• BioDiversity Impact of light Pollution- Submission to Tipperary County Council
    We need your support: Please sign the petition below! Finding it hard to sleep at night with light glare from street lighting coming into your bedroom? The County Council are going to be upgrading the current street lights in Cloughjordan village and will soon consult with the local community on the type of new lighting arrangements to install. This is your chance to have the kind of lighting you really want installed in your village. We aim to submit a letter to the County Council on behalf of people in the local community, to request that the Council: - Install lights with a warm (Amber) colour temperature with an upper limit of (no more than) 2700 kelvin. - Install light shields or hooded lights with more focused lighting, (thereby improving security by reducing glare through targeted lighting and reducing the impact of light pollution). Why are we making the above request? There is an opportunity here for Cloughjordan village to get smart, modern, high standard, well-designed lighting installed that reduces glare into our houses and bedrooms and yet still keeps our streets safe at night. The right kind of well-designed lighting can help reduce light pollution, helping to protect our health and that of the environment. The upper brightness limit we are asking for will be similar to the existing brightness level of the current sodium lighting on the main street but will have a softer effect as the new lighting will be LED, where 2700 kelvin is on the warmer scale of lighting. Also, if the lights are shielded, as we are requesting, the light is targeted to the ground where it is needed, and doesn’t get wasted in glare. This has been shown to improve security by eliminating the excessive glare that often ‘blinds’ people looking into overly bright street lighting. The truth is that better design equals better and safer lighting. Why be concerned about light pollution? Light pollution is Harmful for our health: Current scientific studies suggest that artificial light at night negatively affects human health by increasing our risks for sleep disorders, depression, diabetes and more. It is proven that artificial lights directly interrupt our circadian rhythm. Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that are part of the body’s internal clock, running in the background to carry out essential functions whilst we sleep: the sleep-wake cycle. Some of these processes include brain wave patterns, hormone production, cell regulation, and other biologic activities. Disruption of the circadian clock is known to have a significant correlation to several medical disorders in humans including depression, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Light pollution is harmful to nature: Plants and Animals depend on earth’s daily light and dark cycle to govern life-sustaining behaviours. For hundreds of millions of years, the web of life on earth has been dependent on day and night, light and dark. Research shows that artificial light at night has adverse and even deadly effects on many species. Researchers have already identified harmful impacts on a huge array of species including bats, insects, plants, fish, turtles, marine corals and even primates. Overlighting wastes energy we can’t afford to waste: It is estimated that at least 20% of light is wasted by unshielded and/or poorly aimed outdoor lighting which is about 3 billion euros per years’ worth of energy lost in sky glow. As much as 50% of outdoor lighting globally is wasted, which increases greenhouse gas emissions, contributes to climate change, and renders us all energy-dependent. To offset all that carbon dioxide, we’d have to plant about 875 million trees annually!
    15 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Darksky CloughJordan
  • Real Space for Nature on All Farms
    Farmland birds are disappearing. We're losing our bees, plants, beautiful wildflowers. Agriculture intensification is wiping them out. Ensuring that Ireland's Common Agriculture Policy Strategic Plan does the minimum for biodiversity is critical to save them. We're running out of time to save wildlife. Please sign.
    12 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Oonagh Duggan
  • Patientrevolution.ie - Campaign for the delivery of a one tier health system: Sláintecare
    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
    35 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Jennifer Caffrey
  • Save The Cobblestone
    Over the last few years Dublin has lost a number of irreplaceable cultural spaces and hubs. The demolition of The Cobblestone pub will add to the city's cultural demise and add another soulless hotel to the Smithfield area.
    6,776 of 7,000 Signatures
    Created by Craig Connolly
  • Save the Cobblestone!
    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.
    35,126 of 40,000 Signatures
    Created by Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin
  • Make RTE bring back the Den with Zig & Zag & Ray Darcy
    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.
    1,590 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Philip O'Reilly
  • Save Merchant’s Arch
    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.
    53,309 of 75,000 Signatures
    Created by Edel Leahy
  • Forest Park not Carpark for Dublin Fever hospital
    People in this nature-deprived and traffic-choked part of Dublin need healthy shared green spaces
    596 of 600 Signatures
    Created by Catherine Cleary
  • Trinity College Dublin: Boycott Israeli Apartheid!
    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.
    732 of 800 Signatures
    Created by Trinity BDS
  • No more Factory Farms in Northern Ireland
    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.
    37 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Nicola Browne
  • Scrap JobBridge 2.0
    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.
    1,585 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by ScamBridge Campaign Picture
  • Practical Cooking Classes For Every Child in the School Curriculum
    No Irish child should leave school without being able to cook for themselves. Otherwise, we are undeniably, failing in our duty of care to our young people. When you teach someone how to cook, you give them a gift that will forever enhance their lives. Our food choices affect our energy, vitality, ability to concentrate. Food affects our mental and physical health and is at the heart of the fight to tackle the climate crisis.
    6,667 of 7,000 Signatures
    Created by Darina Allen