It is important that young people have time to pursue activities other than schoolwork, such as sports and hobbies. There is a lot of pressure on young people in our world, and we really need time just to be kids. Homework creates pressure on us and on our parents who we often need to help us. We spend longer in school than students in many other countries, and should be able to relax at home.

There is too much plastic in our world. We can live with oddly shaped tea bags. We promise.

Lyric FM is the only radio station that plays a programme that is predominantly classical music. Without Lyric, there is no station playing classical music on Irish radio as regular programming. It also offers the very best of jazz and new music.

Growing anti-racism in this country must be tackled face on. Deputy Grealish represents a large population of African decent and his comments are unacceptable and perpetuate racism.

These sheep were apparently left for 4 days in a flooded field with nothing to eat, no shelter and unable to even lie down and rest as they awaited slaughter at Kepak Athleague in Roscommon. One of them died as a result of severe neglect. It is their right not to be killed. They have already suffered enough. Eden Farmed Animal Sanctuary will offer them a home for life at our vegan sanctuary where they will be cared for and where their rights will be respected. Please encourage media to cover their story and encourage Kepak to let them go to our sanctuary.

Today a great kindness was done by concerned citizens who rescued sheep that had been brought to Kepak Slaughterhouse Athleague for slaughter on Friday but left in dire conditions without food or shelter in rain and flooding. Having contacted both Kepac Slaughterhouse and the Department of Agriculture who didn't take any action to help these vulnerable animals and seeing that one of the sheep had already died in these horrendous conditions, these brave people put themselves at risk and went out in a Kayak to bring the 9 waterlogged sheep to safety and drier land. The sheep had to be guided to safety by following the Kayak which took immense effort on the part of the rescuers and the sheep must have been so terrified. Now Kepak insist they are coming to take them for slaughter having had zero interest in meeting their welfare needs when requested. Please share this post widely and bring to light the shocking practices of these corporates whose only interest is profit... Please let these individuals have a chance at life with the kind people who brought them to safety... The option of sanctuary is just a share away for these souls!!! Please tag the media and all animal rights groups in your posts 💚

My 15 year old son was almost knocked down by a red light runner on the Dublin road/renmore junction. It's happening every single day. Even this morning I seen someone break a red light at the scoil catriona pedestrian crossing. Every day insee It on the east side of the city, and I've no doubt It happens all over. It won't be long before someone is seriously injured. So please sign this petition to get much needed traffic cameras to ensure pedestrian safety.

Representatives of the South Westmeath Hospice Committee along with elected representatives in Longford Westmeath met with the HSE on the 28th August. The HSE put forward proposals that include the following: 1. To close the current South Westmeath Hospice building at the end 2019 2. To provide two palliative care beds in St. Vincent’s Care Centre 3. To provide, based on need, up to four beds in a new facility in Clonbrusk, Athlone, if the HSE deem there to be a need. The HSE told the Committee and elected representatives that the rationale for this proposal is around the cost of beds in the hospice. The HSE also stated that there is a difficulty with recruitment of nursing staff for the current facility. The HSE is proposing to build a new 50 bed unit at Clonbrusk, Athlone. The Committee is at a loss to understand the stance taken by the HSE and how they can propose proceeding with a fifty bed unit in the future when they can’t, by their own statement, currently staff a 28 bed one. The South Westmeath Hospice Committee is devastated and shocked at these proposals. First and foremost, we reject all of them in their entirety and we will fight tooth and nail to preserve the facility and services that we currently have. We have informed the HSE that we will use every means at our disposal to safeguard the service and the interests of the people of South Westmeath. As a significant stakeholder in the provision of resources for palliative care we have expressed our disappointment at the lack of consultation with regard to their proposals and indeed the late stage of engagement with the South Westmeath Hospice Committee and the elected representatives of Longford Westmeath, both of whom represent the community who use and benefit from the care and support provided at the current hospice facility. The outcome from the meeting is that the HSE has agreed to shelve the proposals and have given a commitment that they will engage with the South Westmeath Hospice Committee and the elected representatives with regard to the future of our hospice. The South Westmeath Hospice Committee believes that our frustrations will be shared by the people of South Westmeath, its environs and our supporters in general. The Committee asks that people refer to our Facebook page for up-to-date factual information as this situation develops and unfolds. The Committee may need to call on the public to support us in whatever campaign is required to ensure the best possible services for our patients, their families and the community in general is maintained. The Committee of the South Westmeath Hospice assure the public of our commitment, accountability and integrity in all consultation and engagement on this issue.

We need to preserve the wild woodland habitat which currently links the villages of Rathcoole and Saggart. This site, by our local park, has real potential as an amenity for our communities, as a haven for wildlife and as a living example for nature education. Wild green spaces are becoming rarer in South Dublin. Spending time in nature improves our mental and physical health, and reduces stress. The woodland provides great walking trails. The trees, wildflowers and waterways within are vital habitats and food sources. They enable birds, frogs, mammals and insects like bees and butterflies to thrive. Trees absorb water, lessening local flooding. They release oxygen, improving our air quality. They store carbon, helping against climate change. Help to secure the woodland for future generations. Please visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Four-Disticts-Woodland-Group-458412544573936/

