Ireland

Crash at Cork Airport

February 10, 2011
By Stephen
Crash at Cork Airport

A crash happened this morning before 10am at Cork Airport. Manx2 Flight NM7100 from Belfast to Cork crashed in fog on its third attempt to land. 6 people have been confirmed dead. 12 people were on board the plane. The Airport is currently closed. All arriving  flights have been diverted to Shannon, all departing flights have been cancelled. Ryanair’s flights will be operating to and from Shannon. All travellers are advised to check with their airline before making alternative arrangements. All...

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ABC v Ireland (European Court of Human Rights)

December 16, 2010
By Stephen
ABC v Ireland (European Court of Human Rights)

Image via Wikipedia Today the European Court of Human Rights (not an EU body!) handed down its judgement on the case of ABC v Ireland on the issue of provision of Abortion in Ireland. As kind of expected the court declared A and B inadmissible as the existing prohibition on abortion in Ireland struck a fair balance between the right of the first and second applicants to respect of their private lives and the rights invoked on behalf of...

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Voting Rights for the Irish Diaspora?

October 5, 2010
By Stephen
Voting Rights for the Irish Diaspora?

Image via Wikipedia The Irish Left Review picked up on an EU survey by GlobalIrish.ie on emigrant voting rights. Ireland is the only country in the 20 surveyed to have to voting rights for Diaspora or plans to bring it in. Greece is being forced to bring it in after a ruling by the ECHR. Will an Irish emigrant bring a case to try and force Ireland to change? Shouldn’t we change anyway? European Country – Vote at national...

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Irish influence in the EU

September 19, 2010
By Stephen
Irish influence in the EU

Something on the European Movement Ireland page twigged my interest towards the end of last week. On Wednesday the Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs announced 27 new Heads of EU Delegation and 1 Deputy Head of EU Delegation. Of these 3 were Irish. That was the second highest number awarded to any country in this rotation. The full break down was as follows: Spain 5 Ireland 3 France 3 Germany 2 Netherlands Italy 2 Poland 2...

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World Suicide Prevention Day

September 10, 2010
By Stephen
World Suicide Prevention Day

Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. According to the World Health Organisation 1 million people commit suicide every year. That makes 60 deaths per 100,000 a suicide. Or another way to put it, one death every 40 seconds. This years theme is “Many Faces, Many Places: Suicide Prevention across the World”. This is to highlight the growing problem of Suicide in the Developing World. Here in Ireland 527 people committed suicide in 2009. This could be increased by the...

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Uniform Codeine Regulation Needed

August 29, 2010
By Stephen
Uniform Codeine Regulation Needed

As some of you may be aware I work for a pharmacy chain. As part of my job I cover the Pharmacy Counter. As of the 1st of August new regulations came in on the supply of products containing Codeine. This has created some confusion which is not helped by pharmacists! I have noticed from talking to friends, customers and pharmacists that each pharmacy and even sometimes branches within them, are adopting slightly different policies on the sale of...

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Is the demand for Gay Marriage down?

August 24, 2010
By Stephen
Is the demand for Gay Marriage down?

This is a question no one is asking after LGBT Noise’s  March For Marriage on Sunday. In 2009 Over 3,000 people took part in that Year’s March For Marriage. This year the number is down to 2000 (Figure from Irish Times). That is compared to the 5,000 22,000 people took part in Dublin Pride Parade and the 100,000 who lined the streets of Dublin for Pride. Why is this? Is it people are willing to give the Civil Partnership...

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Ireland and the EU – Past, Present, Future

May 31, 2010
By Stephen
Ireland and the EU – Past, Present, Future

I have been meaning to post this for awhile but I didn’t know it had been posted on youtube yet. I saw this at the Alliance Francaise Symposium and I loved it and I hope you will too. Very informative! This video was created by the Irish delegation to the EU’s 60th Anniversary Celebrations of the Schuman Declaration held over the weekend of May 9th 2010. The first screening of the video was in Scy-Chazelles, Robert Schuman’s birthplace and...

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OpenFM

May 27, 2010
By Stephen
OpenFM

Yesterday I met with Sam Lyons and Emma Carroll of OpenFM a temporary station that will be broadcast in Dublin over the pride season and will also be online. The idea behind the station is to create an open space for discussion on LGBT issues, mental health issues and anything else. It wants to create a community space. It wants every one to be open. This is a laudable goal. They have managed to recruit 72 volunteers who have...

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Challenge Europe 2010

April 15, 2010
By Stephen
Challenge Europe 2010

I received information today about a programme being run by the British Council. It is called “Challenge Europe 2010“. Challenge Europe aspires to make a definite and lasting impact on the climate change debate and is ambitious in its aim to accelerate change to a low carbon future. The philosophy of the campaign is simple: to create momentum through collaboration, innovations, energy, drive passion, understanding and knowledge-sharing They are looking for 15 young people from both sides of the...

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