Colette Browne
@colettebrowne
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Political and Communications Director @SocDems ; former columnist @Independent_ie , @irishexaminer ; barrister
Dublin, via Cork
Joined September 2009
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Amber Rudd's father died on Monday - and Theresa May still refused to attend tonight's
#BBCdebate
. That's cold.
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Notably, not a single British paper carries a pic of the Derry bomb aftermath on its front page - but it appears on the front page of the Indo, the IT and the Times here.
Northern Ireland is just not newsworthy in the UK - despite Brexit, the backstop and bombs.
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List of the DUP’s achievements while propping up the Tory government:
- Same sex marriage legalised ✅
- Abortion decriminalised ✅
- Border about to be introduced in the Irish Sea ✅
- Prospect of a united Ireland closer than ever ✅
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This is the first time in more than two years I’ve heard a British politician speak about the Irish border with any degree of insight and comprehension
"This is life and death to the people of Ireland."
Shadow Minister for Northern Ireland Stephen Pound MP, discussing Brexit's impact on Northern Ireland and Ireland, says as soon as you've got "uniformed officers on that border", the "peace process is finished".
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If Phil Hogan just said - “sorry, I got it wrong, I took a covid test and assumed that meant I no longer needed to self-isolate” - people would be much more forgiving. But the man is incapable of humility.
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Laura sadly passed away today, having spent her final months tirelessly campaigning to have young women get the cervical cancer vaccine. A remarkable young woman who made a big difference in a short amount of time. RIP
"I wish the vaccine had been available to me, of course I do. Don’t get swayed by rumours about the vaccine’s safety – get the vaccine" Watch Laura Brennan's story.
#ProtectOurFuture
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I can’t believe this is a real headline in a British newspaper.
The British government adopted herd immunity as a strategy, and ignored best practice from every single other European country, and then their media blame the Chinese when it goes wrong.
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Leo Varadkar was abiding by all the rules in the Phoenix Park. Like everyone who works, he deserves a break. Can curtain-twitching Twitter also take some time off?
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I need drink - went to the polling centre and they couldn’t find me so I burst into tears when I thought I couldn’t vote 😭
Very kind staff member at the polling centre called the returning officer in DCC and he found me eventually, so I voted
#repealthe8th
✊
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Don’t think I’ve ever seen a wine label as Gaeilge. Exciting!
Thought it would just be a translation of the English, but it contains evergreen red wine advice.
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Spot the Irish person in this report 😂😂 (via
@ronanfromcork
)
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Today, Obama donated $500m to a climate change fund and commuted Chelsea Manning's sentence.
Trump was sued by a woman he sexually assaulted
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My god. There is a woman in her 50s on
@rteliveline
in tears because she is living in a shed with no running water as she has nowhere else to go.
This hour of radio, documenting the experiences of older victims of the housing crisis, has been rage-inducing.
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How pathetic that Kate Middleton’s attendance at the vigil for Sarah Everard makes most of tomorrow’s front pages in the UK - instead of the haunting images of women being arrested for attending the same vigil a few hours later.
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Absolutely hilarious listening to
@mrjamesob
ask Brexiteers what they’ll be able to do in 15 years, in their Brexit utopia, that they can’t do now.
One guy says there’ll be no more rules coming from the EU. Asked what rule in particular he wants to get rid of, he can’t answer 😂
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Yesterday we learned passengers, whose covid status is unknown, are allowed continue their journeys into Ireland.
Today we learned hundreds of people, mainly walkers and cyclists, have been fined for travelling outside their 5km.
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Stephen Donnelly setting off to do another round of media interviews.
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Entire focus of Micheál Martin’s speech is to blame the new variant of the virus for the huge surge in cases — which conveniently absolves the Government of blame for its decision to open up hospitality, *against* public health advice, in early December.
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The Govt has made a complete balls of its covid plan, yet again. We locked down for six weeks in October, hoping to see our families briefly over Christmas and now, for many, that won’t be possible. Why? Because a few weeks of shopping and eating out took precedence instead.
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Supermac’s, which recorded €23.7m profit last year, charges their staff €1.60 a day for meals, whether they eat them or not.
I waitressed in small, family run restaurants - serving much nicer food - in school and in college and was never charged for a meal.
@TodayRadioRTE
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What are the chances that one of history’s most dangerous pathogens would coincide with an era when the most stupid sociopath in human history was occupying the world’s most powerful office?
