All these bleeding horses
you can't hear yourself think
with the racket of their whinnying
last gasp call and answer chants
and Helen pet sheath those trojans
in your blouse there are no incognitos
in this herd, unless you're prone
to necrophiliac urges, move along love
there's nothing to see here
and that coach and four is less
than apocalyptic with its coconut shell
hoofbeats, not spellbound neither
these beasts are walking cold

Freetown, Sierra Leone

The Ballyhea Bondholder Bailout Protest, now in its 40th week and joined with Charleville (their 25th week) is about one issue, and one issue only – the transference of private debt to the public purse. In one word, and very pure, very simple, it’s wrong.

History

'Go here, Mac Roth,' Medb said. 'Ask Dáire to lend me Donn Cuailnge for a year. At the end of the year he can have fifty yearling heifers in payment for the loan, and the Brown Bull of Cualinge back. And you can offer him this too, Mac Roth, if the people of the country think badly of losing their fine jewel, the Donn Cuailnge: if Dáire himself comes with the bull I'll give him a portion of the fine Plain of Ai equal to his own lands, and a chariot worth thrice seven bondmaids, and my own friendly thighs on top of that.'

There is no way I know everything contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and any subsequent amendments between the Irish government and the ‘troika’. I am sure I am not alone in this. And that is at the core of the problem when it comes to drafting the budget. People I talk to just want to know what the score is in clear and understandable language and not in the double-speak of technocrats. Just plain and simple, so ‘we can get on with it’.

I am nearly fifty, and have five children aged nine to 21. I have worked through all my pregnancies, and when the children were babies, toddlers, and going off to school. My childminders were there for all their special moments. My fourth child has special needs, and when my mother developed senile dementia and other health problems she came to live with us, so I had no choice but to stop working.

AONTAS, the national adult learning organisation in Ireland, hosted a community education conference on 17 November 2011. The only topic on the agenda, both hidden and overt, was the threat to community education in this Shock Doctrine era as attempts are afoot to colonise community education for market ends. While many civil society groups are suffering acutely in the present environment of hostility to community emancipation, those working in community education are under particular stress.

A few years back, we had a Taoiseach who blamed US banks for the onset of Ireland's recession. Bertie Ahern claimed again recently in an interview that it was Lehman Brothers wot dun it, his imputation being that locally elected politicians could not be blamed for this economic crisis. We now know differently. This crisis is global, but, as Enda keeps reminding us, we are in this together.

I am a separated mother, paying a mortgage and raising a young son. I live in a small cottage in Dublin. I work hard for an NGO. I believe in equality, social justice and human rights. I am a socialist and a feminist. I do volunteer work outside of my job. I will never be rich. I am happy except for those times when I struggle to get to the end of the month with enough food to feed my child.

A re-imagining of Enda Kenny's State of the Nation address, by Brian Stafford.

Ladies, gentlemen, Mary and Michael middle Ireland, let me start by assuring you that Paddy still likes to know what the story is. So in the spirit of keeping Paddy informed I have decided to level with you out there in what I like to call the ‘vice gripped median’ (Note to self - get party to repeat this ad nauseam). This government is ready to take the tough decisions necessary to grow the economy.