The Bord na Móna (BNM) Group of Unions has stated its support for an ESB decision to maintain a supply agreement with the company for peat to fuel its power stations in Shannonbridge, County Offaly, and Lough Ree, County Longford, after 2019.  

The union’s ‘Yes Equality’ campaign for marriage equality was endorsed by the SIPTU West Cork District Council at a meeting in the Parkway Hotel, Dunmanway, County Cork, on Tuesday, 21st April.

Kathleen Funchion is the Sinn Féin candidate. She is 33 years old and has two young sons. Kathleen was elected to Kilkenny Borough Council in 2009. Kathleen is a workers rights advocate with SIPTU. READ MORE.

Willie Quinn is the Labour Party candidate. He has been a county councillor since 2007. He is married with two grown up children. From Borris, County Carlow, Willie has been active in his local GAA club and the community games. READ MORE.

In this week’s article, Alexis Stenfors focuses on the dynamics of the ‘Swedish model’ in 2015. Stenfors argues that today we are slowly witnessing the deconstruction of the old ‘Swedish model’ and a new element appears “to have cemented the belief that Sweden truly has changed: the rise of the Sweden Democrats.”   

By Jack O'Connor

Our public infrastructure has been severely damaged by six years of one-sided austerity. Approximately €30 billion has been taken out of the State budget in the effort to cut the gap between revenue and spending. This was implemented on the basis that for every euro by which tax was increased, public spending was cut by two.

A debate on the role of solidarity, 100 years after his Putumayo (Colombia) report

On Tuesday 28th April a public meeting organised by the Dublin-based solidarity with Colombia initiative ‘Grupo Raices (Grúpa Fréamhacha)’ was held in the Pearse Centre on the legacy of Roger Casement and the internationalist dimension of his work in South America. Better known for his denunciation of the atrocities committed in Congo by the Belgian administration, Casement also spent time in the Amazon, in the Putumayo region, shared between Peru, Colombia and Brazil, where he denounced the slavery and appalling mistreatment of the native population by the rubber barons.  

Dear Editor,

Belfast City Council is poised to invest £105 million in new leisure facilities across Belfast including a new £20 million facility in Andersonstown and a new £10 million facility in Twinbrook.  

Dear Editor,

Dunnes Stores management should be aware that customers (and I am one of them) who are in the store on a daily basis, are extremely unhappy with the attitude of Dunnes Stores’ head office management, particularly in not recognising trade unions and in refusing any discussions with their work force.