Direct Democracy Ireland and Constitutional Politics.

A newly established political organisation, Direct Democracy Ireland, have been travelling up and down the country holding public meetings, recruiting new members and establishing new branches.

Who are this organisation? Where did they come from? What are their goals? Can a new constitution bring us the change we need? These are some things that I want to explore in this post.

Direct Democracy Ireland (DDI) is one of the many new political groups that have sprung up since the beginning of the crisis. It is extremely positive to see so many people question conventional, establishment politics, getting active and forming new groups. DDI launched as a political party in November of last year at a press conference in Buswells Hotel with about 200 people in attendance. They claim to have 450 members and now have 1,663 likes on their Facebook page.

So given the size, growth and activity of DDI I feel they are worth looking at in some detail. I will not discuss their polices in any great way, anyone can check them out on their website.

UCD EggGate.

A look into the series of events that led to three students being reprimanded over attempting to egg Enda Kenny.

On the 29th of November last year University College Dublin hosted the official opening of the college's new Student Centre. A wonderful new student facility paid for by students through a student centre levy of €250 in addition to the registration fee. The event was attended by students involved in student societies and sports clubs as well as staff at the new centre, the university authorities, student union officers and Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

The Nature of Irish Student Politics.

Ireland's largest student union, University College Dublin Students' Union, is facing a referendum on affiliation to the Union of Students in Ireland. The call for disaffiliation is becoming extremely popular and increasingly hard to challenge. The old mantra of 'united we stand divided we fall' seems to fall on deaf ears as people do not see or believe in the USI tagline "together we're stonger". This has led a number of people to discuss the very nature of student politics, apathy and engagement. This post is an attempt to stimulate debate about the nature of Irish student politics.

OilWatch Day School - Save Our Seafront.

Today Save Our Seafront Dun Laoghaire hosted a day school on the issue of oil, oil rigs and all the environmental concerns, legalities and technicalities that go with oil exploration and rigging by large multinational corporations.

50 people gathered in the Kingston Hotel in Dun Laoghaire to learn the issues and discuss a campaign plan for challenging the Minister for the Environment and Tony O' Reilly's company Providence in their plan to explore for oil in Dublin Bay just off the coast of Dalkey.

Dun Laoghaire's premiere pizza spot.

This machine can make a pizza in 3minutes. There are two tables and chairs and Dun Laoghaire shopping centre advertise it as a restaurant.

Guns Kill People.

Washington Post Journalist Todd Lindeman has compiled this graph to illustrate violent deaths in America by age and cause. The results are shocking. I don't know how the vast majority of people don't see through the NRA. It explains a lot about the power of lobby groups like them in America.

Continued State Prejudice: The Irish Travelling Community.

Wrote this a while ago for www.swp.ie 

In this article I want to examine the development of the state’s attitude towards the Irish Travelling Community and by doing that look at the relationship between settled and travelling communities.

Much like anti-working class discrimination, Traveller discrimination seems to be an acceptable form of prejudice in modern Ireland. In everyday society words like ‘tinker’ or ‘pikey’ seem to be thrown around as if there is nothing wrong with these sweeping insults. In Dublin city centre it is a common thing for pubs and clubs to refuse to serve travellers and people are often asked to leave