Pioneering App-making Open Data workshop at Insight Centre of NUI Galway.

A pioneering workshop took place today at my workplace of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics NUI Galway. A team of dedicated volunteers of Pueng Narumol, Bianca Pereira, Niall O'Brolchain, Eoin Jordan brilliantly led by Souleiman Hasan delivered a pioneering app-making course based on Open Data. The latter are defined as facts and statistics that are freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.
In Ireland open data produced by public bodies such as government departments, local authorities and research institutes are stored on the website Data.Gov.ie  www.datagov.ie. The information available is vast and varied, covering topics such as population statistics from the national Census, yacht mooring locations, value and weight of fishing landings, family farm income, farm size, livestock numbers, traffic accident statistics, Luas stop locations, CO2 emissions by type of fuel and by engine size, and locations for playgrounds and protected structures. 

Utilisation of Open Data can bring great enormous benefits to society. Our institute Open Data expert Niall O'Brolchain is working hard to promote this message in the corridors of power across Ireland and particularly in Galway where he is a leading advocate for its development as a Smart City.
For me, 2016 will be the 'Year of App-Making' and the 'Year of Open Data' as I plan to organise a series of thematic courses in second-level schools as well as with my good friend Eoin Jordan in Coderdojo Galway city

Thousands Sign Petition over Neighbourhood Centre

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Over 2,100 people from the Ballinfoile Mór and Castlegar areas have already signed a petition demanding that the new Ballinfoile/Castlegar Neighbourhood Centre be maintained as a public facility to serve the needs of the local residents. So well done to all the local activists that made this happen and who stood yet again outside City Hall last Monday to make the feelings of their community on the centre known to councillors.

The issue which has been on the agenda of the city council for the last three monthly meetings is finally expected to be voted upon by councillors on March 14th.  Representatives from the local community have had discussions recently with council officials and a number of our key concerns over peak hours, board of management community representation, discounted rates and prioritising jobs in the centre for local people, as well as an absolute guarantee that there will be no privitisation of the Ballinfoile/Castlegar Neighbourhood and Sports Centre have been acceded too.  However our focus is still to keep the facility under local government management/staffing in association with the local community as well as to ensure that its annual council budget is not reduced. Hence we will continue to campaign on these demands and a public meeting is being planned to discuss the proposals on Social Enterprise from the council officials and associated costings of the centre once they are finalised after further consultations.

But we can learn a lot from experiences of the Knocknacarra area where there has been a similar publicly-owned facility in operation for a number of years but with quite limited hours of opening. The council now wish to put both centres out to tender under a Social Network enterprise. The Knocknacarra community have years of experience on the issue of public ownership and are presently putting their own counter proposal together. In a conversation with Gerry Corbett, chairperson of the Knocknacarra Sports and Facilities Co-Op, their approach as outlined seems very advantageous in serving the needs of local residents. So it makes total sense to, as well as show the council’s proposal on tendering of the centre, to invite Gerry and his team to outline the plans of their co-operative to our proposed public meeting as well as to invite Tommy Flaherty from the Ballybane Centre to give us his opinion.  A gathering of local centre activists will be called upon soon to discuss this approach.

The people of Ballinfoile Mór have fought for 30 years for this indoor community complex. We owe it to those who stood with us over many decades; to those thousands of people who signed our recent door-to-door petition and to future generations not yet born to ensure that the centre will always serve, be owned, managed and used by the local people.

Tomorrow Roisin is organising an informal get-together of local residents at 7pm in 50 Baile an Chóiste. Thanks Roisin! 

Happy Birthday CoderDojo Galway​

The first meeting of Coderdojo Galway city, January 2012

In January 2012, a small group of enthusiastic volunteers got together in the Computer and Communications Museum at the DERI Building NUI Galway under the auspices of Ado Bannon​ to discuss setting up a weekly coding club for children. The people present were inspired by the ‘Coderdojo’ model established by student James Whelton and entrepreneur Bill Liao in Cork six months previous.
Around the same time, the growing popularity of a free downloadable easy-to-use graphic block-based computer coding language from MIT in the United States known as Scratch made the dream of teaching every kid in the world how to programme achievable.
Attending that first pioneering meeting was Michael Madden​ Rob Stocker, Lisa Corcoran, Steve Holmes, ​Patrick Denny, Adrian Bannon and myself (Brendan Smith).
The rest as they say is history.

