A spokesperson for the IWOC, a union directly linked to the radical Industrial Workers of the World, called upon the NIPS to end the book ban "immediately". In a statement issued they said "Incarcerated Workers throughout the Covid-19 pandemic have been hit hard with restrictions of movement seeing prisoners locked up for 23 hours a day. Reading materials are vital for prisoners, it's a lifeline for everyone to be able to immerse themselves in books, pamphlets, magazines and newspapers. To have that restricted, withheld or banned is a denial of prisoners basic human rights and we call upon those within the Northern Ireland Prison Service to lift the ban immediately as it runs counter to Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Prisoners have even been refused books, reading materials and even accessing music interests if it wasn't bought from a reputable outlet such as from multinational corporations as Amazon. This in turn prevents those incarcerated from accessing material of their choice such as small independent publishers and distributors who actually have a wider range of reading materials which are fundamental to freedom of choice. Effectively this is a ban on books to prisoners by another name. At present there is currently only regulated access to book distributors which NIPS approve of such as Amazon. This in turn dramatically limits financially what a prisoner can access. There is also a ban on books and publications which family and friends send in from the outside. No matter what way they dress it up, this is fundamentally a ban on books by another name. The Incarcerated Workers Organising Committee demand that the Northern Ireland Prison Service immediately end their policy of banning books and reading materials across the prison system. This must not be allowed to continue. We call upon those interested in human rights and social justice, to writer's, independent publishers, artists and musicians to help add their voice by supporting prisoners human rights by also demanding that this be stopped immediately.

Operation Transformation is a weight loss TV show in Ireland that has been on our screens every year since 2008. Every year, 5 volunteers are recruited and endure a strict weight loss plan including a restrictive diet and intense exercise programme for 8 weeks.  The goal of the show is to lose weight, yet there is no research to prove that the weight loss intervention advocated by OT is effective in the long-term. There has been no participant follow up study to date. Furthermore, Operation Transformation perpetuates weight stigma in Ireland and contributes to the ongoing discrimination of people in bigger bodies across our country. The Irish public deserve to know if the OT programme will result in long-term weight loss and improved health markers. The research clearly concludes that dieting does not result in long-term weight loss for the vast majority of people. The Irish public deserve to not feel stigmatized or shamed on the basis of our weight. The health of our nation is at great risk with this advice of restrictive dieting. Weight is not a behaviour. This programme sends the inaccurate message that weight determines our health. @intuitive.eating.ireland & @binge.eating.dietitian are initiating this petition.

Campaign to Nationalize Facebook & All Social Media Platforms Worldwide To make them Non Profit Organizations Administered by The people for the people. Facebook had misled investors and the public about potential harms associated with the platform. Facebook is wrongly prioritizing platform growth over safety. Facebook groups have proven to be hubs for misinformation and harmful content, where there often [are] no gatekeepers and false information is allowed to flourish. Facebook's closed design hides information from researchers and regulators. As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable.

It is in every Irish citizens interest to protect our Healthcare Workers and the people they care for, one day it might be you who needs to be cared for! This petition is not only for Healthcare workers but for every single person who lives in Ireland. We Need every one of you. This is a movement in itself. If we get enough signatures we could help to improve the quality of life not just for the healthcare workers but also for the vulnerable people they care for. We need the people of Ireland behind us and we need the minister for health and the government to listen to us and take us seriously because we will not stop, we will never give up until this catastrophe is fixed. We need your support now!! We need better working conditions for all healthcare workers so that we can provide the best quality of care for the people we care for!!

The more young people who sign in support, the more we can pressure our decision makers to implement these demands.

Big business are producing more, not less emissions and are making the climate crisis worse. Government decisions are letting them off the hook and pushing the burden for the climate crisis on to regular people, not the corporations who drive it.

