BY MÍCHEÁL Mac DONNCHA

AS the Dáil approaches its summer recess there has been much talk about seismic change in Irish politics. But what has really changed?

A dire Fianna Fáil Government clings to office, propped up by a small party of opportunists (PDs/Greens, ‘Independents’ - tick as appropriate). Fine Gael has one of its periodic fits of the jitters and shoots itself in... Free article

THE Dáil has passed the Civil Partnership Bill, giving same-sex couples the right to legally-binding civil partnerships for the first time from next year.

The vote in Leinster House last night – supported by Sinn Féin TDs as a civil rights issue – was greeted with applause from the public gallery..

The Bill now goes to the Seanad and should be signed into law in the autumn.

ENDS

ST LUKE’S Cancer Hospital should be kept open, Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty has told the Seanad.

He was speaking in the debate on the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill.

Senator Pearse Doherty says Sinn Féin opposes the move against a hospital which has provided a first-class service to cancer patients for many years

He described the Bill as “an attack on the sick”.

ENDS

Saturday 3rd July 2010 from 12.30pm.

Assemble in front of the monument in Jubilee Gardens on London's South Bank (adjacent to the London Eye).

Travel Inn, Jubilee Gardens, London SE1.

http://www.international-brigades.org.uk

THE announcement this week of the highest-ever unemployment figure in the history of the 26-County state and a lack of Government concern will be highlighted on Friday by Ógra Shinn Féin protests at a number of locations.

Ógra Shinn Féin is demanding that the Government initiates a stimulus package to help get people back to work.

Ógra activists will picket the following... Free article

ANGLO IRISH BANK, the newly-nationalised state bank, has incurred the greatest losses by any bank in the entire world.

Sinn Féin spokesperson on Finance Arthur Morgan says it is a sorry indictment of where Government priorities lie and that the biggest losers are the taxpayers. Deputy Morgan also reiterated his call for the financial sector to set up its own rescue fund instead of... Free article

NAOMI CAMPBELL and actress Mia Farrow will be summoned to testify at former Liberian President Charles Taylor's war crimes trial, addressing allegations Taylor gave the supermodel an uncut diamond at a South African reception in 1997, the London-based Guardian newspaper reports.

The International Criminal Court has granted a request by prosecutors to summon Campbell and... Free article

WATER CHARGES proposed by the Fianna Fáil and Green Party administration are more about forcing more taxes on the public rather than conserving water when there is huge waste at source, Sinn Féin has said.

Dublin South Central TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald say the party will mount a vigorous campaign of opposition. The campaign was... Free article

12 noon at Garden of Remembrance, Parnell Square

March to Leinster House, Kildare Street

For more visit http://www.inclusionireland.ie/

Thanks to Mary Lou McDonald of Sinn Féin for the information and the link.

Blowing out your vuvuzela

LET a fanfare of trumpets ring out, for vuvuzelas have been banned from Croke Park.The deafening South African plastic horns that emit an ear-splitting monotone drone like a Fine Gael backbencher after a heavy Sunday lunch will not be heard in the hallowed halls of HQ if the big noises in the GAA have their way. You can buy them in Dublin now but you... Free article