From day one, there has been enthusiastic support from parents, children and schools. Coderdojo Galway city now provides seven different sessions on Saturdays ranging from Arduino electronics, 3D printing to Scratch Beginners. It has spawned Coderdojos in Mayo, Roscommon and in many towns and villages across the length and breath of county Galway.
The club has endeavoured to promote social inclusion message and includes asylum seekers and travellers amongst its learners (ninjas). It has broadened its membership base to include teenagers and teen-centric sessions.
With its volunteer ethos, its local community structure and commitment towards upskilling the youth of Ireland, it is the 21st century technology version of that reputable and legendary Irish institution – the GAA. No higher praise could be given to a  movement that has captured the imagination of a whole country.
Thank you Ado Bannon for planting the seed that has grown into a giant entity with many branches that is in 2016 firmly rooted in Galway soil.

Creating an Online Archive of Life in Local Communities in 20th century Ireland

Lawrencetown National School, co. Galway, 1946

As part of my Outreach work at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway in association with the Galway Education Centre and Galway County Council I am providing an online facility for schools and active retirement groups to digitally archive stories, films and photographs of life in their localities over the last one hundred years as part of their contribution to the Easter Rising commemorations.

 

Junior Infants class, Creggs National School, 1971

The BEO (Irish for ‘alive’) project is a wonderful opportunity to commemorate the struggle for Irish independence and its subsequent impact on the lives of of ordinary people. It provides a way to capture online the changing face of local communities throughout a century, that experienced phenomenal economic, social, cultural and political change, by collecting and digitizing the pictures and words of ordinary people that have been handed down through families over many decades. 

 

At Coxtown Bog, Kiltormer, co. Galway, 1940s

In spite of the massive transformations that Ireland has experienced in technologies, economics and population movements since 1916, the parish school in many parts of the country still serves as the heart of its locality and the people that reside there. It is probably the only vibrant communal institution left that can act as the gatherer of such heritage material. 

 

Donkey & Trap, McEvoy family, Roscommon, 1909

The BEO project has been in operation for a number of years at this stage and has provided a lovely way particularly for the Irish Diaspora to re-connect with history of their youth, or that of their parents or grandparents. 

Honeymooning in Killarney (Carmel Garvey), 1957

Participating schools as well as heritage and active retirement groups are encouraged to host social evening BEO local heritage events for members of the local community, where attendees bring along or enjoy viewing images and artifacts of their school and geographical area in times past that offer a unique insight into an older Ireland of communal harvesting, livestock markets, religious devotion, a belief in banshees and fairies, turf cutting, dance halls, the ‘Big House’ and the small family farm. Much of this priceless heritage material brought to the school or community hall is often kept in family photo albums stored in attics, wardrobes and drawers often forgotten about as the years pass. 

 

Harvesting, Eyreville, co. Galway 1940s

The digitised images are then placed on a shared website for the benefit of present and future generations. There will be an information session for schools interested in taking part in the BEO project at 5pm on Tuesday next February 2^nd in the Galway Education Centre.

Scanning old photos. BEO Local Community Heritage Night, Lawrencetown School 2015

Restoring bogs, wetlands and forests is key to flood defence

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Reedbed in Terryland Forest Park, Dyke Road, Galway city

The large scale flooding being experienced by Ireland and destroying many people’s homes and livelihoods is partly a result of man-made global climate change where the warming of the atmosphere is leading to ever more stormy weather and heavy rainfall across north western Europe.  But in the case of this country it is also due to the serious loss of natural habitats such as bogs, wetlands and floodplain meadows that use to soak up and retain water. Furthermore there is the added problem in our rural areas of compacted soil caused by intensive grazing and other modern farming practices as well as increased urbanisation characterised by concrete and tarmac surfaces which do not absorb rainwater. Rivers are becoming ever more disconnected from their natural floodplains by land reclamation for built development and the construction of defences that include forcing water into narrower channels that will inevitably overflow or burst their banks in this epoch of increased rainfall.

Building in Floodplains: A Madness Driven by Greed

Our politicians and the National Emergency Co-ordination group have to realise that building more flood-walls, culverts and canals are expensive solutions that in many cases are doomed to failure. Sustainable flood relief can only come about by making more space for water and not less which is sadly what we have been doing for far too long. Building in flood-plains against expert advice merely to satisfy the demands of landowners and property speculators was one of the most calamitous political errors of the last few decades and which is now coming back to haunt us. Recently former Minister of the Environment and Local Government Noel Dempsey stated that counties such as Galway, Roscommon and Cork that are suffering greatly at present were some of the very counties that the government had to issue directions to change their draft development plans because the guidelines on flood-risk management were being ignored. Don Moore of the Irish Academy of Engineering stated bluntly on RTE Radio News “that the message of the future is clear –don’t ever build on a flood plain.”  The environmental NGO An Taisce were warning for decades of the consequences of building in such areas and in the process were harangued by politicians of the main political parties for being ‘anti-development’. In the case of Galway, the organisation has recently reminded the public of their disagreements with the blocking of turloughs in the southern part of the county and the deforestation in the Slieve Aughty mountains as well as their call for a single authority for the River Shannon. Insurance cover for huge numbers of families like my own who bought properties in what we were not told at the time were located in flood-plains is a ‘councillors-caused’ disaster that has to be addressed and accounted for.

