed online journal produced and refereed by social movement practitioners and engaged movement researchers, is now out. Interface is open-access (free), global and multilingual. Our overall aim is to "learn from each other's struggles": to develop a dialogue between practitioners and researchers, but also between different social movements, intellectual traditions and national or regional contexts.

... read full story / add a comment

Christian Aid Ireland, Grupo Raíces (Grúpa Fréamhacha), Justice for Colombia Ireland, LASC and Trócaire are calling the Irish Parliament not to ratify an EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement which could probably be voted in June this year.

http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/tds-and-senators-...ombia ... read full story / add a comment

The Shell to Sea campaign is making a fresh call for whistleblowers to come forward to expose malpractice and corruption in the facilitation of the Shell Corrib gas project. The call comes in the wake of the publication of the Guerin report and against the backdrop of the ongoing criminalisation of protest against the imposition of the Corrib gas project in Co. Mayo. ... read full story / add a comment

Today, 29th April 2014, Friends of the Earth launch the Fracking Free Ireland campaign for the local elections. In the run up to polling day to be held on May 23rd, candidates are being asked to take the 'Fracking Free Ireland Pledge' which calls for a commitment to oppose the development of this controversial fossil fuel extraction industry in Ireland. ... read full story / add a comment

In a submission to the National Peatlands Strategy, Friends of the Irish Environment have pointed out that total emissions from our bogs are of the same scale as total emissions from the transport sector.

However, the authors write that ‘the importance of our peatlands for the climate is not correctly acknowledged by the draft Strategy. As a result the draft Strategy fails to integrate with climate change policy and indeed is in conflict with Ireland's obligations under the UNFCCC.’ ... read full story / add a comment

FRIENDS OF THE IRISH ENVIRONMENT - PRESS RELEASE - 20 MARCH 2014

A United Nations Committee has found there is a 'profound suspicion of non-compliance' over the United Kingdom's failure to undertake trans-boundary consultations for the construction of a new nuclear plant in Somerset, England.

The investigation has been undertaken by the Implementation Committee of the United Nations Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context [Espoo]. ... read full story / add a comment

Ahead of tomorrow’s opening of the An Bord Pleanala hearing into the plans for the clean up of the old steel plant’s toxic dump on Haulbowline Island, Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE] has called for the work to be extended to the site of the steel plant itself.

The current proposal is limited to the 9 hectare waste dump on the island.

FIE says numerous reports show that the contamination on the island includes not just the 9 hectare East Tip which is the subject of the license hearing but the 12 hectare site of the steel plant itself which is being ignored. ... read full story / add a comment

The Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes is one of dozens of grassroots tax resistance struggles featured in a new book that is designed to help such campaigns to succeed. ... read full story / add a comment

The Socialist International is deeply moved by the passing of Nelson Mandela, the man who, representing the struggle for freedom of an entire nation, became a symbol for justice, reconciliation and peace for the entire world.
... read full story / add a comment

Latest Connemara fish farm could lead to EU daily fines. Government reported to EU

An environmental group has reported the resumption of fish farming in Kilkiernan Bay on the north shore of Galway Bay to the European Commission.

Friends of the Irish Environment, whose submission in June 2013 is being considered by the Commission as part of the reopening of the investigation into sea lice and salmon, have published the REQUEST FOR IMMEDIATE MEASURES AGAINST IRELAND FOR RENEWED AND UNASSESSED SALMON FARMING IN IRELAND IN KILKIERAN/CILL CHIARÁIN BAY NATURA 2000 SITE on their website.

According to a statement from the group ‘The reopening of these sites in Kilkieran Bay using expired licences is in direct contradiction of the European Court Judgment against Ireland in 2007 and, if sustained, could lead to daily fines against Ireland.’

A 2007 court judgment found that Ireland has not properly assessed aquaculture operations that might impact on protected bird life as this is required even for renewals. The site at Ardmore Point, Kilkieran Bay, was licensed in 2002 without any assessment and abandoned in 2009 because of high sea lice levels and pancreatic disease. The licences expired in 2012.

FIE’s Report alleges that the Government is deeply involved in the renewed operations. ‘The company involved, Bradon Beo Teo., was established with Údarás na Gaelteachta, the State Regional Authority, direct funding of €750,000 in 2012.’ The group has provided an accountant’s report which shows that through direct shareholding and part ownership of other shareholders, the State through Údarás is the effective controller of the Company ... read full story / add a comment

In the wake of Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Simon Coveney's upcoming decision on whether or not to grant the state agency for fishing and aquaculture in Ireland, Bord Iascaigh Mhara, licenses for fish farms in Galway Bay, Slow Food International has reaffirmed its position on intensive fish farms.

Slow Food does not consider open net pen fish farms an environmentally sound practice, Piero Sardo, President of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, confirms. "Open net pen aquaculture is not a solution to the problem of overfishing: It damages natural ecosystems on a local and a global level, including wild stocks, habitats and water quality. Feeding carnivorous salmon in farms means other wild species must also be harvested, resulting in a larger carbon footprint - since the fish feed must be fished, processed and transported". ... read full story / add a comment