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

Toilets are an important public amenity which serve our most basic bodily functions. Access to public toilets isn't just a matter of convenience, it's a matter of dignity and social equality. Mayo's beaches are visited and used all year round, by a wide variety of people, engaged in a multitude of activities, and in all types of weather. People do not stop using the beaches during the Winter. In fact, for many people, the quieter Winter months are a more enjoyable time to visit the beach than during the peak Summer period. Why, then, does Mayo County Council deny access to public toilets at our beaches for half the year? In early October the toilets are locked up, the public bins are removed, and beach users are left without these basic facilities until the following April or May. For some people, access to a public toilet is simply about convenience - it's not necessarily a deal-breaker - but for many more people, a public toilet can be a determining factor in whether they visit a public amenity such as a beach. Women, disabled people, older people, people with children, and many others in our society are unfairly impacted by a lack of public toilets. Where these facilities exist, such as at our beaches, they should be accessible all year round. To be frank, the people least affected by the lack of public toilets are non-disabled men, who can pretty much pee wherever they like (and who don't have a menstrual cycle). For everyone else, if there's no public toilet available, there's a calculation to be made: How long can I spend in this place before I'll need to pee? Can I visit at all? Should I risk my dignity, and potentially my personal safety, by squatting somewhere out-of-the-way just to pee? By denying these facilities for half the year, Mayo County Council is effectively closing the beaches to a broad section of our society, and this is not equitable or acceptable. We call on Mayo County Council to immediately reopen the public toilets at all our beaches, and to keep these essential facilities open all year round.

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.

As customers of Dunnes Stores we are calling on the company to make their worker’s 10% Covid-19 premium and 20% staff discount permanent. Over the last 18 months workers in retail have been on the frontlines and helped keep food on our tables. They risked their health and their lives. Dunnes workers haven’t had a pay increase since 2019. The temporary Covid-19 premium doesn’t count when it comes to pensions or holidays. It’s time the company made the 10% premium and 20% staff discount permanent as a reward for the sacrifices their workers made on the frontlines during the pandemic. *Working in Dunnes Stores and not already a Union member? Join Mandate Trade Union today at www.joinmandate.ie.

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

Children deserve both parents to be with them when they are at their most vulnerable. Parents have an important role in the recovery of a sick child in hospital. It's an exhausting role with monitoring and comforting the child 24/7. It's extremely difficult to do single handedly. Simple tasks like a parent needing to go to the bathroom or find food aren't possible when only one parent can be with the child at any one time. A sick child is scared and doesnt want a parent to leave for a second or may only sleep on the parent. Parents are filling a role as carers in the hospital and they deserve and are entitled to support of their partners/childs other parent to help in this extremely distressing time. Hospital experiences even when surgical outcome is a success are extremely traumatic on both parents and the child. I can't even imagine how parents are dealing with bad news while on their own. On October 22nd Ireland is basically reopening. You can go clubbing again but 2 vaccinated parents of a sick child can't be with the child together. Please can you help us raise this issue for the sake of all those sick children and parents of sick children. If you have any experiences you would like to share to help others understand, please do.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.