Stratford-on-Slaney is unique. It’s one of Ireland’s very few planned villages, built on a hill overlooking the River Slaney in 1774 and completed around the 1780s by Edward Stratford, the 2nd Earl of Aldborough. His vision was a Georgian industrial town, centred on a thriving cotton and calico printing industry that employed over 1,000 people at its peak. What’s happened? Recently, the Stratford Tidy Towns Committee placed clay mounds on our Greens without community consultation or showing residents any visual plans. Despite four requests for an open meeting to allow dialogue, they have declined to engage with us. When residents attended the most recent Tidy Towns meeting to raise objections, we were told they will only follow what the National Tidy Towns judges say about the mounds. Our community’s voice does not matter to them. Why we object: 1. Massive loss of heritage: The 2025 National judges said our Octagon, chestnut trees, and old buildings on High Street are what make Stratford a very beautiful village. These mounds destroy a 250-year-old heritage feature. 2. Health & safety: About 60 tons of soil now create dangerous bike ramps for children and block sightlines for drivers. 3. Security: Families that live on the Green are worried about privacy and falling house values. 4. Loss of tradition: The village Christmas tree can no longer be placed in the centre. Every use of the Green that served generations for 250 years will now be lost. This is our only open green space. It is the heart of our village. We are calling for the mounds to be removed and our historic Green restored.  If you believe that heritage and the original sites of our villages and towns should be cared for with pride, please sign our petition and share it with your friends. We need your support. So far we have been met with silence.

A local playground will: Provide a safe and welcoming space for children of all ages and abilities. Support physical and mental wellbeing through outdoor activity. Create a social hub where families can connect. Enhance the attractiveness and vibrancy of Cloughjordan village. Support local businesses by encouraging families to stay and spend locally.

The 72 hour mandatory wait for abortion in the South of Ireland is patronising and dangerous.  It does not recognise the amount of thought someone gives to this decision before picking up the phone to make an appointment. In reality, it introduces additional barriers. Requesting time off work, having to travel if there is not a provider in your area, requiring assistance if you are disabled or chronically ill, under-resourced medical facilities – all of this makes accessing an abortion harder, and the 3 day wait ultimately forces women to go much later. If you are in an abusive relationship, homeless or generally vulnerable, it is even more dangerous.  There have been cases when women discover they are pregnant and all of these factors coupled with the 3 day wait means they pass the 12 week deadline and are forced to travel to Britain for an abortion, or to go through with a pregnancy that they don’t want. The last-minute introduction of the 3-day wait was a political decision by the Irish government to assuage the anti-choice lobby. There is no medical requirement for this, as stated by the WHO, and it brings added pressure on GP services.  Today, the government is even more right-wing and voted down Bríd Smith’s bill from the previous Dáil term to remove a host of barriers to abortion care, including the 3 day wait – this was despite it being debated at second stage previously. Far-right and reactionary forces have their eyes on abortion and bodily autonomy and we believe that building a campaign to remove this clause and expand abortion rights in Ireland can push them back. Solidarity TD Ruth Coppinger is bringing forward a bill (Amendment to the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Act 2026)) to remove the 3-day wait.  Please sign this petition to indicate your support for removing the 3-day wait and get involved in the campaign. Ruth Coppinger's bill will be opposed by Aontú, Independent Ireland, right wing Independents and some government TDs -- to what extent we don't yet know, but for this reason it is even more vital to show that the vast majority of Irish society does not want this sexist and harmful clause in our law.

The Road R741 from Crosstown to Castlebridge is unsafe and unfit for its purpose.  12000+ cars use this stretch of road every day, a ten fold increase over the last 2 decades. Over the years, there have been fatalities and recently many near misses with pedestrians and cyclists - some instances where they have been knocked over.  Elderly people, parents with children and disabled people using mobility scooters are forced directly onto the road where public footpaths end abruptly and verges are unsafe. The roads unsuitable resurfacing and lack of infrastructure and drainage has meant the verge is now at a sharp angle, where you can no longer safely walk. The danger is increased in wet weather. From Crosstown service station to Castlebridge, the speed limit increases from 60 to 80 km/h, while public footpaths and cycle lanes suddenly end. Unsafe verges mean pedestrians are forced directly onto the roads surface.    Houses along the road are in dips as a result of careless resurfacing - where the road is now bowed - causing flooding with damages of over €30,000.  This applies to a stretch of road just 1.2 miles long where cycle lanes and public footpaths end in abruptly in Crosstown and begin again in Castlebridge - how are pedestrians and cyclists supposed to travel safely without these measures? 

