Some great news as two Shell to Sea campaigners have prosecutions against them dismissed in relation to the mass trespass and alleged destruction of equipment on Shell’s Corrib site last June. At the time we reported Jim Cusack claiming in the this Sindo that 150,000 worth of damage had been done to Shell machinery during the mass action.
These cases was dismissed on 9th July, 4 other cases were up for further processing and will be transferred to the Circuit court, where there will be the option of a jury trial.
A report on the Shell to Sea site reads
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Extraordinary stuff. The Party that failed to act for 20 years on the X-case legislation wanted emergency legislation rushed through the Dail in 24 hours to facilitate a Garth Brooks concert. The concerts now appear to be all cancelled following an announcement from the promoters but the entire episode shows how politicians found great urgency to act when it came to a populist money making cause that they could not locate anywhere when women’s lives were under threat.
When we hear of ‘400 Israeli airstrikes’ against Gaza we don’t necessarily understand just what a tiny area this constant bombing is happening in. A lot of people are probably thinking its the size of a smallish country like Ireland when in fact as the map below shows its more similar in size to the greater Dublin area.
I’m off on a short (4 city) speaking tour of Norway from next week. It initally expanded out of an intention to go somewhere interesting for the Solstice and Oslo and then the train north being the closest / cheapest way of doing that. When I contacted Motmakt members in Oslo suggesting I do a talk while passing through they suggested turning it into a mini tour and going much further north that I’d originally planned. And I could hardly turn down the opportunity of doing a talk 350km north of the Arctic Circle, in the city of 
Are the Direct Provision Asylum Seeker centres our generations equivalent of the child detention centres of the 1930’s? Some 4,360 people were stuck in this misery at the start of the year. Over 1,600 of these people have been trapped in the system for 5 or more years. Meanwhile those running the centres who are frequently connected to the ruling parties pocketed €62 million in 2012 alone.