After the fall of the Assad regime, Minister Helen McEntee announced that Ireland will pause making final decisions on asylum applications from Syrian people.  While the fall of the Assad regime has been welcomed as a victory for the people of Syria, it has also left a power vacuum in the country and many Syrians have good reason to seek safety abroad. It’s still unclear how Syria will be governed and by whom. In addition to this, the country is being heavily bombed by the Israeli army. Minister McEntee's decision to pause asylum applications will cause huge stress and uncertainty for Syrian people who have made Ireland their home. We are urging Minister McEntee to immediately reverse this decision and start processing Syrian people's asylum applications once more.

During the early hours of New's Years Day 2024, two young men, Eamon and Evan Murphy attacked an asylum centre in Kerry. Carrying a can of petrol and having kicked in the door they were prevented from causing further damage by an on-duty security guard. Despite having earlier been informed by Judge David Water that they faced jail sentences, and his finding that they clearly intended to set fire to the building with people inside, neither will now face jail time.  When it came to sentencing Eamon Murphy received only a four month suspended sentence, with Evan Murphy not even receiving a criminal conviction. This sentencing sends entirely the wrong message to those who might consider causing the most serious harm to people who seek asylum in this country. https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/the-kerryman-north-kerry/20240731/281552296126306 https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2024/1217/1487053-killarney-centre-attack/

The Central Bank of Ireland is still selling Israeli bonds, despite the state's ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. Israel is marketing these bonds as a means to support its onslaught in Gaza. The Central Bank says it can't stop selling these bonds unless the Irish government puts sanctions in place that prevent it from doing so.  Together, we are calling on Micheál Martin and Simon Harris to impose immediate sanctions on Israel that would stop the Central Bank from selling these bonds once and for all. 

They are an honest mother (Nadia Jacobs) and her two children (Amy Gloria and Gabriel Jacobs) seeking asylum in Ireland from South Africa, where she was unable to gain employment due to the local laws of the country, and due to discrimination of both race and gender.  South Africa is not a safe country to live in, the crime is extremely high, corruption is rife everywhere,  Without employment one is not able to provide for your family, as a single mother of mixed heritage- South African and Portuguese, she chose to come to Ireland where she has distant roots but also due to language, her children do not speak Portuguese however are fluent in English 

Palestinians are at high risk from ongoing genocidal assault and brutal occupation by Israel

Why is the man credited with the first colonial voyage to the present day Americas, and the subsequent genocide of the Indigenous people celebrated in this city and on this island?  It is time that this monument is removed and replaced with a piece of art that reflects a meaningful historic connection that the people of Galway have with the Americas.  This statue sits on public land in the centre of the city, and so it must represent a part of our story or cultural heritage. The statue seemingly commemorates a voyage that Columbus may have taken to Galway in 1477, though the evidence of when (and if) this trip took place is limited.  The sculpture was commissioned by Columbus's hometown of Genoa in 1992 to commemorate the 500 years since Columbus set sail across the Atlantic, initiating the genocidal conquest of the Americas and the attempted erasure of ancient cultures that were at home there for thousands of years when Columbus seemingly 'discovered' it.  Furthermore, Galway stands with the Indigenous people of the Americas, as we stand with the people of Palestine who are today experiencing the same settler colonial ethnic cleansing by Israel and supported by their Western allies.  It is time that this sculpture which sits on public land is removed and replaced with something that has historic meaning for the people of Galway.

