Because every child deserves Magic at Christmas, even children who are employed in slave labour in the cocoa industry who supply Cadbury's. " Mondelēz International — the food giant behind Oreos, Cadbury, and Toblerone — has spent years cultivating an image as a sustainability leader, earning high environmental scores and pledging to eliminate deforestation and human rights abuses from its supply chains. Investigative reporting, however, reveals a starkly different reality: of a company that appears more focused on protecting its reputation than preventing harm to vulnerable people and the planet. For decades, Mondelēz has faced scrutiny over its cocoa sourcing in West Africa, where child and forced labor are widely documented and an estimated 1.56 million children work on cocoa farms. In 2022, a Channel 4 investigation reported that children as young as ten were using machetes to harvest cocoa pods on a Ghanaian farm allegedly linked to Mondelēz. Mondelēz has emphasized that such practices violate its policies and has pointed to its child labor monitoring system. But that system does not cover all the farms in its supply chain, and the company lacks full traceability for its cocoa — meaning it cannot determine whether child labor is involved in some of the cocoa it uses." Source: https://www.ran.org/the-understory/mondelez-has-built-a-reputation-on-sustainability-we-call-it-deception/

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.

“Every procurement decision is a moral decision. Under international human rights law, we all have individual and collective responsibilities to uphold human rights. Our campaign believes schools should not purchase insurance from a company linked to financing or insuring activities connected to the genocide.  Parents should never have to question whether money paid to protect their own children could support a company whose investments or business activities are associated with the ongoing genocide. We believe our schools must choose partners whose actions reflect the values of justice, dignity and accountability they teach every day.”

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!

The environmental impact of using generative AI is incomprehensible to the general public. In 2025 alone, the data centers used to run OpenAI tools were responsible for 32.6 - 79.7 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. According to OpenAI engineers, clean drinking water must be used to cool the data servers in order to prevent "mineral build-up" in the cooling systems. Data centers are literally using one of humanity's most precious and scarce resources to cool their servers, and it is dwindling by the day. OpenAI's projected water usage could hit 6.6 billion m³ by 2027, which is equivalent to 13.2 billion 500ml water bottles. Although this issue seems out of our hands, students can do their part by helping ban ChatGPT from the Trinity College Dublin Wi-Fi. ChatGPT is the most widely-used generative AI model, thus, blocking access would drastically reduce students' contribution to this ever growing problem. You can help do your part by signing our petition!

It is extremely important because children need social media to contact parents friends and family they also need to keep up with some news  This law going through will push us back from a free country