*WARNING* Possible wake up call ahead, be prepared to grab the wheel! To all the parents like myself on all the WhatsApp groups, checking the time of GAA training for tomorrow... Recently driving home from work I felt I was nodding off a bit, a product of this modern world, too much on, too much running around, too much technology coming at me, I'm exhausted to be honest! When I got home and after doing the domestic dance of who's making dinner that night, I fell in front of what was my "babysitter" growing up - the TV. At the same time my kids are spread out all over the house in front of their modern "babysitter" - the mobile phone. Why did I get them these devices? Because you got them for your kids, and you got them because I got them for my kids, peer pressure at its worst! The internet is an amazing tool, the reason you are reading this message, but we all know there is the dark side that we don't like to think about, is it a case of modern life has us so tired that we are asleep at the wheel or are we just turning a blind eye? The internet is like a car, difficult to live without one, safe and practical in the hands of an adult, but give a car to a 12-16 year old and it's possibly a form of abuse! Dangerous to the child and dangerous to those around that child! The state has a dark history of child abuse, something you would think would not happen again in our modern society, that we would not let it happen on our watch, however abuse can come in many subtle forms! Are we all guilty of staying quiet like all those cases years ago, choosing the easier path!? The media is awash with the side effects of these devices - social media anxiety, mental health issues, shore attention span, behavioural issues, desensitization to violence, social disruption, sleeping disorders, eating disorders, underage sex, teenage pregnancies, underage sex crimes - the list goes on, it’s some punishment on our kids and on our communities just so they can be "connected" and watch a few dance videos! Even with something as trivial as dance videos you start to realise the algorithms are pushing more and more sexualized content towards you! The sexualization of our kids at such a young age and the normalization of that fact is a serious modern-day issue. "You need to build a relationship with your kids, educate your kids" - this is what most internet guides tell parents. Good advice but it only addresses "pull" technology i.e. educate your kids not to go looking for the darker side of the internet. The problem is exacerbated now by "push" technology such as Snapchat where the darker side comes looking for you! Everything is not how it seems when it comes to Snapchat, on one side there is what appears to be a harmless app where kids can swap funny photos etc. On the other side it’s an unregulated, unfiltered, hidden, dark network, where kids can make and receive any kind of content they like, and I mean ANYTHING! Sure, wasn't there always a playboy magazine knocking around back in the day I hear you say, but the playboy magazine didn't contain graphical content of underage kids, and wasn't interactive, asking you to create content back! If you said 20 years ago that we're going to create a device and put it into each child's pocket and one thing it will enable is for kids to send naked pictures and videos of themselves to each other, then people would have thought you were crazy! Snapchat knows this but are too busy making millions, it will argue they are only supplying the pipes, the kids are the ones pushing the toxic water through. It's the gun manufacture debate, they only make the guns, you're the one pulling the trigger. Just like web email has filters, Snapchat could implement filters, they choose not to, they could even put AI software in place that says “we know that's you, cop yourself on”! As a 16-year-old, I would have been all over Snapchat, it has the thrill of a new relationship, aspects of gaming (fishing for better rewards) as well as the titillation! The content circulating on Snapchat can trigger kids to have an interest in porn, they then go looking for stronger content in other places on the internet. There's also a known sextortion scam circulating on Snapchat which has led to numerous shocking suicides! People say you can't change Society, but Society is the people, Society is us, we can change! Why did we get the phones in the first place? Society put peer pressure on us to get them, so let’s put peer pressure back on Society to change, then Society can go full circle and remove the phones! I believe most parents deep down know we've made a mistake with access to these phones at too early an age. Forget all the serious issues above, even just to get rid of the domestic arguments around screen time would make them worth removing! This is the cigarettes of our time causing the cancer in our Society, I truly believe in 10 years’ time people will look back and say, “what the hell were we thinking?!” Our government knows they are awash with social and underage issues but are they asleep at the wheel or is it a case of too little too late? Are they willing to take on the phone manufacturers?! The ask here is that you put your name to this petition asking for a public vote on smart phones. I believe if the vote was put to the public, the public would do the right thing! If you want to get involved in our movement, please join our Smartphone Free Childhood Ireland WhatsApp Group Invite And/or please take this quick poll (only two questions - do you believe there should be a minimum age and if so, what age?) https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8PJK9SH Thanks for reading, let's keep our kids safe out there! Sound Bytes Sam References: Jonathan Haidt on the Mental-Health Crisis and Smartphones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6NfPHrVilc The Anxious Generation Evidence  https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence

