A gallery of photos from yesterday’s COP26 Global Day of Climate Justice in Glasgow. Exact numbers are hard to estimate – some reports say up to 100,000 people attended – and bystanders said it was the biggest march they had seen in Glasgow since the protests against the Iraq War in 2003. The weather… Read more »

  Today [5th November], the theme of COP26 negotiations in the Blue Zone is ‘Youth and public empowerment – Elevating the voice of young people and demonstrating the critical role of public empowerment and education in climate action’. Whether by coincidence or design, it also happens to be a Friday, and there is a massive… Read more »

“When leaders call us amazing they are handing over responsibility to us” adding that “I hand the responsibility right back to them”.

  On arriving in Glasgow, I met someone for lunch and then made my way to the train station in Argyle Street where I attempt to buy a ticket to the COP26 site on the quays of the Clyde. But as Robert Burns would say “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang… Read more »

The pilgrims will walk along the Union Canal between the two cities and are expected to arrive in Glasgow on the morning of Saturday 6th November, in time to merge with the Rally for Climate Action – the biggest gathering of the 12 days, predicted to attract up to 100,000 people.

It is necessary to consider what squatting reveals to us about the Irish housing system. While the communal squat at Prussia Street seemed very much in its infancy and may have been exploring new social forms, it is impossible to ignore the backdrop of Ireland’s worsening housing affordability crisis.

The property market has perpetually distorted Irish economic development for generations.  A large-scale, popular movement may be required to nudge our leaders out of their complacent and mis-placed deference to those who want to make a profit out of our homes.

Peter McVerry SJ was on the Whitaker Committee in 1984 which reported to government the following year that communities are made safer not when we imprison more people for longer, but when those we imprison are released as better people, with more skills, more opportunities open to them and more hope that their future can be different from their past.

  On October 4th, to mark the end of the Season of Creation and coinciding with National Tree Day, communities, schools and works across the Irish Jesuit Province were planting trees. We harbour no illusion that planting trees absolves us from the necessary, hard work of reducing our overall ecological impact. But this simple act… Read more »

For anyone who missed our ‘Cop On’ webinar with speakers Sean McDonagh and Jerry Mac Evilly about the COP26 climate summit, you can now watch a recording of the event.