Irish society remains deeply unequal despite massive wealth creation during the Celtic tiger years.   It is estimated that a mere 5% of the population hold 40% of the wealth in Ireland.
Discrimination as experienced by women, Black and minority ethnic people  including Travellers, older people, young people, lesbian, gay and transgendered people, lone parents, carers, people [...]

6 per cent of the those who took part in the 2010 Solidarity Factor, incorporating the results of TASC’s 2010 Equality Survey favour raising minimum wage, 29 per cent favour establishing maximum wage and 49 per cent favour combination of both approaches.
Commenting on the findings the equality think-tank’s Director, Paula Clancy, said today:
“There is now [...]

Book Review: Living Dolls: The Return Of Sexism, Natasha Walter (Virago 2010)

When the facts changed, Natasha Walter changed her mind. Or so she says in Living Dolls: The Return Of Sexism, a book that describes how raunch culture has co-opted the language of choice and liberation and how the post-feminist cultural politics of celebrating doll-like [...]

Book Review:The Equality Illusion: The Truth About Men and Women Today by Kat Banyard, Faber & Faber (2010)
28-year-old British activist Kat Banyard opens her polemic The Equality Illusion with a quote simply beyond satire from Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman of Marks and Spencer:
‘…there really are no glass ceilings despite the fact that some of you [...]

The most important aspect of the most recent Irish Times poll was not the 32% for Labour, but the combined 45% for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.
Individual polls tell you very little, it’s the overall trend that counts.
Since February 2009 Labour has scored from 20% to 25% in the MRBI polls. Their recent dramatic 10-point [...]

This article is an edited version of a presentation I gave at the “Equality in a time of crisis” conference organised by the Egalitarian World Initiative and the UCD School of Social Justice (May 6 - 7).
View as a PDF (select Save As to download)
Introduction: youthful mistakes
I was asked to talk for this paper about [...]

This article is a slightly edited version of a presentation I gave at the Equality in a Time of Crisis conference, organized by the UCD Egalitarian World Initiative (EWI) and the UCD School of Social Justice in UCD last week.
The issues raised by an agenda of workplace equality have urgent implications for trade unionists.
By [...]

I don’t know the motivation behind Minister Mary White’s first substantial decision since she was elevated: to commission assessments of three state bodies with responsibility for equality: the Equality Authority, the Equality Tribunal and the Human Rights Commission, which was reported in the Irish Times at the weekend.
Her motivation might be bad, in that it [...]

The recent tragic killing of Toyosi Shittabey behooves us all to critically reflect upon, and engage in national dialogue about, the true scale and nature of racism in Irish society today. The pervasiveness of racism in Irish society is a reality that a number of young people in the Tyrellstown area—where Toyosi was killed—have eloquently [...]

Every year one of Ireland’s leading anti poverty groups, Social Justice Ireland (formerly known as CORI Justice) produces a social and economic review.
This detailed report provides both a critique of government policy in the previous year and a set of alternatives aimed at producing a more equal society.
This years report is entitled, An Agenda for [...]