Brian Greene

So the Royal Navy are not off the Irish coast protecting Royal Dutch Shell, they are going to sink us, but nationalist Fianna Fail won’t let them do it, Fianna Fail will sink us first.

never offended by Alf.

Eleanor McEvoy – Precious Little on MUZU.

“Shake your beads out
Join your hands
That still won’t make you right
Those so-called sinners that you’re praying for
Are standing by your side”

(eleanor mcevoy © 1994 Blue Dandelion Publishing)

Final election appeal of Joe Higgins – a fighter for workers, young people and the unemployed.

Joe Higgins is standing for the Dublin Constituency in the Euro Elections to be held on Friday, June 5th, to give people throughout Dublin an opportunity to strike a real blow against this governments attacks on working people.

Joe is well known as a fighter for working people for the last thirty years, and as being the real opposition when in the Dail from 1997 to 2007. Now more than ever we need to elect fighters like Joe.

Two key reasons to vote Joe Higgins No. 1
- Wipe out Fianna Fail, & strike a blow against the entire political establishment
- Elect a a real fighter for working people – a workers’ MEP on a workers’ wage who will lead the fightback

For more check out:
http://www.joehiggins.eu/ideas

On 10th November 2008, it will be exactly two years since the cruel assassination of Nadarajah Raviraj, a Tamil politician and human rights activist. No one has been brought to justice for his murder. In the spirit of citizens’ journalism, unionblackcolombo remembers his friend.

thanks to http://pact.lk for the link.

Stream videos at Ustream

After tonight the next Leviathan is:
“Moral Money: The Future of Capitalism?” hosted by David McWilliams
Wednesday December 10th, 8pm, The Button Factory.
Tickets €15 + booking fee from Tickets.ie

Back in January Socialist Party local representative in Malahide-Howth Brian Greene battled to save the zoning of the old Edros site in Howth as the County Manager and the local councillors tried to push through a material contravention and allow for the building of 60+ apartments on amenity lands. The developer & council succeeded and granted planning permission despite the objections of locals & the socialist party councillors on the council. The despicable material contravention was supported by all the main parties including the 3 local councillors David Healy (GP) Joan Maher (FG) Michael J Cosgrave
(FG).

Brian Greene Socialist Party

Nine months later (29/09) An Bord Pleanala REFUSED the permission that was granted by Fingal County Council. The Board agreed with their inspectors report, and numerous local objections and the Socialist Party position re material contravention.

The report from the board and local objections mention the run down state of the disused site and queries why the council has FAILED to act using its power under the Derelict Sites Act 1990 to force the owner to clean the site. Neither the community of Howth nor the Board are fooled by planned dereliction. The report also disagrees with the material contravention, ruling that the Open Space zoning that the site enjoys must not be built on along the lines of the planning application it refused. The inspector says in the report “In my opinion a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) would receive strong support, given that use for recreation / open space / amenity purposes is in accordance with the zoning objectives in the adopted Development Plan”. This material contravention and wholesale destruction of a community amenity in Howth has been led by the current & out going county managers and local councillors. Questions will be asked to the Manager in the coming weeks about this.

Residents of Howth must seize this opportunity to reclaim this site which was gifted to them, only to be sold to a developer by the council after the sports centre ran into difficulties. 100’s of Howth
residents had paid into the scheme over the years and all the benefits were returning to a local property developer. I will be calling on Fingal to CPO this land back from the developer at current zoning values and putting in place some of the excellent community facilities at the site that were suggested in a previous survey the community undertook.

Older Edros articles by brian greene / local press [article 1] [article 2] [article 3]

march 2003 protest at the Edros site