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At the end of the year, raise a glass to all of the civil servants - in the Dept of Health, HSE, Social Protection and elsewhere - who have been working crazy hours under insane pressure since March.
They rarely get a mention but their work is hugely important and appreciated.
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How hard can it be to *not* sing “up the Ra” when there is a massive media spotlight on your party? 🤔
#GE2020
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Ireland’s explanation of coronavirus is getting technical
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Micheál Martin says the requirement for a PCR test before travelling is a deterrent - “we don’t want people travelling”, he says.
If you don’t want people travelling, introduce a mandatory two-week quarantine! A PCR test is not a deterrent!
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So, politicians are currently trying to give the Gardai extra powers to enter private homes and break up parties - while many of them attend illegal gatherings in hotels. Cool.
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In 2001, Cheltenham was cancelled because of foot and mouth disease - but the festival is going ahead this week despite coronavirus cases multiplying across the UK and contagion causing a lockdown of 60m people in Italy. Madness.
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Danny Healy Rae has missed more than 85% of Dail votes while Michael Healy Rae has missed 90%.
There are only 158 people in the country who can act as legislators. It is a complete abdication of their responsibilities as TDs to skip these votes.
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This image from
@homeless_cafe
- of an elderly woman who eats her dinner from a plastic bowl on a window sill on the streets in Dublin every week - is truly shocking and should be the defining image of Ireland as it faces into a general election.
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The Housing Minister just spent five minutes refusing to answer a simple question on
@drivetimerte
- how many affordable and cost rental homes, of this year’s 4,100 target, have actually been delivered.
The answer is 157 - which explains the Minister’s reluctance to answer.
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Also: why is Ireland the only EU country that Americans can fly to? Meanwhile, America’s borders are closed to Irish tourists.
Worked my ass off in ICU the past few months alongside my colleagues, nurses, doctors, admin staff, porters, & cleaning staff while my family made sacrifices to accommodate my job.
@MichealMartinTD
@DonnellyStephen
why are American tourists not quarantining on arrival to Ireland?
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Does the country really need operation transformation during a strict level 5 lockdown?!
I, for one, will be consuming only wine and chocolate. 🍫 🍷
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Instead of getting hysterical about anecdotal reports of house parties, can we maybe focus on the fact the test and trace system is crumbling under the burden of a relatively marginal increase in cases?
Whose fault is that? Hint: it’s not young people.
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The Govt’s entire covid strategy is based on the public staying in our homes indefinitely - with no end in sight. Everything is dependent on us.
We cannot do it alone. We need mandatory quarantine, public health teams to be adequately funded and comprehensive test & trace.
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Micheál Martin defends the suspension of social welfare payments for those who travel abroad, even though the policy is not based on any actual law. Why can’t he just admit this is a mistake and is wrong?
If they want a travel ban, introduce one for EVERYBODY. Not just the poor
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"Rather than quarantining incomers in a hotel for two weeks, our government opted to quarantine five million Irish citizens in our homes indefinitely instead."
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This picture is the personification of our abortion law - old men thinking they know best for women.
#repealthe8th
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Plainclothes LUAS inspector just produced his credentials from underneath his jacket, brandished them in the air and yelled “surprise!” to the people on this carriage 😂
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If you’re feeling weary and depressed, there is a reason. Ireland has had the longest lockdown in Europe - by a large margin.
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I’ve tried to think of other ways to announce “personal news” without resorting to the overused phrase “personal news” ... and I’ve failed.
So anyway, here’s some personal news! I am joining
@SocDems
as Communications Director.
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I really can’t understand why TDs, barristers and lawyers have been advised not to spend more than two hours in the same large room; while workers in meat processing plants, doing difficult manual labour, are working long shifts.
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Like almost every other Irish person, I have had flu like symptoms for the entire winter. How will I know when I get coronavirus?!
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“
@tconnellyRTE
is so well regarded that when he sent out an optimistic tweet today, the pound rose,” says Eddie Mair on
@lbc
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Leo Varadkar says the Govt and Nphet “need to get back on the same page”. No they don’t.
Nphet have a singular public health mandate - their advice should not be influenced by Govt.
#cblive
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It is completely mad that schools are remaining open here on Monday and Tuesday - for just 1.5 days of term, which could have been added on at the end of the year instead.
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Leo Varadkar says the Govt, by moving to level 5, is making a “preemptive strike against the virus”.