My name is Laura Angela I’m the chairwoman for Justice for all women & children this year I accepted a Irish Traveller pride award in intersectionality in which was presented by the amazing Catherine cordless. It’s so important as my mother is a survivor of a abusive industrial school. While there she was abused over who she and her mother was and was made to hate her ethnicity and faced very traumatic experiences of abuse. Her mother Angelina was sent to a laundry for 27 years and was renamed Angela. While there she was recommended a hysterectomy by the doctors. Instead the order used her up until her dying day and ignored the doctors recommendations for over a decade after it was made. My nan died of ovarian cancer if given the treatment she needed she could be here to tell you her story. Instead she lays in a mass grave in cork with 72 other women in which I have been visiting since being a small child. Angelina had three daughters. Her eldest daughter Margaret was 14 when she was out into Sunday wells Magdalene laundry run by the good shepherds in cork. When she left she left for Liverpool. She returned to cork to find her mother and headed straight to St. Vincent’s the laundry her mum was in. She was told that she should leave and never come back. She returned to liverpool and that coming Christmas committed suicide on a day for family, Christmas Day. Angelina’s youngest daughter Bridget was adopted. For 5 years my nan was refusing to sign adoption papers for Bridget while in the laundry. It was only when they used my mum Mary who was in the industrial school and said if she signed the papers she would be given visits by Mary who was in the industrial school and was made to fear her mother. Knowing that not many got the opportunity to even see their children again she took the deal and signed the papers. From there from the age of seven onwards my mum mary was made to visit her mum in the Magdalene laundry but it wasn’t the first time she would have entered those doors. In the 1960s a commission called the commission of itinerancy was taking place. Traveller children was being taken from their family’s and put into industrial schools. The women was taken and forced to work in institutions while the aim was to isolate the men on the camps in attempt to eradicate the whole population. My nan and her family was living in Tuam when my nan and her mum was taken. When she escaped the county home with my mum Mary aged two and half. She was brought back by Garda and in the reports she states she was trying to get back to her family in Tuam. From there my mum and her mother was sent to the laundry while they waited for the child’s placement. A nun remembers the night my mum mary was ripped from Angelina in the Magdalene laundry and she was bundled in the car in the car park of it. My mum has been through the Ryan report, mcayleese report and is now facing the mother and baby home commission. During the Ryan report they was just looking at the abuse within the industrial schools so although my mothers statement spoke of her being brought up to the laundry and her mother. This was excluded this as they was claiming at the time these institutions was private. During the mcayleese report they just acknowledged the living working residents and didn’t even provide a minutes silence on the night to the dead my mum sat in the Dàil heartbroken. This meant that child residents/ visitors and their dead mothers was excluded from gaining justice. After the 2013 apology to just the living working residents. We applied to cork council for the exhumation of my nan. We was sent a response letter in 2014 stating the requirements of we would need to bare all costs and we would also need the sisters of charity permission. We have wrote many letters. Had a solicitor write letters and they have never responded in regards to providing of their permission. I have written a book in regards to my mother’s and nan story called The Tinker Menace; The diary of an Irish Traveller which gives a detailed account of our journey and which in detail also lays bare the cover up around the institutions and the effects it had on my family. I am starting this petition to show the order and government how much public support is behind the removal process of my nan and to force them to both take action as they are both responsible. It really means a lot to move my nan and have her brought back to where her family come from and reburied in a dignified site in which isn’t associated with all the traumatic feelings that arise for my mum when she attends the mass grave. I personally feel due to the fact their was another Magdalene mass grave at another site in which they opened as they sold the land and found more bodies without death certificates - no Garda investigation was put in place they simply put death certificates in place. I think they fear history repeating itself. Please sign and share our petition as far as possible together let’s give the freedom my nan always deserved finally back and some form of justice. Thank you all, for more information regarding the campaign please visit our page: https://www.facebook.com/Justice4AllWomenAndChildren/

We are not criticising teachers. They are already overwhelmed with looking after the academic, emotional, social, physical and mental development of their students. We are not criticising schools. They are just doing their best to remain open to provide education for our future generations. And we are not blaming the government. They have the difficult job of choosing what departments get funding, and what departments unfortunately miss out. Instead, this campaign is emphasising that we as a society need to keep up to date with how the world is changing. According to UNICEF, Ireland ranks number 4 in the EU for adolescent suicide rates and number 1 in the EU for female adolescent suicide rates. On top of this, the number of young girls aged 10 – 14 presenting with self harm has risen by 189% in the last 10 years. It is very clear that we have a problem. The SPHE (Social, Personal and Health Education) curriculum has not been updated in 20 years and think about how much the world has changed since 1999. If you read the SPHE curriculum, it states several fabricated outcomes such as teaching children self-confidence, how to deal with difficult feelings and how to cope with new situations. But there is no evidence that this curriculum is working? In fact, statistics are showing that it is not working. SPHE is really important and the curriculum is actually very well written. It is essentially teaching children how to successfully operate as independent individuals; how to live. However, it is squeezed into 30 minutes a week, which is absolute madness. Imagine saying that we are trying to promote the academic development of a child and then putting maths, English, history, geography, business and science all together into one subject and teaching it for a half an hour a week. As I've said, madness. But yet this continues with SPHE. Mental health is one of the biggest problems among children and adolescents at the moment and we haven’t done anything to try and change that? Intervention is important but prevention is more effective, both in terms of health and financial outcomes. Global warming is clearly happening and there are people flying less, becoming vegan and recycling more (which is fantastic). On the other hand, there are children taking their lives as young as 10 and the only thing we’re doing is telling people to talk? Just have a think about that for a second. This is important because it can save lives. The consequences of not seeing this change is children continuing to have a low quality of life or worse again, taking their lives and leaving behind devastated families. Don't wait until there is a problem. Change the curriculum and the education around mental health and we'l see the stigma reduced, we'l promote the potential of every child and we'l prevent problems before they happen. Thank you.

Mike Pence presides over a cruel and inhuman system of detention at the US - Mexico border. He's also anti LGBTQIA+ rights and he supports conversion therapy for gay and bisexual people. As a country, we have a duty to say no to treating him as an official guest, as his politics flies in the face of everything we stand for. We certainly shouldn't roll out the red carpet for him to visit.