Work with Nature, not against it

There is now an urgent need now to radically transform our approach by developing a new strategy to work with Nature and not against it. As well as restoring riverine reedbeds, marshes, callows, bogs and coastal wetlands, the state needs to partner local communities and landowners in implementing a nationwide policy of native tree planting to create forests and woodlands including in urban areas as we are doing in Galway city through the Terryland Forest Park where nearly 100,000 trees have been planted by a partnership of the city council, environmentalists, schools and residents groups since 2000.  Recognised scientific research shows that one large tree can lift up to 450 litres of water out of the ground and discharge daily it into the air. It is estimated too that for every five percent of tree cover added to an area, storm-water runoff is reduced by approximately two percent.

Green Engineering

We need to look at best methods of engineering water absorption into our urban built environment by for instance placing rooftop gardens on buildings, replacing concrete plazas by wooded parks and piping rainwater into toilet cisterns.

It would be a major policy shift for the Irish state to move towards expanding rather than destroying natural habitats. But we have to realize that we are part of nature and not above it. It was the latter philosophy that brought about catastrophic global climate change and the COP21 Paris international conference signed by all governments of the world recognised this. So now is the time for the Irish state to honour its international commitments and use the geographical processes of the Earth to develop long-term sustainable natural defenses against flooding. 

Join Us for A Protest Tomorrow (Mon) to ensure that Local Community Facilities Belong to Local Communities

Protest by Ballinfoile Mór residents  for Recreational & Community facilities outside City Hall in 1989

Please join residents of Ballinfoile Mór-Castlegar and people from across Galway city at 2.30pm tomorrow (Monday) for a gathering outside City Hall who will be calling on councillors to ensure that the new Ballinfoile/Castlegar Neighbourhood/Sports Centre and other city community facilities such as Knocknacarra and Westside remain in public ownership for the benefit of local communities.

We are concerned that the latest proposal being put forward by officials for a public-private partnership is the first step along the slippery slope to privatisation. If this happens, residents will be priced out of usage of a much needed multi-purpose community and sports facility that they have lobbying/protesting for since 1986, which represents probably the longest running local residents’ campaign in Ireland during modern times, as profit will take priority over social needs.

Protest by Ballinfoile Mór residents for Recreational & Community facilities outside City Hall in 1989

In 1989 a concerted community campaign (see photo of campaigners outside City Hall in July 1989 including me!) did secure an agreement, eleven years after the first housing estates appeared, to immediately build outdoor recreational facilities including tennis courts, children playgrounds, park-lands, sports playing fields with associated changing rooms. But not indoor facilities.
The final decision on the centre’s future will have to made soon. We were informed though by Mayor Frank Fahy yesterday that the council is postponing a decision until the February meeting as its CEO has been involved for the last month as a member of the national coordinating group in tackling flood relief and understandably did not have the necessary time to complete a preparatory report on the facility. But nevertheless, activists feel that it is vital that we continue to make our feelings on this issue known to local councillors and to contine with the protest tomorrow outside City Hall. So please make every effort to attend and encourage others (family, friends and neighbours) to do likewise. Even if you are not from our area, we would appreciate your support as this issue is about ensuring that every citizen of Ireland has a basic right to community and recreational facilities which is increasingly threatened due to the cutback to public services as a result of the last government’s decision to force taxpayers to pay for the gambling debts of a rich well connected elite of bankers and property speculators. Local government authorities such as Galway City Council are being slowly chipped away via public jobs embargoes and decreasing funds to such an extent that, within a few years, they will be reduced to the role of glorified supervisory agents staffed by a few people contracting out vital utility services to companies some of which are owned by the very people that bankrupt the country.

Protest leader Brendan Smith with Councillor Jimmy Brick at Ballinfoile Mór residents protest for Recreational & Community facilities outside City Hall in 1989

Demands
So we want to ensure that councillors keep by the commitments made by CEO Brendan Mc Grath at the November budget meeting that:
- peak hours will be retained for local groups/individuals
- Low rental fees would be charged to local groups/individuals
- People from the locality must be well represented on the oversight/management board.
Furthermore we request that:
- local community representation makes up at least 50% of the oversight board
- the new jobs that will accrue in this facility will be given to local people where possible.
- the facility remains in public ownership.
If these just demands are not meet, our long struggle would have been all for nothing.

