It will be the 50th anniversary of this awful tragedy in March 2024. It is only right and proper that there is a memorial erected in memory of this lovely family.

A planning proposal by Marron Estates Ltd to build a 114 bed hotel on top of and surrounding The Cobblestone Pub in Smithfield will destroy one of the city’s finest cultural centres. For decades, The Cobblestone has been a centre of Irish music, signing clubs, dance classes, historical talks and events and the promotion of international culture in Dublin's north inner city. Dublin is being overrun with hotels and student accommodation that add nothing to the cultural life of the city. It is Dublin City Council’s policy to 'lead the cultural development of the city" and "to protect and enhance Dublin city's cultural infrastructure.” The Cobblestone is a key part of the city’s heritage and cultural infrastructure and should be protected not destroyed, or made unviable by the building of yet another hotel. This proposal conflicts with the Council’s policy and should be opposed. Please sign the petition and help save The Cobblestone and protect Dublin's culture and heritage. https://planning.agileapplications.ie/dublincity/application-details/146422

As well as signing this petition, please register an objection with Dublin City Council if you can. It costs €20. Quote the planning file (3617/21), give reasons why you think it shouldn't go ahead, but your address on the letter and upload it to the planning system. The closing date is 4 November. Demolition of The Cobblestone to make room for yet another hotel. This will involve demolition of the backroom venue, the smoking area, and the rooms upstairs where music and Irish language classes were held, leaving only the main bar swallowed up by a 9 story hotel essentially turning the leftovers into a residents bar. We really need people to oppose this. The Cobblestone is far more than just a pub. It is a bastion of Irish culture. People come from all over the world to share and learn Irish music, song, dance, language and storytelling. It is at the centre of this 'folk revival' we're seeing in Ireland. The scene developed within those walls. The Cobblestone is vital for this community. Beyond that, and more importantly, the Cobblestone is the main hub for the broader traditional Irish Music community in the country. I have played with and learned from some of the very best musicians in the sessions. I have listened to some amazing music at The Night Before Larry Got Stretched sessions and Pipers Clubs gigs from musicians and singers you otherwise might never get a chance to hear. I have watched younger musicians develop into great musicians. I've watched dancers dance, singers sing, story tellers recite stories. There is nowhere else that can match the cobblestone for any of this and there's no place that promotes Irish culture to the same level as The Cobblestone. This is an attack on our culture in a City that's getting swallowed up by blind greed. We need as many people to oppose this as possible.

This TV show was one of the few reasons we had to laugh during the toughest of lockdowns and dark depressing Sunday evenings which I think would be beneficial to keep up during the coming winter where no one knows that lies ahead.

We can’t have another part of historic Dublin succumb to “development”! Merchant’s Arch is there since 1821 and is part of Dublin’s culture, history and personality.

People in this nature-deprived and traffic-choked part of Dublin need healthy shared green spaces

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.

This is an opportunity to acknowledge the wrongs perpuated by our State and those to whom it sub-contracted its responsibilities.

Intensive farms like the one currently planned for would mean up to 40,000 pigs would be confined indoors in overcrowded, barren concrete pens. The animals are often treated with antibiotics to keep them alive in such horrendous conditions, and their waste contains ammonia which causes respiratory problems in humans and pollutes sensitive natural habitats. According to the Bureau for Investigative Journalism, Co Tyrone has the fifth highest number of indoor reared livestock in the UK, with Co Antrim placed at eighth. The two counties have a combined total of 13.5 million animals reared indoors.

Celebrate our female saint with a day off for all the amazing health workers and the rest of us!

Under the new Work Placement Experience Programme, bosses are able to get free labour, with workers only receiving €3.43 an hour paid by the taxpayer. Not only does this undermine wages and conditions for existing workers, it blocks the creation of actual paid jobs by incentivising companies to use free labour instead. Instead of this exploitation, we need public investment in a green jobs programme, creating decent, secure jobs building carbon-neutral homes, providing healthcare and education and improving other public services. Such a programme should also involve expanding genuine paid apprenticeship schemes, and opening up education by making it free to all.

While thousands in the public sector continue to rightfully stage protests and demand fair treatment, compensation for their collective efforts and hard work throughout the pandemic, and much deserved recognition, thousands in the private Security (Static Security Officers, Patrol Drivers, Camera Operators, Retail Officers, Door Guards) remain vastly under- appreciated and unrecognised. At the height of the pandemic employers were quick to send out official letters explaining how all of their security officers and employees were in fact essential front line staff. Yet aside from making sure workers reported for duty unimpeded by government sanctioned lock downs, security officers have not been allotted the respect and treatment befitting of a front line worker, despite having continued to work uninterrupted through the Covid pandemic. Those of us in the security sector have not had a raise in nearly three years. We continue to work erratic hours, long shifts, and for low wages. Dealing directly with the public, guarding businesses, protecting staff, enduring abuse and lawlessness, monitoring premises and patrolling properties, ceasingly since March (2020). Just as health care workers, Garda, and retail workers have diligently worked. The difference being, whereas other sectors have been lauded with praise and talks of bonuses, there is absolutely no mention of security staff. In the spirit of fairness, equality and gratitude, we would like to be officially recognised for our efforts and contributions in one of the most diverse and inclusive sectors in the country.