The Irish Times of Wednesday June 15 was very unusual  –

it carried two useful news reports about campaigns against Government-inspired cutbacks.

Dublin Bus is cutting services.

While the newspaper story headline is a bland

Dublin Bus plans further route changes

the story offers a different perspective from :

Save Our Bus Services, which says the changes are in fact cuts to services, which will hurt the old, the disabled and schoolchildren most.

More here :

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0615/1224298937642.html

The housing market crash means eviction and house repossession for a growing number of people who are being punished to save rotten financial institutions – but a fightback is starting :

Attempt to sell repossessed home provokes protest

Danger - No Entry

Start mortgages has met determined resistance in Drimnagh :

ABOUT 30 people staged a protest outside a house for sale in Drimnagh in Dublin last night, covering the “For Sale” sign with another reading “Repossessed house – Buyer Beware – No Evictions”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0615/1224298937560.html

Robert Marsh, whose house was repossessed,  was interviewed by Joe Duffy on the RTÉ Liveline programme about the protest – a conference is planned for July 3 next in the Red Cow Inn, Tallaght – listen here :

http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2011/pc/pod-v-15061129m12slivelinehouse-pid0-1752744.mp3

The Irish Times has printed thousands of words about the death of former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan – Vincent Browne sums it all up neatly :

My only problem with Brian was his politics

THE PROBLEM with Brian Lenihan was his politics. No, not that he was a member of Fianna Fáil, but his politics. He was a fine fellow, generous, sociable, funny, clever, articulate, well-read, musical, courageous, committed to this society and us its people. But the politics . . .

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0615/1224298936309.html

Joe Higgins TD (Socialist Party / United left Alliance) struck a similar note in the Dáil :

 In the Dublin West by-election of April 1996 the late Brian Lenihan, on the final count, secured 11,754 votes. I happened to be the nearest rival candidate, just 370 votes behind. In the context of that by-election and since we clashed sharply on political issues, and it has to be said that our differences would have grown wide as a chasm, especially on issues relating to the EU-IMF-ECB agreement. This is not the time to rehearse all that.

Cancer is an awful disease. Those of us, and we are very many throughout this country, who have had friends and family claimed by it at untimely ages of their lives know the anguish of Brian Lenihan’s loved ones. To them and to his extended family I wish to extend our condolences and sympathy.

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2011/06/15/00004.asp

Congratulations to campaigners who worked hard to get the voices of the dispossessed heard on the mass media.