Najwa Elsabbgh is 74 and is trapped in Northern Gaza. We demand that her name gets added to a list of adults and children who are due to be evacuated to Ireland in the coming weeks.   Najwa was granted a visa in February 2024 to come live in Ireland with her daughter Sherin Alsabbagh, an Irish citizen since 2022. Najwa has the approval from Israel to leave Gaza. To neglect to evacuate Najwa during this critical opportunity would be an abandonment of the Irish Government's obligation to protect its citizens and their immediate families.    After being displaced more than 11 times, Najwa is back hiding in her home near Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s biggest medical facility, which has been destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since October 7th, 2023. The IDF besieged the hospital in March and destroyed numerous surrounding neighborhoods, leaving Najwa’s own home partly destroyed after a deliberate tank shelling. Neighbors across the street were killed and they remain buried under the rubble.   Despite Sherin's repeated pleas, Najwa is still trapped in Gaza; the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish government have so far failed to provide a safe exit for her. It has now become a matter of extreme urgency for the Irish Government to act, as Najwa's health is in rapid decline after enduring a year of hardship under constant bombardments, starvation, sickness and repeated displacement. Najwa’s back and knees are bad from fleeing in panic over broken roads and dead bodies. She is weak from the lack of food and water.    Every single person in Gaza means the world to their family, they are not merely numbers. Sherin fears she will not see her mother again. Time is against her, with the ramping up of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, its intensity shows no signs of diminishing.   Najwa has already lost nearly 200 members of her close and extended family, her health is in decline. She has all her papers in order and has the legal right to be reunited with her daughter in Ireland. Put Najwa’s name on the evacuation list!  

Only by mobilising working people on housing can we build a movement for housing with more power than the landlords, developers and vulture funds.

Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. At least 40,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces, and many more have been left with life-altering injuries. Now, The Ditch has revealed that three Israeli planes have flown over Ireland this year alone, transporting more than 24 tonnes of weapons for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). We demand that Minister for Defence Micheál Martin and Taoiseach Simon Harris act now to make sure that no more planes are allowed to transport Israeli weapons in Irish airspace. The people of Ireland want nothing to do with Israel's genocidal attack on Gaza, and we must stand up for what is right. Ireland has an obligation under the Genocide Convention to ensure that we are not complicit in assisting the crime of genocide. This would include preventing use of Irish airspace to transport weapons.

Since May Waterways Ireland has erected steel fences all along the Grand Canal. Waterways Ireland's antisocial management of our canals, and the government's inhumane treatment of Dublin's homeless and homeless asylum seekers must be opposed. The erection of steel fencing along the Grand Canal this year is an escalation in a long-term policy of Waterways Ireland to prioritise anti-homeless action and infrastructure over their role in restoring, developing, and pinoting Ireland's waterways. These fences are more than physical barriers; they represent the deliberate exclusion of certain groups from public spaces and, by extension, from society. This exclusion is part of a broader pattern within our economic and political system that prioritises the interests of capital over those of ordinary citizens. The current actions of Waterways Ireland, including the erection of these barriers, disproportionately affect vulnerable groups such as asylum seekers, the homeless population, and working-class people. Public spaces are meant to be inclusive areas that foster community and provide safe havens for all, However, the recent actions by Waterways Ireland have turned these spaces into sites of exclusion and hostility. The fences have an estimated cost of €30,000 a week and its maintenance assumed to continue up to October could cost as much as €390,000. This money could be better spent addressing the housing crisis by providing real solutions and support for those in need. These barriers are tools of division and exclusion. They are being used to weaponize the immigration issue in Ireland, particularly to divide working-class communities that are already suffering from the deliberate degradation of social services, including public housing, healthcare, and education. Instead of listening to our calls for a humane and constructive solution to this disgraceful situation Waterways Ireland has instead referred to it as not ideal' and has called for 'restraint’. They have refused to engage in dialogue while simultaneously claiming a commitment to “actively involving communities in the stewardship of these vital resources”. The lack of communication, transparency and accountability can go on no longer. We as residents are speaking up.  We demand 1. Remove fencing on the Grand Canal 2. No more hostile architecture  3. Stop evicting refugees and Irish people  4. Secure accommodation, tenancy rights and right to union representation through the Community Action Tenants Union for everyone homeless, in temporary, IPAS and emergency accommodation

Having an Irish passport is something we are suppsed to be proud of.  It is not supposed to be a travel pass for racists to move between countries to flee from their local police forces when they are being sought to answer for the consequences of their actions. To quote the Imelda May poem. "You don't get to be racist and Irish".

No matter who we are or where we come from, all any of us want is to protect and take care of our families. Being evicted from the only shelter we have is cruel and heartless.