Please get behind this campaign to keep the horticulture course open in West Cork Campus Skibbereen. This course provides people with opportunitites to train and work in this area in the west cork area. Growing food, increasing biodiversity and ecology in something we need to promote. Please sign this petition to keep the course open, for those that are already enrolled on it and prospective students who wish to study this important and sustainably driven subject. Closing this course will deny people who genuinley want to study and work in the area of Horticulture in West Cork. It does not make any sense! This is a sustainable and practical career choice for those living in West Cork and should be retained. We call on the Cork ETB (Education Training Board) and all our local representatives to keep this course open. 

The Newpark Academy of Music has been providing musical experience and education for neigh on 45yrs.  Young and old have stepped across its doors to plunge into a world of nuanced musical expression. Newpark - though it's many guises of individual classical and jazz lessons, choirs, orchestra, quartets - has provided a locus of community involvement for its students and their families. The mental health benefits accued from being involved with musical expression is well documented. In a post covid era where many of us are struggling to move our children and ourselves away from screen based activites, the loss of Newpark Academy of Music is the loss of something indefinable and vitally important to the students who have crossed its threshold.  Music feeds our soul.  To have a school providing high quality teaching in the suburbs, indeed on the doorstep of many students homes is an exceptional resource, one to be cherished and protected. The loss of Newpark Academy of Music to the area of Blackrock and Stillorgan will be enormous. This resource is too important to let slip away. 

Learning to grow your own food organically in a world where food security is a growing concern, is a valuable life skill.  Young people deserve to have the opportunity to learn to grow healthy food to ensure their ability to manage the impact of an increasingly volatile global food production system. A Leaving Certificate subject that would award 50% of the marks for practical work - as is the case with music, for example - would ensure that students can develop and maintain a school garden and orchard under the expertise of a properly qualified teacher, thereby enhancing their school environment and providing freshly produced organic food for their school's canteen.  23% of the global land surface has reduced productivity as a result of unsustainable, industrial, agriculture practices (1). Organic agriculture, which has benefits for biodiversity, soil health and water quality, is a key tool in halting and reversing this trend. Unfortunately, Ireland has one of the lowest rates of organic farming in Europe (2), which means the government should make a concerted effort to encourage the uptake of organic food production at both large and small scale.  Introducing a subject in Irish secondary schools that would allow teenagers to learn how to grow their own food sustainably would be a positive step in contributing to Ireland's food sovereignty. The subject should be based on the principles of agro-ecology, to ensure that students learn how to grow food in a way that protects and enhances biodiversity. Chemical herbicides, many of which are known to be carcinogenic, have no place in a school environment and should not be part of the curriculum.  At a time when the climate and biodiversity crises expose our food production models to ever greater vulnerabilities, it has never been more important to build local, resilient and sustainable food systems. We call on the Minister for Education, Norma Foley, to give young people the skills to make this happen by introducing Organic Horticulture as a Leaving Certificate subject.   (1) IFOAM Organics International: https://www.ifoam.bio/why-organic (2) European Environment Agenc: https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/agricultural-area-used-for-organic 

What greater act of solidarity would it be than for Cork to twin with Gaza City? Gaza was a beautiful and vibrant city before the repeated, violent Israeli attacks. Both Cork City and Gaza City have suffered from acts of vengeance. “The people of Cork have been on the streets ever since October. The solidarity has been heartwarming for me as someone who was born in Gaza and who has many friends and family still there suffering unimaginable hardship. It would be the greatest honor for them if our two great cities were to be connected by ‘twinning’. ” Nasser Al Swirki. A son of Gaza living in Cork UCC links: Gaza is a University City. All of Gaza’s universities now lie in ruins. The Gaza City university has developed partnerships with 142 higher education institutions around the world. Let’s make UCC one of those partners! CUH links? Al-Shifa Hospital was the largest medical complex and central hospital in the Gaza. We will need medical partners. Environmental Links? Now destroyed. Wadi Gaza: In 2023 the Gaza Strip’s only wetland was slowly coming back to life.

