By Oisin Kelly Following the strong Yes vote in the Marriage Equality referendum all teachers can now marry their partners, but some could get disciplined or sacked for it. Under Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act workers in education and health can be fired, not hired or marginalised at work if their sexual orientation, gender identity or family status ...

Ignore government bluster…

Michael O’Brien, AAA councillor and Socialist Party member The confidence anti-water charges activists derived from Irish Water and the government’s reticence about revealing the payment figures for the first water bill has proven to be well founded. On Tuesday, an admission came confirming a 57% boycott of the first bill, representing around 860,000 households out of the 1.52 million they ...

Greek media blackout of “Oxi” Irish people remember the incredible media bias during the Lisbon, Nice and “Austerity Treaty” referenda. That was nothing compared to the depths the media, in Greece and globally, sank to before the 5 July referendum. 36 people were interviewed in one a Mega TV bulletin, and surprise surprise, every single one of them was going ...

By Councillor Michael O’Brien The Labour Party is desperate to try demonstrate in the short time that remains for this government that it can deliver for workers. This, and the original scheduled expiring of the Haddington Road Agreement were the key factors motivating the negotiations resulting in the Lansdowne Road agreement they reached with the leaders of the public sector unions and which will go ...

By Kevin McLoughlin Working class people made the demonstration of 11 October last year a historic event. They mobilised themselves and changed the political situation in the whole country and in so doing they propelled Right2Water to a prestigious position of being a key convenor for this new movement. Incredibly within months in another historic mobilisation, the working class has ...

By Paul Murphy TD This article was written for the June Northern edition of “The Socialist”, paper of the Socialist Party. In the coming two years there will be a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union. Here Anti-Austerity Alliance TD and Socialist Party member Paul Murphy outlines why socialists oppose the European Union and why it is ...

By Stephen Boyd The BBC Panorama programme ‘Britain’s Secret Terror Deals’ has shed light again on the murky world that was the dirty war fought by the British state in Northern Ireland. This harrowing documentary focused on high-profile sectarian killings and assassinations in which it is alleged state forces such as the RUC, MI5, Special Branch and Army Intelligence protected ...

By Finghín Kelly The realities of “recovery” Ireland is in sharp contrast to the official propaganda we are daily fed. Nowhere is this more obvious than when we look at the housing crisis. Last month the Courts Service revealed that 586 repossession orders were granted by the courts in the first three months of this year. This represents a 600% ...

By Kevin Henry The vote for marriage equality in the South is an important point of inspiration in the fight for equality here. Many will also be disappointed that, once again, Northern Ireland is being left behind when it comes to LGBT rights, as well as women’s rights, while racist attacks increase and sectarian division continues to pervade society. DUP: ...