The ongoing crisis in the Middle East has demonstrated that the objective of affordable, secure and decarbonised energy cannot be met through importation of fossil fuels which are carbon intensive and subject to rapid price shocks. Climate change and its consequences are and will continue to have profound effects on human health and the wellbeing of future generations. In confronting the fact that 29% of Irish households are in energy poverty, we must ensure that in moving to a net-zero Ireland we adhere to the principles of a Just Transition, and must reach those furthest behind first. Energy crises disproportionately impact the most marginalised, including one parent families, carers, disabled people, and older people, and are driven by an energy system that is too reliant on expensive imported fossil fuels. The Government has been backtracking on climate action in recent months; Government Ministers have suggested in the media that they won't meet our legally binding climate targets, and several pieces of legislation undermining the Climate Act have been published, including one that proposes to build an LNG terminal in Ireland, which will lock us into importing unreliable and dirty fossil fuels.

WHY THIS IS AN ATTACK ON ALL OF US 🔍 Targeting Whistleblowers Lorna and Brenda raised serious, documented concerns about the misuse of union funds and a lack of financial transparency. Their suspensions constitute penalisation under the Protected Disclosures Act — plain and simple. 📱 Suspended for a Facebook Like Helen, and Mark were suspended for engaging with social media posts that asked difficult questions. If members can be disciplined for liking a post, no member is safe from arbitrary action. 🗳️ Election Interference These suspensions were timed specifically to prevent the five from standing in the upcoming BDC and NEC elections — a direct violation of Rule 25.2, which guarantees every member a fair right to contest elections. 📜 Procedural Lawlessness The NEC has ignored its own Rule Book. Rule 13.1 does not permit the NEC to issue indefinite standalone suspensions to NEC members without formal referral to the BDC. The process also ignored mandatory notice periods required under Rule 26.3 — what can only be described as a procedural ambush. ⚖️ Conflict of Interest The complaints were brought by industrial staff who threatened industrial action if action wasn’t taken against the members. Some complainants were allowed to present to the NEC to influence the process, whereas the suspended members weren’t. Allowing conflicted individuals to drive this process undermines any pretence of fairness. OUR DEMANDS 1. IMMEDIATE REINSTATEMENT — Lift the suspensions of all five members without delay. 2. RESPECT THE RULE BOOK — End all ultra vires actions that bypass the authority of the BDC. 3. STOP THE PENALISATION — No member should face discipline for making protected disclosures about financial oversight and governance. 4. PROTECT DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS — Guarantee that all five candidates have a fair and unhindered right to contest the upcoming elections under Rule 25.2. By signing this petition, you are sending a clear message to Mandate leadership: this union belongs to its members. Not to unaccountable structures. Not to those who wish to avoid scrutiny. And not to those who would silence the very people trying to protect our money and our rights. Stand with Lorna. Stand with Brenda, Sarah, Helen, and Mark. Stand with the Suspended Five. Stand for a Transparent Mandate.

Job creation, housing, and much needed investment and rejuvenation of St Patrick's street

In Ireland today, people who have survived war, torture, and persecution are being let down by the very legal system that is supposed to protect them. We are not talking about paperwork delays or administrative inconvenience. We are talking about people whose lives — and whose children's lives — depend entirely on what happens in their legal proceedings. And in too many cases, those proceedings are being handled in a way that falls far short of what any decent standard of justice requires. At Emerald Welcome Centre, we have walked alongside these families. We have seen things that keep us awake at night. We have seen a mother handed a signature page and told to sign — without ever being shown the appeal document lodged in her name. She did not know what story had been told on her behalf. It was not her story. We have seen a man arrive at his International Protection hearing — the most important moment of his entire journey through this system — having had no contact with his solicitor in the weeks beforehand. No preparation. No briefing. No one in his corner. He walked into that room alone. We have seen families wait in silence for weeks, calling and texting a solicitor who did not respond, not knowing whether they still had legal representation, not knowing whether their hearing was still scheduled, living in a state of unbearable uncertainty that no human being should be asked to endure. These are not edge cases. This is a pattern. And it is happening to some of the most vulnerable people in Ireland — people who do not have the power, the language, or the legal knowledge to challenge it themselves. This is why we need you. Not because you are a lawyer. Not because you are an expert in asylum law. But because you are a person who believes that fairness matters. That every human being — regardless of where they were born or what passport they carry — deserves to be treated with dignity when they stand before the Irish legal system. Ireland has a proud tradition of solidarity. We are a nation that remembers what it meant to be the emigrant, the stranger, the one who needed another country's kindness to survive. That memory is not just history. It is a call to action. When you sign this petition, you are telling the Irish Government: we are watching, we care, and we expect better. You are giving a voice to people who cannot safely speak for themselves right now — because they are still inside the system, still waiting, still hoping that Ireland will be everything it promises to be. Please sign. Please share. And please know that your name on this petition is not a small thing. It is an act of solidarity with some of the bravest people in this country.