Educate D8 is a community group representing families in Dublin 8. For generations Dublin 8 has experienced under-investment in secondary education. Our Educate D8 Campaign has two main aims to address the under- provision of school places in our area: 1. To secure the establishment of a new secondary school in the area. 2. To gain access to the consultation process on ethos and patronage. Why do we need a new school? 45% of children in Dublin 8 have to leave the area to go to secondary school. 2135 Dublin 8 kids will need to leave the area for secondary school by 2026. Only 11% of children in Kilmainham Dublin 8 walk or cycle to school (active travel) in comparison with 75% in Clonskeagh Dublin 6. Kilmainham children have the longest commutes in Dublin. Children in Dublin 8 face up to a 90-minute commute to Sandymount Educate Together Secondary School, which was offered by the Department of Education as a solution to our problem. The average national commute for teenagers is 19.5 minutes (CSO, 2022). 62% of the population in Dublin 8 is not Catholic (CSO, 2022). 0% of the secondary schools in Dublin 8 are multi-denominational. 89% of Dublin 8 parents surveyed would like to send their children to a local secondary school. 6th class pupils in Dublin 8 are dispersed to up to 14 different secondary schools, decimating their community. Population growth in Dublin 8 between 2016 – 2022: -the population grew by 14% as opposed to 4.6% in Dublin City. -the population of 10-19 year olds grew by 30% in comparison to 14% growth nationally. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN AND SIGN OUR PETITION ASKING MINISTER OF EDUCATION TO GRANT US A NEW SCHOOL FOR OUR CHILDREN. Visit our website https://d8newschool.ie/ or join our campaign WhatsApp https://chat.whatsapp.com/Kl3PytsabTv1jsZfStgPTr

Books and other media with LGBTQ+ themes are extremely important for young people who may be struggling to understand their own identity, as it gives them role models to look up to and allows them an opportunity to see people like them in the stories they enjoy! Book bans, like the one being pushed by prominent Unionist politicians including MP Carla Lockhart are also incredibly discriminatory and hypocritical [1] - representation of non- heterosexual relationships should no more be banned from Libraries than heterosexual/cis gender relationships. A child will not become gay or be "transed" by reading a book with a gay or trans character included. We must not allow bigoted bad actors to import American culture war nonsense to Northern Ireland. [1] https://www.newsletter.co.uk/education/dup-mp-carla-lockhart-calls-for-the-immediate-re[…]ildrens-books-from-northern-irish-public-libraries-4562485

Education Minister Paul Givan has confirmed that without additional funding, his department will struggle to find additional school places for over 1,000 children with SEN. The Education Authority has reported that it is "extremely challenging" to find new places in schools and "urgent investment" is needed. No child with SEN should be left in limbo before the start of the new school term. The NI Executive needs to provide more capital investment to solve this crisis!

We don't have enough pools in our area so when a new pool is planned it needs to be a modern and flexible design to accommodate as many groups as possible.

With the exception of a few, higher-level institutions in Ireland do not provide free period products, despite repeated requests from our campus communities. There is a clear demand for these initiatives, from students and staff. The initiative needs to be streamlined and supported on a governmental level. By tackling period dignity head-on, we can directly tackle stigma and shame around periods for students and staff, thus making our campuses more inclusive places for members of our academic community from all backgrounds. Quality of learning and teaching is affected by menstruation - and we do not want anyone to get caught out by not having adequate products in those moments. By ensuring access to free period products, especially as the housing and cost-of-living crises worsen, we can ensure that those from worse-off socioeconomic backgrounds are supported throughout their education. The government has piloted free period products in certain education boards, but this has not yet extended universally to higher-level institutions. We have heard that there are plans to do so. We, students and staff, call to expedite this process and set down funding to make period products accessible in bathrooms across all higher-level institutions in the country.

Students in Galway are already paying some of the highest rents and tution fees in Europe, and yet this accommodation provider deems it's appropriate to take advantage of the severe lack of suitable accommodation in this city and increase their rents. This will not be taken lightly, and we ask you to sign this petition to show this provider it's not acceptable.

Having a large mural of US president Joe Biden in Ballina reflects very badly on the people of Ballina, Mayo and Ireland who hold very different views to Joe regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza.