Dr Maeve O'Rourke

Could not be prouder of the 8 survivors who stood up for their rights and against a Commission of Investigation process and Report that ignored them and flatly denied the awful truths of the #MotherAndBabyHomes and forced family separation system. This means change.

JFM Research Statement Re An Coimisiún Pleanála Decision to Grant Permission for SundaysWell Development: jfmresearch.com/wp-content/upl… See JFMR's planning submissions page for further information: jfmresearch.com/publications/j…

Justice for Magdalenes Research (JFMR) welcomes the forthcoming release of Testimony in Irish and UK cinemas from 21st November. Further details, including screening times and dates are available at: jfmresearch.com/testimony/

Our sincere congratulations to Dr Elizabeth Riordan Coppin, who yesterday received an honorary doctorate from South East Technological University in Waterford. jfmresearch.com/drriordan/

Courageous journalist Saleh al-Jaafarawi, who plated a key role in exposing the Israeli genocide in Gaza, carrying on the work of his colleagues killed by the occupation, most recently martyr Anas al-Sharif, was assasinated by Zionist collaborators in Gaza City. In God’s heavens

I came back today. I thought I had known despair before, but what I saw today is beyond despair. It is not grief, nor horror, nor pain. It is something colder, a stillness where even God seems to have withdrawn His hand. The sky was impossibly blue. The kind of blue that mocks you, that makes you wonder whether beauty itself is a crime. I walked through streets that no longer exist, streets that were my childhood. They are now a wilderness of stone, wire, and dust. A man stood on a heap, a neighbor, I think. He pointed and said, “It’s here.” I asked him how far. He looked down. And I understood: my house was beneath his feet. I lifted my phone, as if the machine could recognize what I could not. The screen glowed; there was nothing to see. The earth had swallowed the distances. Even the smell of home was gone. It was as if the thread connecting me to life itself had been cut. I dug with my hands. The dust burned. My palms bled. My mother had told me: “Search for anything we can save.” And so I obeyed her like a son obeys the last voice that still believes there is meaning in obedience. From a house that once cost my father one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, a lifetime of labor, of hope, of decency, I found two things: a knife, and a pillow. Two relics of civilization. One for necessity, one for illusion. That is what remains of man. I sat in the ruins, the blue of my shirt turned gray with ash, and I thought: this is the end not of a city, but of meaning itself. I thought of my parents, their hands, their faith in honest work. How will they bear this? How will any man bear seeing his father’s roof turned into dust by a stranger’s hands, hands that will never know the names of those they destroyed? But what tears me apart more than ruin is silence. No one speaks to us. No one tells us where to go, who will rebuild, or who is responsible. The politicians talk of victories, the generals of strategy, the world of peace and progress. But none of them live here among the ashes. None of them stand where I stand, sifting through their own dead. And those who claim to represent us, where are they? Where is the money they collected in our name, the promises they made before the cameras, the slogans they wrote while we buried our children? Who among them will come to this ruin and say: Forgive us, we failed you? Not one. They sit in offices with clean shirts, counting our corpses as figures on paper. They say “reconstruction,” “aid,” “negotiations,” as though the vocabulary of power could fill the emptiness of a mother’s bed. I tell you the truth: there is no crime greater than indifference. The murderer at least acknowledges the victim. But those who look away, they kill the soul itself. I brushed the dust from my shirt, though I knew it was useless. I wanted to see if there was still color left in the world. There wasn’t. The blue had become the color of mourning. I looked at my hands. They were shaking, not from fear, but from the unbearable realization that we have become expendable to the world. Our suffering is entertainment, our death a policy, our endurance a statistic. I wept then, openly, shamelessly. I, who once believed in the dignity of suffering, now see that dignity itself has been annihilated. There is nothing noble in being forgotten. If you are reading this, do not admire the style or the language. Lower your head, and weep. Because this dust, this silence, this cry, is what remains of us.

Extremely sad to learn of Conor Gearty’s death. An absolutely brilliant and equally generous person whose work and passion will continue to influence many. I am one of those lucky enough to have followed his advice as a young lawyer. My deepest condolences to his family & friends

Since Mar 2024 I’ve warned the UN I serve at great personal cost: the destruction of Gaza’s health system is clear proof of genocidal intent. I’m in disbelief at its paralysis. States must break the blockade, send NAVIES with aid, and stop the genocide.History will not forget.

Today the whole world watches, in shock and disgust, the escalation and acceleration of decades-old abusive practices and crimes inflicted on the Palestinians -by the state of Israel, its army and ideological settlers. With absolute impunity granted by "the west". This must end.

@Trickstersworld @Tupp_Ed @EchoChambersPod @williamhboney1 @TortoiseShack So well put.

Excuse the self-indulgence, but I want to share this short thread from Simon McGarr (@Tupp_Ed) about the @EchoChambersPod and the work we do. Please support independent (truly independent) media. It doesn’t have to be us. But support the independent media that you consume.

BREAKING!!! - 11:18PM UK time; I am with the flotilla online. They have just been reached by the Israel speedboats - 5 vessels circling the flotilla. The captain is instructing the team to stay calm and seated, with their passports and life jackets on. I hear them speaking with Israeli soldiers as I type... telling they are carrying humanitarian aid and go in peace. For the time being they are just circled. I am with them, recording everything.

@aoifehegs @rtenews Excellent work Aoife and team.

HIQA stops admissions to Laois nursing home amid concerns via @RTENews #rteinvestigates rte.ie/news/health/20…

More than 350 lawyers and academics say Government not complying with international law obligations over Palestine crisis irishtimes.com/politics/2025/… via @IrishTimesPol

Important intervention from over 350 lawyers, academics and experts on the OTB & int law, incl @shanedarcy_ @ConorUCCLaw @eilis_barry @DonnchaLaw @DrAndrewForde @ProfAoifeDaly @colmfod @ivanabacik @SeanMac_R @maeveorourke @eoinmauricedaly @cjhumanrights @Gocuinn @IrishCentreHR

Read this. It's remarkable. The UN is begging - literally begging - Israel to allow it to deliver to Gaza 160,000 pallets of food aid it has ready to go. Israel will not allow that. There is only one inescapable conclusion: Israel is deliberately starving Gaza to death.

Josep Borrell, former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, criticized the EU’s failure to influence Israel, saying expressing regret is not enough. In his speech while receiving the Charles V Prize, he stated: •What’s happening in Gaza is “the largest ethnic cleansing since World War II.” •Israel is violating the rules of war and using “starvation of civilians as a weapon.” •The explosive force used on Gaza exceeds three times that of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb. •For months, no water, food, medicine, electricity, or fuel has entered Gaza. •Statements by Israeli leaders reflect a clear intent of genocide. •Europe is abandoning its moral and humanitarian responsibilities.

#FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya #FreeThemAll

WHY: after 19m of genocidal violence, and 60 days without a grain of rice entering Gaza, Palestinians have to be "shown" to the world while scrambling for food as if they were gasping for air, grabbing it from filty grounds, getting hurt while seeking a hole in the human flesh ammassing for a handful of emptiness? People of Gaza. Palestinians. Your hunger today is our shame. We should not be given access to your suffering if we are too indifferent, too lazy, too selfish, too corrupt, to stop it immediately.

The crimes Israel is committing against the Palestinian people are only possible with international complicity. Omar has been a leading voice speaking against that for years. All States who say they support HRDs should be calling for his freedom of movement to be respected.