Councillor Michael D. Higgins (now President of Ireland) with Councillor Bridie Flaherty (on left) at the community protest by Ballinfoile Mór residents for Recreational & Community facilities outside City Hall in 1989

Planning: The Continent Way

Since the construction of the first housing estate in the locality in the late 1970s, compulsory charges were placed on house sales to pay for recreational facilities for all age groups. But it is a sad reflection on the Irish planning system that such leisure complexes and other vital community infrastructure such as schools, cycleways and parks are not put in place in advance of housing development as is the case in many other European countries. In Austria for instance the state ensures that land speculators do not make huge profits from rezoning by setting a maximum price valuation on land with the monies thus saved being invested into local communities. In our case we are saddened that generations have been born into and have left our neighbourhood without having ever enjoyed the joys of local indoor sports. Hence we feel that it is only right and just that, after waiting decades for a facility paid in part by residents’ contributions, that we should have a key role to play in the management of this long awaited local authority owned centre which is nearing completion and expected to be open within weeks. Otherwise it is a negation of local democracy. A community resource, whose purpose is to serve first and foremost the recreational and community needs of all ages living in the surrounding neighbourhoods, should have the direct involvement of local inhabitants in its present and future development. When we started the campaign Ireland in the 1980s, Ireland was a radically different country. It was primarily a homogeneous cultural society and we want to ensure that the recreational facilities fulfils the needs of all traditions in our society, both new as well as old. Furthermore while we welcome the agreement of central government to recently sanction the hiring of by Galway City Council of staff for the community centre, we are amazed that no additional funding was allocated forcing the local authority to consider outside private contractors to operate the facilities.

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Death of Peace activist in Middle East. He was a friend of mine

A few days ago I went to my local Catholic church to attend a mass in memory of a wonderful peace-loving man from the Middle East who was horribly tortured in prison by soldiers before being taken out through a screaming mob of religious fanatics to a hillside where he was publicly executed.

A social revolutionary, he was someone that I admired not just for what he had achieved in his short life but how he overcome prejudices even before he was born. For his mother was a young teenage girl who became pregnant whilst unmarried. In their very conservative traditional society, this would have meant being stoned to death. But her fiancée saved her from such a fate by marrying her even though he knew that the baby was not his.

Born into poverty, the child was forced to flee with his parents from their homeland to escape certain death at the hands of religious extremists.  The refugee family later returned to their village and lived quietly for many years. But later in life, the son became a target for the political and religious establishment when he started to travel around the country as a leading advocate for pacifism, religious tolerance, women’s rights, respect for children, and for a egalitarian classless society in order to end the economic exploitation of the masses by a wealthy clerical and political elite. Women and men flocked to open air rallies to hear him speak. His exploits were legendary: he once through his words saved a woman accused of adultery from being stoned to death by a group of fundamentalists. He befriended criminals, the sick, the poor, social outcasts, peoples of different faiths as well as members of the hated occupying army and their compliant state officials.  He condemned the hypocrisy of the all-powerful religious establishment who felt threatened by his ideology. They constantly harassed him, tried to break up his meetings, planted spies amongst his followers. Ever the pacifist, even when he was physically threatened, he never allowed his followers to use physical force to defend him.  But his enemies finally got him arrested on trumped-up charges of being both a blasphemer and an enemy of the state. He was condemned to a slow agonising death by a jeering crowd whipped up into a frenzy by clerics saying he had insulted their religion.

During his lifetime and since his death, some people have referred to him as a prophet, others say he was the son of God and there are those who think he was mad and delusional. I though over the years have been inspired by the radical progressive teachings of love, respect, liberty, equality and justice that were taught by this poor Jewish man from Galilee. Though I never met him, I would like to think that Jesus was a friend of mine.

May I extend New Year greetings of peace and goodwill to all my friends who are Muslims, Jews, atheists, Pantheists, Hindus, Buddhists, Druze, agnostics, Bahai’s and Christians. The cultural diversity and religious differences that we share strengthens our friendship.   
Áthbhlian faoi mhaise daoibh.

Global War on Women: Japan finally issues official apology & awards compensation to the Sex Slaves of its WW2 military.

