You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2013.
In a new departure here’s a round up of the week with added hyperlinks.
Warning: ambitious careerists
may now be disguised as “progressives.”
Hopefully you’ve had a productive morning, well found an Easter egg at least. We’ve had our busiest week so far at the Irish Student Left Online. While we’d love to claim all the credit some thanks must go to the Union of Students in Ireland who really made life easy for us. Read the rest of this entry »
Sarah McCarthy writes about the scandal that has raged this week about banks possibly forcing parents to give up their jobs.
There has been a good deal of uproar this week about the soon to be published Personal Insolvency Service guidelines. The controversy has centred around the possibility that parents whose incomes is less than the cost of their family’s childcare will be forced to quit their jobs.
What Happened?
Can a video by itself justify a post? Well we think it can. Champion of getting questions answered Vincent Browne is interviewed by Niall Dunne of Campus Television Network of UCD about the state of student politics.
Enjoy!
Disillusioned with the results in the Meath East by-election? Well Shane Fitzgerald is here to give you the break down on the the crisis in Irish politics. You know the small matter of people not voting.
Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee who was elected in the Meath East by-election
The Meath East by-election(#mhe13) is over. Helen McEntee just about wins the seat which her father, Shane McEntee (RIP) had until recently been incumbent of. Read the rest of this entry »
More controversy from Congress: UCD walk off congress floor in pro-austerity direct action campaign launch, Joseph Loughnane gives us the lowdown…
The UCD delegation to the USI Congress walked out in protest at the fact that they couldn’t speak against a motion that proposed that the Union of Students in Ireland starts to work with other anti-austerity campaigns. You would be forgiven for thinking that I made this up, I wish I had.
Róisín Jackman of Queen’s University Belfast writes about the controversy surrounding the removal of QUB Students’ Union delegate Aisling Gallagher, The NUS-USI Womens’ Officer, from her delegation for claims that she voted against her Union’s mandate on abortion services twice. Róisín raises questions about the legitimacy of these mandates and questions the democratic structures of the student movement. Business as usual some would say. Read the Trinity News story here.
Contentiously at this year’s Union of Students in Ireland (USI) Congress, a delegate from Queen’s University Belfast Students’ Union was stripped of her delegacy rights and barred from participation at Congress. This was the result of her voting in favour of two motions which the Executive Management Committee (EMC) argued equated to her breaking QUBSU mandate. She initially received a warning having voted in favour of a pro-choice motion and was stripped of her delegacy after voting in favour of a motion instructing the USI Welfare Officer to lobby against agencies giving out misinformation to individuals who may seek abortions. Read the rest of this entry »
How’s your congress going? Or did you ever wonder what goes on at USI congress? Well you probably didn’t but ISLO gives you a quick run down of some things to look out for. Words by Eoin Griffin, inspiration drawn from years of observation. Many thanks to everyone at MSU and USI for making it possible. Also thanks due to Thobias.
USI is the representative body for 250 000 students on the island of Ireland. It’s pretty much a big deal. It’s highest decision making body is congress which takes place annually sometime around Easter. Delegates from the 4 corners of the country descended on Ballinasloe this week for a bit of debate and represntin’ well that’s what they say anyway. To find out more follow the twitter hash tag #usi13 or ask your SU for a report on it. Read the rest of this entry »
Fiona Dunkin makes her debut for the blog with a feature on the nasty prevalence of street harassment in Irish society. This piece originally appeared here in the College Tribune of UCD. You can learn more about combating street harassment here .
“There was a phase where we’d be walking into college and get terrible abuse from guys driving by in cars, in broad daylight, sometimes quite early in the morning. They’d beep the horn, just generally shout at us, one awful one was in the morning I think and the two of us were just walking along, they shouted out the window something along the lines of “We can smell ye from here”. There was another day where two guys tried to get the two of us to come over to them, they were like standing down the dodgy side of the canal and they just kept pestering us…”
“Walking through the snow last winter at about 4 pm in Balbriggan and out of no where a middle aged man (sober) by himself walked past me and grabbed my upper thigh, saying ‘hello’, I was totally shocked and could just about muster a ‘fuck you, pervert’ but he just stood there and stared at me so I ended up just rushing off.”
“I had a fifty something man walk up to me on O’Connell street, leer at me and shout out ‘Nice tits’…I can honestly say it was absolutely mortifying. I was by myself, which made the whole thing worse. Apart from being mortified, I felt quite disgusted. I just kept thinking that he shouldn’t have been able to do that. Why could he just walk up, have a stare and say that to me?” Read the rest of this entry »
Is our world doomed to inevitable failure, regression and disorder? In the following piece, Adam Loughnane discusses…
Our World is one of rampant corruption and of unmitigated greed, of bankrupt morality and of thriving injustice. Our World is one of disinformation and misinformation, of conflicts of interest and of boundless deceit. Our World is one of celebrated ignorance, of indolent skepticism and of contagious apathy. Our World is one of omnipresent egoism, of distractions both blatant and devilishly elaborate. Our World is one of decrepit institutions, of malfunctioning systems and of an incompetent establishment. Our World is one of political homogeneity, of mass-produced bureaucrats and of depressing hypocrisy. Our World is one of conscienceless capitalism, of deaths both tragic and utterly preventable. Our World is one of counterfeit guardians, of clandestine pogroms and of censored protestors. Our World is one of impotent charity, of scandals too heinous to even believe. Our World is one of the privileged and the unfortunate and of a divide that has now become immeasurable. Our World is one of misplaced respect, of intellectual cowardice and of absent belief. The delusional puppet of the Global Ruling Class, our World is doomed to inevitable failure, regression and disorder. Read the rest of this entry »
“It’s Okay Ladies; I Got This!”
– Sarah McCarthy writes about Eamon Gilmore’s recent refusal to attend an males-only dinner in the US.
On his St. Patrick’s Day trip to the US, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore decided to skip the traditional visit to the city of Savannah in Georgia. He did so to avoid the awkward moment of having to turn down an invitation to attend the Hibernian Society’s men-only annual dinner. Apparently, this “bold move” means we should now all pat him on the back for his feminist-ally credentials.
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