Rivermeade residents wage war to defend the 40B bus

The contrast between how the government treats the wealthy developers and bankers who are in trouble and ordinary people never fails to shock. While thousands were forced out onto the streets to protest against cuts in the health budget which have resulted in the closure of essential respite services for the families of those with intellectual or physical disabilities, the government continues its kid glove treatment of those who helped cause the economic crisis.

The Socialist Party is opposed to the visits to Ireland by Queen Elizabeth and Barrack Obama. €25 million will be spent wining, dining and protecting the Queen and Obama in a vain attempt to try to rebuild Ireland’s damaged reputation. The reputation of the Irish state was of course destroyed by the actions of the Irish capitalist class whose greed, corruption and unquestioning faith in the market has bankrupted the country.

After months of a delay the Murphy Commission Enquiry into Child Abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese has at last been published. Detailed in it is yet more details of the abuse of vulnerable children by priests in Dublin from the 1950s to the 1990s and the active cover up of this abuse by a succession of Archbishops.

The recent announcement by Willie O’Dea that there was no public money available for the regeneration of the most disadvantaged areas of Limerick city was quickly knocked off the national and local front pages by the dramatic fall from grace of Limerick’s most senior TD.