Top Issue 1-2024

2 November 2015 Edition

MI5 report – It’s all about elections

2 November 2015

IN trying to understand the recent political outcry and media hysteria following the publication of MI5’s dodgy dossier on paramilitaries, the key questions are who benefits and to what ends. Free article

Spooks spin hearsay as fact

2 November 2015

THE PROSPECT of Sinn Féin becoming part of an Irish Government that would have to be treated by Britain as an equal – and all that would entail in making Westminster accountable for the actions of its agencies, agents and death squads during the modern-day conflict – petrifies the spooks and political mandarins immersed in Britain’s ‘Dirty War’ and propaganda war down the decades. Free article

Denis O’Brien media laps up MI5 spy stories

2 November 2015

THE PUBLICATION of two reports, one by MI5 and the other by An Garda Síochána, into allegations that the IRA Army Council continues to exist were greeted by howls of outrage from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and their allies in Denis O’Brien’s Irish Independent and Newstalk radio who cherry-picked and distorted the claims contained within and swallowed – hook, line and sinker – unsubstantiated claims by a shadowy intelligence agency that was part of the conflict in Ireland. Premium service article

Opportunities for strategic advances should be embraced, not squandered

2 November 2015

IN A PIECE of political context-setting for the next Dáil general election, Taoiseach Enda Kenny recently told a European audience there had been a bloodless coup in Ireland and that the Central Bank Governor had said troops would be deployed around banks to justify his Coalition’s acquiescence with the Troika’s austerity programme. Free article

Sea – Cothromaíocht!

2 November 2015

BHÍ RÍMEÁD agus cathréimeachas le brath sa tSeanad le déanaí nuair a glacadh leis an mBille um Pósadh, a thugann feidhm reachtúil do chinneadh na cosmhuintire cothromaíocht pósadh a bhronnadh ar ghach saoránach. Free article

Declare a housing emergency now

2 November 2015

OVER A YEAR AGO, the veteran housing campaigner Fr Peter McVerry stated that he had never seen the situation as bad as it was then. “We are even, at this stage, beyond crisis,” he said. Free article

Longboat Quay – Avoid a Priory Hall

2 November 2015

WIDESCALE BREACHES of fire safety regulations, a lack of regulatory oversight, residents at risk of being evacuated from their homes, a bill for works running to millions of euros and a local authority failing to live up to its responsibilities – not Priory Hall but Longboat Quay, a 300-unit apartment complex in Dublin’s Docklands. Free article

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Riverwalk Court – Meath’s Longboat Quay

2 November 2015

STATUTORY INSPECTIONS of the 26 apartments and four commercial units at the Riverwalk Court development at Ratoath, County Meath, will give residents there an indication of what their future holds in a complex they know is falling apart and that fails to meet the most basic fire safety standards. Still, for almost seven years now, they have been struggling to get any of the responsible parties or authorities to take any notice. Free article

Fine Gael and Labour crush 1916 Rising holiday

2 November 2015

FINE GAEL AND LABOUR have shot down a proposal by Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh for a ‘Republic Day’ to be celebrated as a public holiday every year on 24 April, the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. Free article

1916 sign goes up in O’Connell Street as Government tries to stop GPO light show

2 November 2015

THE planning and operation of Sinn Féin’s ambitious 2016 programme continues apace with the signage for “Revolution 1916, The Original and Authentic Exhibition” going up on the Ambassador Theatre on Dublin’s O’Connell Street and already attracting huge attention as preparations for staging the exhibition begin onsite. Free article

Will unionist paramilitary initiative deliver?

2 November 2015

“ANY GENUINE MOVE towards disbandment would be positive,” said Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly, responding to the loyalist initiative launched on Tuesday 13 October in Belfast. Spokespersons for the three main unionist death squads – the Ulster Volunteer Force, Ulster Defence Association and Red Hand Commando – unveiled the new Loyalist Communities Council with the stated intentions of tackling criminality and addressing social and educational disadvantage in loyalist communities. Premium service article

Fine Gael/Labour Budget ‘straight from the Fianna Fáil playbook’

2 November 2015

BUDGET 2016 – unveiled by the Fine Gael/Labour Government in the Dáil on 13 October – has been described by Sinn Féin as “straight out of the Fianna Fáil handbook – how to bribe people with their own money”. Free article

Clear potential for changing Ireland

2 November 2015

BEHIND the mask of recovery lies a scarred society which is the legacy of austerity and the bailouts. This is most visible in rising rates of food poverty, over 90,000 on waiting lists for social housing, 1,500 homeless children, patients on hospital trolleys, families torn apart by emigration and, most shamefully, child poverty has doubled to almost 12% – that’s 138,000 children. All this while 40% of all children, 63% of lone parents and 20% of all workers are living in deprivation. Free article


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