Moving to level 5 would have been a preemptive strike 2 weeks ago, when Nphet first advised moving to level 5 for four weeks, not six.
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The explanation for appalling Govt communications is neither FF nor FG trust each other to remain silent in advance of big decisions - mainly due to Leo Varadkar repeatedly stealing Micheál Martin’s thunder last year - so everyone is shooting their mouth off constantly.
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More exit poll results
• 77% in favour of a united Ireland
• 90% say Gov needs to prioritise climate change
• 54% don’t trust Gov to manage the public finances
• 70% believe immigration has benefited country
• 85% happy Ireland is more liberal
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I am so fed up of being told I am whinging whenever I raise the mildest criticism of what’s going on. We are not nodding donkeys, we can ask questions.
Yes, I am in awe of medics on the front line. But, we can also ask questions of the Govt and its approach during this crisis.
@colettebrowne
@GerHerbert1
@delexical
Seriously Colette People are dying & you want to gripe about your right to go to the shop everyday for milk or your right not to tell the Guards what you're shopping for My son & others have risked their lives on the front line. Now is not the time for this kind of 'resistance'
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The landlord claiming his stupid video was satire doesn’t know the meaning of the word. Satire punches up - it is a weapon deployed by the powerless against the powerful.
Taking the piss out of tenants squeezed into overcrowded substandard accommodation is not satire.
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Friend told me two weeks ago that his 9yo nephew had come home from school saying abortion was murder. The next campaign must be to dismantle the Church’s monopoly control of the education system. ✊
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“Fuck knows, I’m past caring, it’s like the living dead” - an unnamed Minister quoted on
@BBCNewsnight
when asked why Theresa May was having another vote tomorrow.
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Can anyone imagine a woman, in a public position like Dominic Cummings, using their child to excuse her behaviour to the extent that he is doing today?
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"You don't deliver democracy by trashing democracy. We are not selecting a dictator,"
@sajidjavid
on proroguing parliament back in June.
I assume
@sajidjavid
is currently tendering his resignation to democracy trasher/dictator Boris Johnson.
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It’s ridiculous to say Micheál Martin should not go to Washington for St Patrick’s Day if an invite is extended.
The Irish delegation will enjoy huge access to the new administration, esp given Biden is the most proudly Irish American President ever. That access is important.
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They love the NHS so much they want to come visit them in work soon
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In Ireland, if one person dies in a car crash it makes headlines. We know their names, their families and their communities.
There have now been 1,232 deaths from covid-19 and we know almost nothing about the deceased - despite the fact the grief from their loss is no less acute
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This is pretty bizarre - the media can ask whatever questions they like, we don’t live in an autocracy.
This is not good look.
One of
@DonnellyStephen
advisors,
@colette_sexton
trying to stop the media from asking questions on
#GolfGate
Fair play to them for ignoring her suggestion.
#RecallTheD
áil
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“Croatian who died in fatal Dublin assault was attacked for ‘not speaking English’ as pal pays tribute to ‘brother’”
Never thought I’d read a headline like that in Ireland
Levels of overt racism and violence are frightening
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In the UK, if you live alone or are a single parent you can still have household visits from a ‘support bubble’ - members of one other household.
A similar measure should be introduced here. Asking people who live alone to renounce all household visits is cruel and unnecessary.
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Eamon Ryan exhorting people to grow lettuce on “south facing windowsills” so “we will have our salads ready to go”, if there is a food supply crisis in two to three months time, has at least provided us with a much needed laugh in these trying times.
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Last week, Nphet recommended the country enter level 5 for four weeks.
Today, the crisis is so bad it’s recommending a level 5 lockdown for SIX weeks.
Failing to act may mean we are trapped with higher restrictions for much longer - damaging the economy and society even more.
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Lost my cousin Caroline, who was buried on Saturday. Thinking of everyone who has lost someone, and is missing someone, this Christmas. 💔
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This piece by Justine McCarthy, on why she will be voting yes, seethes with a quiet undulating rage - it’s raw, personal and powerful.
#repealthe8th
#togetherforyes
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It actually makes no sense for Dublin zoo to remain closed during the lockdown. It’s outdoors, easy to control crowds and one of the safest, and most enjoyable, activities for families in the capital.
#SaveDublinZoo
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I absolutely understand people being opposed to abortion. I will never understand them seeking to impose their opposition on women who feel differently.
