The North Leitrim Glens Hill Walking Festival, now in its 23rd year, run by ‘The Holey Soles Hill Walking Club’ takes place Easter weekend, Saturday 15 th  and Sunday 16 th  of April. The iconic Benbulben and Glencar valley are on this year’s itinerary with walks beginning and ending at a new café beside Glencar Waterfall, the festival has a very Yeatsian flavour. As always there will be a big social element to the festival. There will be tea and scones beforehand, soup after, and a dinner laid on for walkers if they would like to avail. Manchan Magan will speak at the festival. Enquiries:  Sheila O Keeffe 0876470902

The IFA run ‘amuck’. The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) published an article entitled “Selective Misrepresentation of Research by Environmental NGOs Undermines Their Credibility”. The IFA’s unhappiness appears to relate to a newly published European Parliament document, entitled: ‘Research for AGRI Committee – Policy support for productivity vs. sustainability in EU agriculture: Towards viable farming and green growth’. An Taisce claims that the IFA completely and entirely misrepresents the research and the response of environmental NGOs to its findings. Figure 5 (p.25) of this document examines ‘Agricultural GHG productivity in the EU /average 2012-2014)’ using the measure of carbon productivity, i.e. how much agricultural output value in euro is generated for every tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent emitted. The best performing country in the EU, Italy, achieved some €1,700 of agricultural output per tonne of emissions. The worst performing country in the EU28 was Ireland, where less than €400 in agricultural output was achieved per tonne of carbon emitted.

As the EU report observes: ‘GHG productivity is a widely-accepted indicator at international level to monitor green growth (OECD). The culprit appears to be largely the dominance of beef and dairy systems in Ireland, compared to other member states.

We have discovered Dublin City’s best kept secret? Proposed felling of…….. trees along the front of Fairview Park to facilitate the completion of cycleway. It is claimed that there has been a public consultation about tree felling in front of Fairview Park but it is not well documented-internet search shows little detail.

Progressive Film Club will take place on Saturday 22nd April 2016 in the Ireland Institute, Pearse Centre, and 27 Pearse Street, Dublin 2 -Celebrating Trade Unionism – 2 pm: Salt of the Earth (1954) – 93mins. Director: Herbert Biberman. Blacklisted by Hollywood, this film was set in Zinctown, N.M. One of the great union films, it is also a celebration of male-female solidarity. Co-produced by the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelt Workers, Salt of the Earth was assembled under conditions of extreme duress by a group of Hollywood expatriates, all victims of the Blacklist.

Presenter: John Haughton

Panellists: Joe Dunne & Robert Navan