If Darren Scully, the Fine Gael mayor of Naas, was feeling ‘sad’ yesterday, there is every chance his melancholy has taken a turn for the worse as today has progressed. Yesterday Cllr Scully was ‘sad’ preemptively, in case anyone would think him racist for refusing to deal with ‘Black Africans’ because of their ‘aggressive attitude‘. [...]

TASC Pre-Budget submission Towards an Equality Budget was launched today and can be downloaded from here. A TASC Note summarising the proposals is also available here.
According to TASC the proposals are designed to reduce deficit, support jobs and protect low-income groups.

From the press release:
Speaking this afternoon, TASC Director Nat O’Connor said that the narrow focus in previous [...]

Last Saturday night when disturbances in Tottenham began I tweeted the following “Its a bus and a few cars. Bigger problems in London that 24 hour news doesnt tell you to talk about.Keep calm and carry on. #tottenhamriot“.
It was not my intention to be as dismissive as it now seems I was . Rather, [...]

“… one in five Irish women who have ever been in a relationship experience physical, emotional, financial or sexual abuse.” (Margaret Martin, Director Women’s Aid)
The recent launch of the annual statistics report for 2010 by Women’s Aid on domestic violence serves once more to highlight the continuing abuse inflicted on so many women in Ireland [...]

TASC launches major new report on ‘Eliminating Health Inequalities - A Matter of Life and Death‘(pdf)
Today TASC is launching its first report on health inequality, which was written by health policy analyist and journalist Sara Burke and Head of Policy at TASC Sinéad Pentony.
It’s an important piece for work for anyone who has followed the [...]

Pirooz Daneshmandi talks to Kathleen Lynch, Professor of Equality Studies at U.C.D in an interview which was originally broadcast on Near FM on the 20th of April.
Pirooz discusses the topic of Professor Lynch’s book Equality: From Theory to Action, as well as broader issues of equality in a neoliberal society, the marketisation of education and [...]

Equality Studies at UCD invites applications for the following Postgraduates Programmes:

Grad Certificate in Equality Studies
Professional Certificate in Social Justice
Graduate Diploma in Equality Studies
M.Sc. in Equality Studies
PhD in Equality Studies

Equality Studies is unique. It is the only programme of its kind in Europe, addressing a wide range of equality, human rights, global justice and feminist issues.
Our [...]

MINUTES TO A MASSACRE
Setting:
Meeting Room, South Dublin County Council
Cast:
SEO
45 public servants

SEO: So the horses are counted and double-counted?

45 public servants: Yes Boss.
SEO: And there are 19 horses by each of the counts?
45 public servants: Yes Boss.
SEO: And you’ve got someone in charge of overseeing not giving notice to the owners?
45 public servants: Yes Boss.

At least since late 18th century, equality has been formally one of the social, political and economic objectives on the agenda of any society that has any claim to “civilisation”. This has, of course, not been without difficulty.
After all, those who are at the top of an unequal society don’t give up their wealth and [...]

To mark the centenary of the first International Women’s Day, the Communist Party of Ireland launched a booklet entitled “The Equality Delusion” to help develop the debate that is needed on equality and to challenge the notion that the equality agenda is something distinct and separate from class politics in Ireland today.
The deepening economic [...]