Please sign my petition and support me in gaining suitable emergency accommodation supports from Donegal County Council.

This week I came across posts from working families in Ireland that genuinely stopped me in my tracks. A nurse with two children and a full-time working husband unable to afford heating oil or groceries. A Garda family with five children struggling to make ends meet despite both parents working. These are not people who aren’t trying—these are essential workers doing everything right, yet still falling behind. Something is clearly broken when full-time working families in Ireland cannot afford basic necessities like heat and food. This is no longer a rare situation—it is becoming the reality for more and more households across the country.

1. Throwing books in the bin is an attack on intellectual freedom Books are not disposable objects — they are voices, ideas, experiences, and history. When books are dumped in waste bins, the community’s right to knowledge and individuals’ right to think freely are discarded with them. This undermines the spirit of Article 40.6.1 of the Irish Constitution, which protects freedom of expression and the circulation of ideas. 2. What happened sets a dangerous precedent If hundreds of books can be labelled “extremist” and thrown away without any academic or legal assessment, then any institution could dispose of any book it dislikes. Today it is jurisprudence and history; tomorrow it could be philosophy, politics, or literature. 3. The library was a major cultural and educational asset This was not a small collection. It was a multilingual library containing: • 10,000 Arabic books • 4,000 English books • Additional collections in several other languages This is an irreplaceable intellectual heritage. Losing it is a loss for the entire society. 4. Protecting books means protecting cultural diversity Ireland prides itself on being an inclusive and multicultural society. Destroying an entire library sends the opposite message: exclusion instead of inclusion. 5. The incident damages the credibility of cultural and religious institutions Communities expect institutions to safeguard knowledge, not dispose of it in rubbish bins. Restoring trust requires transparency, responsibility, and respect for written heritage.

Katie Taylor is pound for pound the best female boxer the world has ever seen, with titles and accolades beyond what most sports people will ever achieve... and she is far more than just that. Katie is an Irish inspiration, both in sport and in spirit, who deserves recognition and appreciation for all she has done, for Irish boxing and for women and girls in sport, but there is just one career goal that she has left to reach, and that is to box in front of a home crowd at Croke Park.  Katie has overcome so many obstacles in her boxing journey so far. She had to pretend she was a boy to be allowed to box at first as girls were not allowed to box in Ireland when she started out. She changed that.   Katie knew she was capable of getting to Olympics but boxing was the only Olympic sport that had a male but not female category. Katie was a huge part of changing this too as along with an international petition, Katie showcased her skills and directly persuaded the International Olympic Committee members to make women’s boxing an Olympic sport.   Katie was told before she could not box at Croke Park because it would be too costly. Now let's get behind her and help her overturn this decision too! Katie realised one of her life's dreams at the 2012 Olympics, where she was one of the first women in the world to win a gold Olympic medal for boxing.  Sign and share this petition with every boxing club in Ireland to tell GAA President, Jarlyth Byrnes; Minister for Sport, Patrick O'Donovan; Sporting Island and Katie's promotor, Eddie Hearn, to help her to make her last dream of boxing in front of an Irish crowd at Croke Park come true. Croke Park is the largest and most iconic venue in Ireland. It has a rich history and has hosted many a superstar. The GAA, as excellent promotors of Irish sport could and should support Katie Taylor to realise her dream. The Department of Sport and Sporting Ireland should provide financial support and sponsorship that would allow Katie to fight her last bout there. And Eddie Hearn needs to do everything he can to take care of and promote this awesome fighter and make sure she gets what she wants! Katie never took no for an answer when she was told she could not box in competitions, and she could not box in the Olympics. Let's not take no for an answer to Katie in Croker now!