Society

The kids are not alright

The construction of a dedicated children's detention centre at Oberstown has been put on hold. While plans for the centre have not been entirely shelved, there is, worryingly, no clear indication of a timeframe for its completion. By Paul Walsh.

Problem solving

There should be no debate; in using its financial muscle to extort under threat tens of billions from the Irish exchequer, what the ECB is doing – with the complicity of the EU and the Irish Government complicit - is a crime. By Diarmuid O'Flynn.

That we have a major problem in the Irish economy at the moment is beyond question. How to solve it? The same way you solve any other problem, and using the same basic principles – go back to the source, then take whatever steps are necessary.

La Senza workers make a stand for all workers

On Monday 9 January 2011 a group of women workers from the La Senza lingerie chain occupied the company’s store in Liffey Valley Clondalkin after the company had sacked them and withheld their pay. Eoin Ó Broin  spoke to the spokesperson for the workers, 20-year-old Tara Keane from Inchicore, about the workers' experience of the week long occupation.

Time to legislate for life-saving abortion

Today marks the date in 1992 when the parents of a pregnant 14-year-old took their daughter to England for an abortion. She had been raped by a friend of the family. That same day in the High Court, Mr Justice Declan Costello issued a temporary injunction to prevent the abortion. Only hours after they had left, the family returned to Ireland. This became known as the X Case.

Ending the three shell game

The Fiscal Treaty is not particularly coherent economics, nor does it appear to be particularly coherent law. By Darren O'Donovan.

The word at the forefront of everyone’s mind for the next two weeks will be “referendum” – whether one is required or, from a more jaundiced perspective, whether the Government has leveraged the Fiscal Treaty text sufficiently to evade one. In this piece, I want to explore why even the most careerist of us should not envy the position of Attorney General Maire Whelan this weekend.

In defence of pyjamas

If someone wants to wear pyjamas, good for them. By Alistair Fraser.

I find the recent pyjamas hype pretty sickening. I have a job. I consider myself lucky, actually. I could quite easily be out of work; could quite easily have never found my way to the job I have, which I enjoy a lot.

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