In World War Two, it is estimated that circa 200,000 women from Korea, China, Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere were kidnapped and forced to work in brothels as the sex slaves of the Japanese military. The term 'comfort women' that is used to describe them is an insult to the systematic brutality, torture and rape that they suffered over many years in captivity.
Now an agreement has been reached between the South Korean and Japanese government with the latter issuing an official apology for the enslavement of the women and granting one billion yen towards the surviving 46 elderly South Korean female victims. Credit for this long overdue action must be given to the decades long campaign by Korean female activists. 

In this war the Japanese Imperial soldiery felt it was their warrior right to rape the female members of the enemy population at will. The military brothels staffed by sex slaves were only one aspect of the abhorrent treatment meted out to the women of the countries they conquered. The 'Rape of Nanking' in China was aptly named. When the city fell to the Japanese army in December 1937, tens of thousands of females of all ages were gang raped with many horribly mutilated and then murdered.
In Europe during WW2, mass rape on a huge scale was carried out by Soviet armies in Germany during 1945, as a form of 'revenge' for the barbarity of the Nazi occupation in Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia. 



Women: The First Victims of Men's Wars
Throughout history women are always the primary victims of the wars perpetuated by men. Their bodies are treated as trophies to be used and abused by the male victors. Most of the main ancient religious texts justify or accept this fact.

Sex Slaves in 21st Century
Sadly kidnapping and sexual enslavement of women is back with a vengence and openly being perpetuated by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on the Yazidi and Christian populations as part of a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against religious minorities, by Boko Haram in Nigeria and by Christian militias in the Central African Republic. There are countless reports issued by Amnesty and other human rights organisations about large scale sexual violence against women by Libyan people-trafficking gangs in an anarchic state ruled by crazed religious warlords.

Residents' Protest outside City Hall tomorrow (Mon) on new Sports & Community Centre

Many thanks to all those residents and supporters that took part in the packed meeting of local residents called to discuss the Ballinfoile-Castlegar Sports and Community Neighbourhood Centre on November 30th in the Menlo Park and who attended the action committee gathering on Monday last. The attendance at both events was a great morale booster to all campaigners!

Packed residents' meeting in Menlo Park Hotel

The next step in our campaign is to ensure that we have a good turnout on our peaceful protest that will take place at 2.30pm (to 4pm) tomorrow (Monday December 14th) outside City Hall in advance of a crucial meeting of Galway City Council when the management structure of the centre will be voted upon.
It is a now-or-never scenario for us on this key facility. So please if you are available make every effort to attend and encourage others (family, friends and neighbours) to take part. Even if you are not from our area, we would appreciate your support as this issue is about ensuring that every citizen of Ireland has a basic right to community and recreational facilities which is increasingly threatened due to the draconian cutbacks to public services as a result of the last government’s decision to force taxpayers to pay for the gambling debts of a rich well connected elite of bankers and property speculators.

Protestors from Ballinfoile, Tirellan, Sandyvale, Castlelawn district protesting outside City Hall in 1989

Demands
We as concerned residents are demanding that councilors ensure that the new state-of-the-arts sports and community complex that we fought for since 1987 to obtain serves the needs of and is controlled by the local community.
After the welcome news last September that the government had agreed to allow Galway City Council to break the local government jobs embargo in order to hire staff for the centre, it was disheartening to hear at last month's council meeting, called to decide the city budget for 2016, that only 50% (€300,000) of the finance needed to operate the centre (& that of Knocknacarra) as a fully fledged public enterprise would come from local authority sources. For this meant, according to Brendan McGrath council CEO, that they would have to bring in an outside contractor to form a public-private partnership to run the centre. For it is our fear that this arrangement could mean that privatization could occur sooner or later to the detriment of the local community as profit would take priority over social needs.

Ballinfoile - Castlegar Sports & Community Neighbourhood Centre

So we want to ensure that councillors on Monday keep by the commitments made by Brendan Mc Grath at the November budget meeting that:
a) peak hours would be retained for local groups/individuals
b) Low rental fees would be charged to local groups/individuals
c) People from the locality must be well represented on the oversight/management board.
Furthermore we request that:
d) local community representation makes up at least 50% of the oversight board
e) the new jobs that will accrue in this facility will be given to local people where possible.
f) consideration is given to social enterprise partnership programmes as an alternative to taking in private contractors.
If these just demands are not meet, it will represent a betrayal of decades of struggle by a local community and raises questions over who our political system serve.

Finally, we are asking all residents and supporters to attend the public meeting that will take place at 8pm on Tuesday December 15th in the Menlo Park Hotel to hear what was decided at Monday’s council meeting and what actions need to be undertaken.

