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

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

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

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

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

“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

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

A REFUGE in Tallaght which takes in women and children escaping domestic violence and abuse will be forced to close its doors before Christmas due to a total lack of funding from Tusla – The Child & Family Agency. Free article

IN MARCH 2001, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that (under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights) the British Government breached the right to life of people killed by the state during the armed conflict in the North of Ireland due to its failure to carry out proper investigations into their deaths. Premium service article

MARTIN NEESON, a republican political ex-prisoner, has been granted permission by the Belfast High Court to challenge a decision from the Stormont’s Department of Finance and Personnel that he was unsuitable for continued employment as a landscape gardener with conservation volunteers in west Belfast despite performing his duties without incident for the preceding 18 years. Premium service article