Julian Assange is a political prisoner simply because he exposed US military and other war crimes, human rights abuses and corruption in the futile US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His continued incarceration in Belmarsh Prison and his threatened extradition to the US, is a threat not only to him but to all journalists, editors and publishers, to the cause of investigative journalism, to press freedom and to freedom of speech generally. The appeal hearing brought by the US Government against the decision by a British court not to extradite Julian to the US will be held on 27 & 28 October. If he is extradited he faces a prison sentence of up to 175 years. There are campaigns happening around the world to get him released. Will you join the campaign here in Ireland? The open letter to Simon Coveney has been endorsed so far by Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Denis Halliday, Christy Moore, Sinéad Cusack, Stephen Rea, Medea Benjamin, Eamonn Mc Cann, Bernadette Mc Alliskey, Dr. Harry Browne, Raymond Deane, Trevor Joyce, John F. Deane, Honor Heffernan, Dr. Ronit Lentin, Prof. Ray Kinsella, Peader King and elected politicians Brid Smith, Richard Boyd Barrett, Paul Murphy, Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Paul Gavan, David Norris, Thomas Pringle, Chris Andrews and Melisa Halpin. Here is the link to the full letter - http://irishantiwar.org/node/2786

Institutional care is harmful to children and orphanage volunteering puts children at increased risk. There is a growing global movement working to transform the way we care for children. Care leavers and child protection experts, disability advocates, faith-based and community organisations have come together to better support families and other caregivers so that children can grow up in a family and community where they belong, instead of being placed into institutions. You can support this global care reform movement by making a pledge that you will neither promote nor engage in volunteering and/or visits to institutions for children. You can also pledge to further educate yourself and people around you about the harm caused by orphanage volunteering and institutions and to only support volunteering opportunities that put the best interests and wellbeing of children and families first.

82% of the Irish people support neutrality in all its aspects.

This is a patient led campaign for radical change to the structure, resourcing and delivery of healthcare in Ireland. We are all patients, this effects everyone of us in this country. Our health system is broken, it is no longer holding itself together. Hospital waiting lists have almost hit 1million. There are 700 (1/5) consultant vacancies unfilled in Ireland. There are many reasons for this situation: the current contract for consultants, procedures being cancelled, investment required for additional bed capacity across hospitals. GP patient lists are full. 30% of GPs (over 1000 GPs) will retire in the next 2 to 3 years. There is no strategy for replacing them. Tens of thousands of citizens already do not have access to a GP. This is putting strain on emergency departments, out of hours services and most importantly not giving people the level of care & continuity of care they require. Emergency departments & hospitals are writing to GPs to advise they do not have capacity to take referrals. These patients bounce back to GPs to manage their illness while they wait. Patients with private healthcare have some access to private out of hours and ED clinics which provide limited services if your insurance covers what you need. Ultimately as more GPs retire these private services will also become strained. The band aids of OOHS , ED & private clinics are not a replacement for Primary care services. They do not provide the continuity of care that patients are best served by. We are all affected by this healthcare crisis. We need to come together as one voice to support an all party initiative: Sláintecare. This will transform healthcare in Ireland and benefit generations to come. I urge you to support, share, discuss, engage with this campaign. Thank you, Patientrevolution.ie

We call on TCD to boycott and divest from all companies which operate in historic Palestine or which are complicit in Israeli apartheid. This includes companies which manufacture arms or security technologies used by the state of Israel to carry out ethnic cleansing and implement apartheid against the Palestinian people. TCD currently has links with 15 Israeli organizations, including academic institutions such as the Weizmann Institute of Science, which openly collaborates with the war-industry, including many companies involved in armaments, such Israel Aerospace Industries and Elbit Systems. Furthermore, College solicits services from Tel Aviv University, which develops war technology, trains lawyers to defend war crimes and sends Pro-Israeli delegations to foreign universities. Finally, College has links with Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, which is involved with arms research and technology, cooperates with the Israeli military and openly collaborates with the Elbit corporation. This makes every member of the college community complicit in Israel’s crimes and oppression of Palestine. We will not stand for this. We call on TCD to cease all collaboration with Israeli universities in accordance with the guidelines laid down by PACBI, the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. These guidelines call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, rather than individual academics, as these institutions have played a key role in the ongoing colonization of Palestine. We demand the immediate cessation of research cooperation with Israeli universities that is in any way connected with the security and military industries.

Only 7.5% of schools here are integrated schools - bringing together children from all backgrounds - Catholic, Protestant and other. All integrated schools here have been fought for and demanded by parents. But this bill could really change things. It would ensure that every new school opened in Northern Ireland from now on is integrated. And it would strengthen the Department for Education's legal duty, requiring the Minister to be held to account for their performance in promoting integrated education. But some parties want to water the bill down. If we flood the consultation with responses, we can make sure that doesn't happen. Photo: Belfast Live