Residents Demand Prioritising Local Control of new Neighbourhood Centre

A packed meeting of residents of the greater Ballinfoile locality and  of Castlegar this week in the Menlo Park hotel heard speaker and speaker stress the importance of ensuring that the new Neighbourhood Sports and Community Centre must serve and be controlled by local people. It was standing room only on Monday in the Menlo Park Hotel as residents finally could see decades of campaigning bear fruit with the much anticipated state-of-the-art centre being readied for opening.

However there was a strong fear expressed that, due to the severe cutbacks in local government funding resulting in Galway City Council not being able to operate the centre on its own and having to consider bringing in a private management company, that profits could be proritised at the expense of community needs.

There was unanimous agreement by the capacity crowd that the council should not take on an outside contractor until the principles of community representativity on an oversight board, peak hours retention and  low rental fees for local groups are formally agreed upon with residents of the area. Furthermore it was also agreed that the local authority should consider social enterprise partnership programmes as an alternative to private contractors. The council will discuss the management and operations of the Ballinfoile Castlegar Neighbourhood Centre at its meeting of December 14^th and we want them to ensure that decades of campaigning and levies imposed on houses built since 1978 to fund local recreational facilities are not betrayed by the community now losing control of its new facility.

Climate Change Action: Don't Let This Be a One Day Wonder.

In spite of the winds and downpours, there was a very good turnout at today's Climate Action protest in Galway. It was lovely to see families, teenagers, students, grandparents, community activists, artists, eco-campaigners, teachers, feminists and progressive politicos in today's march through the city centre and subsequent rally in historic Spanish Arch.
The organisers - Transition Galway - did a great job and there were some great speeches.
Wonderful to see veteran campaigners such as Caoimhin Ó Maolallaigh, Kieran Cunnane, Liz Hackett, Seamus Diskin, Betty & Jim Gosling, Johnny Duhan, Coralie Mureau, John Cunningham, Iona & Daibhi O'Croinin are still fighting the good fight for justice.
I was honoured to be asked by Caoimhín Ó Maolallaigh to be one of the speakers at the event.

My message was that...

The planet is being increasingly exploited, desecrated and raped to satisfy the desires and greed of global/national elites who have managed to make so many of us become addicted to fossil fuels and consumerism. Thanks to man-made climate change and its associated deforestation, habitat loss, road construction, urban sprawl and commercial farming, we are witnessing a Mass Extinction not seen for millions of years.
We are been lulled into digging the graves of wildlife and for generations of humans not yet born.
Due to the power of fossil fuels corporations and the 'need' to continue to promote national consumerism, governments are failing to show leadership.
Sometimes we can feel powerless in the face of global scale of climate change. Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, acidic oceans, disappearing islands in the Pacific, threatened extinction of rhinos, tigers and elephants, climate conflicts in Asia/Africa, and deforestation in South America and Central Africa may make us feel that we are trying to hold back a tsunami with a pitchfork. Hence we can be dismissed by cynics as just grains of sand on a beach who tell us that personal greed (me-feinism) combined with the influence/wealth of the fossil fuels corporation and their poltical lackeys are too powerful to overcome.
But the answer is YES we are grains of sand on a beach. But without the grains of sand there is no beach. We need to follow the green dictum of "Think Global, Act Local" and that progressive change in society for eons has come from grassroots people power. And Galway is where we start and it is where local communities have won victories for the common good and the environment against the forces of conservatism over the last decade. Shining examples are the "No to Incineration, Yes to Recyling"; the halting of a four lane highway through Terryland Forest Park; Merlin Woods...

But concerned Galwegians like all those on the march today must stay together and stay active and make the case for Climate Change reversal a cause for everyone. Technology can help us. But the key priority is to reconnect with Nature and rediscover its sense of wonder and importance. In the case of the Terryland Forest Park, we are working with scientists, technologists, teachers and local residents to make this potentially great natural resource into a major Outdoor Classroom and Outdoor Laboratory, a Nature Play and Leisure facility for local schools, collages and the general public.
The almost 100,000 native Irish trees that people planted in this community-council-made forest since 2000 have had enormous benefits to the health of the planet. Science has shown that these 100,000 trees have absorbed 3,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide; offset the climate impact of 800 cars for one year; supply oxgyen for 400,000 people for one day; provide 4.64 billion euros worth of air pollution controls for 50 years and have enriched biodiversity by providing home to so many species of flora and fauna.
So by working together, we the ordinary people of Galway can make a positive difference globally. Yes we can!

