Conversion therapy is a form of therapy available to same sex attracted people who want to be heterosexual and to transgender people who want to be cisgender. The therapy usually involves participants undergoing counselling and talk sessions with the intent of changing their thinking . Four countries in the world ban the practice . These are Brazil, Ecuador, Germany and Malta . To a large extent the ban in these countries was due to the type of therapy being offered . Ireland would become only the Fifth Country in the world to ban the practice should a Bill before the Seanad become Law . The

I live quite close to a Direct Provision centre in Dublin and I get to see a lot of the new arrivals out and about . On a few occasions now , I've observed middle eastern couples where the wife dressed in a Burqa walks behind the husband as he leads the way . Only today , a man was walking with his wife trailing behind about three metres . she was dressed in a pink burqa which I guess isn't as bad as all black but the husband turned to her and said something like hurry up or words along those lines . They both stopped

In November 2015 , 131 people were killed and 413 injured in terrorist attacks in Paris . It was later revealed how a number of the attackers had came to europe through Greece posing as refugees and how one of the terrorists Abdelhamid Abaaoud had sent a scout to "map out" the migrant route into europe prior to the attacks . Just 6 months prior to the attacks , Libyan security advisor Abdul Basit Haroun had warned the people of Europe that Islamic State were sending operatives to Europe posing as refugees in an inteview with BBC's 5 Live Investigates team [link ] . Nobody Listened . In

The planning system in Ireland is not a fair system and is deeply flawed . Planning Applications are decided on by a tiny number of people working in Local Authorities and An Bord Pleanala . At Local Authority level , just two civil servants called planning officers can sign off on a planning application . There could be a third person in the form of a manager involved but I'm not certain about this . But thats still only 3 people who can grant planning permission to a property developer for something that may have devastating consequences on peoples communities . At An Bord Pleanala level it gets

A worrying trend is emerging in Ireland and that is Drill music . Drill Music is a violent gang related form of music with violent tones and aggressive language often talking about knifing people and other violent acts . It originated from the Chicago gang scene around 2010 and spread to London a few years later . In recent years it has become popular in Ireland among African youths growing up here with Groups such as Chuks & J.B2 having already established the scene in Dublin . In 2018 , the head of the Met Police in London Cressida Dick blamed drill music videos for fuelling a surge in