#repealthe8th
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This is extraordinary:
99.7% of over-18s in Waterford are now fully vaccinated.
Not only the most vaccinated county in Ireland - but surely the most vaccinated region in the world?!
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Schools WERE SAFE when covid was at low levels in the community. They are not safe when covid is EVERYWHERE.
This isn’t difficult.
#rtept
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My mother and aunt are watching
#dianainherownwords
and just muttering "bastard" whenever Charles appears on screen.
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Awful to hear people saying they are worried and scared about asylum seekers being located in their local towns. There have been almost zero prosecutions of asylum seekers for any crimes. Where are the local politicians who should be dispelling these myths and scaremongering?
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Female TDs get enough grief without having to deal with snide articles about their clothing - and you don’t have to wear a uniform of navy and black to be professional.
Anyone who manages to wear anything other than joggers and runners these days is doing well imho. 💅
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Saw a frail old man in town with a crutch and no jacket looking confused, asked him if he needed help and he wanted assistance crossing the road. Got talking and he is homeless and living in a hostel. I gave him what little cash I had. We are a rich country. We should do better.
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According to this, it doesn’t matter how bright individual kids in disadvantaged schools may be - their final Leaving Cert grades will be adjusted downwards because of their schools’ past performance.
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Friend went to a Garda station yesterday to get on the supplemental register. Garda told her that “she had never seen anything like the numbers registering” 🙌
You have until May 8 to register and help us
#repealthe8th
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Lots of government TDs took part in the Darkness into Light walk - but what use is a walk when people with mental health issues who do seek help find there’s none available?
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If the journalists in the White House Correspondents Association have any backbone - and regard for an unfairly maligned colleague, Jim Acosta - they should all stage a walk out and refuse to cover the White House until Acosta is reinstated.
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Google maps has just revealed my most amazing trip destination in January
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What a shocker that attempting to hire security staff on contracts that ask them to be available for 40 hours work a week, but only guarantees 20, doesn’t seem to be working to address chronic staff shortages.
Due to significant queues inside the terminal for check-in, bag drop & security, passengers queueing outside the terminal may not make their flight & may need to contact their airline to rebook. We sincerely apologise for the obvious frustration and inconvenience this may cause.
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Paschal Donohoe asks listeners to ask themselves how they would feel if a country banned travel from Ireland?
Pretty understanding actually if we had a coronavirus outbreak and the entire population was in lockdown, like in Italy!
#todaysor
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Apparently, Helen McEntee now thinks it’s important “not to get caught up” in labelling the groups involved in yesterday’s protests.
So, it’s important to label groups if they are from the far-left, but not if they are far-right?
@thisweekrte
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Unless you all want to emerge from the lockdown with scurvy, fruit pickers are essential workers.
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Bit ironic for the DUP leader Arlene Foster to argue that “things evolve” in relation to the Good Friday Agreement - when a substantial number of her party don’t believe in evolution 🤔
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I hope everyone who wrote columns about the Yes campaign being in disarray and disorganised is preparing to eat their words.
#repealthe8th
#togetherforyes
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Phase 1 explained: the posh sports are reopening, wear masks and you can see 4 friends/family outdoors within 5km. The end.
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Pretty disingenuous for Stephen Donnelly to say SF have promised “free houses” and “no taxes” for everyone. Their manifesto pledges to build 100,000 public houses - the same number that FF has promised. SF’s manifesto also includes €3.8bn of tax increases!
#rtept
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‘Each en-suite bedroom will be 16.5sqm (177sq ft). The recommended min size for a disabled parking space is 17.2sqm’
Eoghan Murphy thinks young people should be excited to pay €1,300pm for a room smaller than a parking space with no kitchen facilities
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Can someone who can’t be relied on to provide coherent details of a holiday to Ireland, be trusted to negotiate multi billion euro trade deals in the EU?
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It is NOT triumphalism to celebrate the achievement of something you have worked towards for YEARS, some for DECADES - particularly when that *thing* is the removal of a human rights abuse from our constitution.
#repealthe8th
#togetherforyes
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They’ve known about the problem in meat factories for months - and people have been calling for the abolition of direct provision for 20 years
Stephen Donnelly says there should be reform/abolition of workplace practices/direct provision in light of the cases we have seen in Kildare, Laois and Offaly in recent weeks.
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Is this 2020 or 1920? Scarlet for the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland.
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