ISIS - An Ideology of Hate, Death & Destruction

Followers of the Islamic Caliphate (ISIS) were responsible for the massacre of at least 128 men and women enjoying a night socialising with friends and family in Paris. In the same week these religious Nazis massacred people on a popular shopping street in Beirut, at a funeral in Baghdad and at a mosque in Yemen.
In Syria-Iraq, they are attempting to obliterate millennia-old cultures by brutally exterminating ancient peoples such as the Yazidis and  by blowing up Palmyra and Nineveh.
Their ideology is based on a belief that there is no place on Earth or in heaven for atheists, agnostics, secularists, gays, feminists, democrats, socialists, Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Bahais, Hindus, Buddists, pagans, Jews, Alawites, Shiites and other Muslims that don't follow their warped version of Islam.

ISIS is funded and spiritually inspired by a misogynist religious fundamentalist elite in the Arabian peninsula whose wealth is based on oil. From the time of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, governments in USA, Britain, France, Israel, Pakistan and Turkey have armed jihadis to overthrow secular or secular tolerant regimes in Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Colonial Israel and Wahhabi Saudi Arabia were supported no matter what their crimes. The illegal Iraq war led by Bush and Blair triggered the rise of jihadism in the Levant and Iraq.
If the people of the Middle East of all faiths and no faiths are to live in peace and with justice, the duplicity towards ISIS and other jihadis as well as the Israeli occupation/colonisation of the West Bank has to end.
But what must not happen is a loss of civil liberties in Europe nor an intolerance towards others. ISIS and other jihadis are trying to fan the flames of a religious war and are using terms such as crusades and infidels as part of this campaign of hate. We must not fall into this trap. Tolerance and respect must be the key words and deeds.

First Steps in Organising a Digital Makers' Fair for Galway

Saturday morning Coderdojo class in NUI Galway

The annual Galway Science & Technology Festival Fair that will take place in NUI Galway this year on Sunday November 22^nd is one of the largest one-day celebrations of science in Europe, attracting over 20,000 visitors. 
It is recognised as an important showcase of Galway-based industrial technologies, third level research and junior science projects.

091Labs demoing 3D printing and other electronics

The event represents a wonderful opportunity for those organisations and individuals involved in the local digital makers' movement to come together under a common banner to promote the creativity, variety and scale of this almost parallel universe existing within Galway much of it populated by volunteer enthusiasts. Groups such as the third level student computer societies, 091Labs, gaming groups, Coderdojos from across city and county, the Computer and Communications Museum, ham radio operatives, Google Women Techmakers etc. provide an invaluable buzz, digital learning and creative dimension to the region.  

Open Day at Computer & Communications Museum of Ireland at Insight NUI Galway

A few weeks ago, Coderdojo Galway city and Coderdojo Athenry showed what could be done by their hosting of a successful pop-up hands-ons show in the city centre as part of the promotion for the Galway City of Culture 2020 bid which included 3D printing, Minecraft, and Arduino activities.

Minecraft program of Athenry Castle with Coderdojo Athenry

I am inviting those interested in organising a distinct Digital Makers presence at this year's Galway Science & Technology Festival Fair to attend a meeting at 7pm this Monday (Nov 9th) in the Conference Room of the Insight Centre for Data Anatyics, DERI Building, Dangan Business Park.

Computer Museum, Coderdojo & 091Labs in action at Volvo Ocean Race Village

Please feel free to spread the word and encourage others to come along and take part in this initiative. 

Robotics in action at Codedojo Pop-up store at Galway2020 HQ

Save the Bees: Help in Flowering a Hazel Wood

Planting wildflowers in Terryland Forest Park

Many of Ireland’s native wildflowers face extinction due to pollution, invasive species, urbanization, loss of habitat and intensive commercial farming. The use of pesticides and herbicides in farming in order to increase specific crop yields has meant that wildflowers and pollinating insects such as bees and butterflies are being poisoned. Hence flora and fauna species are declining alarmingly and a countryside that was once populated with flowers representing all the colours of the rainbows, that throbbed to the sounds of a wide of variety bees and birds is sadly becoming a thing of the past.
Help reverse this process and to save Ireland’s indigenous flowers and associated pollinating insects and bats. Under the expert tutelage of Padraic Keirns, Galway Field Studies, Conservation Volunteers Galway, Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park, and NUI Galway are once again teaming up to organise another major re-flowering of the woodlands of Terryland Forest Park. 
This time it will be in the hazel woods section of the forest park behind Sandyvale Lawn housing estate. The plants involved include sanacle, sorrel, dogrose, tutsan, yellow pimpernel, bugle, fern, elder and stitchworth and well as thousands upon thousands of meadowsweet. So we ask you to please join us at 11.30am on Saturday November 14th to plant approximately 600 wildflowers such as sanicle, bluebell, wild rose and honeysuckle.
Rendezvous: 11:30am at the back of Sandyvale Lawn , at the side entrance to Terryland Forest Park.

