General

Travellers have used the area of Spring Lane in Cork for at least four generations. An area known as the ‘old Spring Lane site’ was a traditional camping ground for Travellers. In 1987, Cork City Council created an official ten-bay halting site with very basic facilities – electricity, simple toilets, cold running water and a […]

The Local Government Reform Bill 2013 is nearly through the Oireachtas. It gives effect to ‘Putting People First: Action Programme for Effective Local Government’, published in 2012 by the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government. The changes proposed will give ultimate control over local and community development to local authorities. This has been described […]

Seamus Sheridan doesn’t want to talk about cheese. “I love what I do and I know the jobs it supports but this isn’t really about me or Sheridan’s Cheesemongers”, he says. As an advocate for Irish food producers and the slow food movement, Sheridan could talk for Ireland on the subject of food but today […]

The Programme for Government’s commitment to review the policy-banning turf-cutting climaxed last month. And no one is sure who won. This is hardly surprising when Minister Deenihan’s full house was revealed to be more than 600 pages of documents – a draft National Peatlands Strategy, draft National Raised Bog Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) Management […]

May’s elections to the European people are far more important than just a test of public opinion about the state of our national political parties. Just over 388 million voters will elect 751 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who will play a key role in determining whether or not Social Europe can be rescued […]

After Christmas my voice was knackered from shouting abuse at the tellybox. Such was the fury, I thought I’d share it with Village, for therapy. For instance, one 30-second Vodafone TV ad tickled my comedy tummy much more racily than three whole hours of sit-com by Jason Byrne? In the advert, a woman runs in […]

A dynamic Seanad Éireann is crucial to a dynamic democracy. The Dáil hosts less and less challenging, expert-informed debate. Since last October’s referendum, many people are coming to a realisation of the need for Seanad reform that strengthens the institution. In its current form, although some great work does get done, the Seanad is only […]