Ireland, Galway & Taxpayers' Monies diverted away from citizens to pay well-connected Property Speculators & Landowners

Below is a piece that I wrote for distribution to the local media on what is probably Ireland's longest running urban neighbourhood campaign. Thankfully, the Galway City Tribune used key element's of it in the current edition of their newspaper and it was well covered in a number of the news bulletins on Galway Bay FM radio.

"Local activists in the greater Ballinfoile Mór area held a protest on Wednesday morning outside the new Ballinfoile/Castlegar Neighbourhood and Sports Centre to express their dismay and anger at Galway City Council’s refusal to meet with representatives of local community groups to discuss the centre’s proposed management structure  as well as to accommodate a visit to the site. The residents were joined in their protest by councillors Catherine Connolly and Mike Cubbard.

In response to their direct action, senior officials from Galway City Council agreed within hours to meet community representatives on November 5^th to discuss the management of the new facility. 

“We are of course pleased that City Hall officials have finally agreed to sit down and talk with us on the issue,  according to spokesperson Brendan Smith. “Activists in the Ballinfoile Mór area have been lobbying and protesting for a multi-purpose community and sports centre since 1986 which represents probably the longest running local residents’ campaign in Ireland during modern times. Since the construction of the first housing estate in the locality in the late 1970s, levies were placed on house sales to pay for recreational facilities for all age groups. But it is a sad reflection on the Irish planning system that such leisure complexes and other vital community infrastructure such as schools, cycleways and parks are not put in place in advance of housing development as is the case in many other European countries.

In Austria for instance the state ensures that land speculators do not make huge profits from rezoning by setting a maximum price valuation on land with the monies thus saved being invested into local communities. Hard earned taxpayers' monies is used to put into the pockets of the new landed gentry class, namely well-(politically) connected property speculators and landowners. Otherwise as has been our experience, generations have been born into and have left our neighbourhood without having ever enjoyed the joys of local indoor sports. Hence we feel that it is only right and just that, after waiting decades for a facility paid in part by residents’ contributions, that we should have a key role to play in the management of this long awaited local authority owned centre which is nearing completion and expected to be open within weeks. Otherwise it is a negation of local democracy. A community resource, whose purpose is to serve first and foremost the recreational and community needs of all ages living in the surrounding neighbourhoods, should have the direct involvement of local inhabitants in its present and future development. When we started the campaign Ireland in the 1980s, Ireland was a radically different country. It was primarily a homogeneous cultural society and we want to ensure that the recreational facilities fulfils the needs of all traditions in our society, both new as well as old. Furthermore while we welcome the agreement of central government to recently sanction the hiring of by Galway City Council of staff for the community centre, we are amazed that no additional funding was allocated leaving the local authority to try and scrap monies from an already over-stretched budget.” 

Galway's very own United Nations: A Window into a Better Future

Bangladesh

A number of years ago, I helped initiate an annual multicultural festival, at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics (formerly DERI)  in NUI Galway, that is a wonderful celebration of the richness and diversity of the cuisine, music, dance, dress, traditions and natural beauty of the countries represented by the peoples working in my research institute at NUI Galway.

Iran

For 2015, staff and students from 14 countries exhibited stands with samples of indigenous foods, beverages and traditional dress. 

An Irish traditional music seisiún

This year, we introduced a new dimension to the event- music and dance. Thanks to Jim Cotter, Deasún Ó Seanáin, Chan Le Van and others we hosted a lovely Irish trad seisiún; thank to Insight's CEO Oliver Daniels we experienced the sounds of an old Irish ballad; thanks to Housam Ziad and Suad Darra we enjoyed the beautiful community Dabke dance from the Levant region of the Middle East. 

India

Pakistan

 Insight is a window into a better future, when the peoples of the world can live in harmony with each other, when they respect rather then be antagonistic towards their cultural/ethnic/religious differences and by working together can create technologies that benefits rather than undermines the planet Earth and all its flora and fauna.

Vietnam

 So I would like to take this opportunity to thank the hardworking organising committee that included Anne Helmreich Narumol, Amelie, Soheila and Anh Thule.
 

Brazil

Click here to enjoy a wonderful film of the event.

France

Czech Republic

Syria & Palestine

Holland

Germany

Ireland (Éire)

Thailand

Pakistan