Irish-Choctaw Famine Link

Gary Whitedeer, Choctaw, is an internationally known painter, tribal chanter and dance leader who has represented the Irish-Choctaw link on many occasions.

The Irish-Choctaw Famine Link originated when the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s donation was given in 1847 and reported in the Arkansas Intelligencer. The amount was $170 and is acknowledged as having been received by the Irish Relief Committee, New York (a branch of the Society of Friends (Quakers), on 19th May 1847.

What makes the Choctaw donation so remarkable is the fact that just 16 years earlier they had been forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in Mississippi to a reservation in Oklahoma.

The Choctaw were the first of the south eastern Native American Indians to be forced onto what became known as ‘The Trail of Tears’ and during the removal they lost almost half of their people.

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Events organised by AfrI in Co. Mayo

Afri organised two events on the 21st and 22nd of May  in Co. Mayo that addressed fundamental issues of economic and political justice in the world today.

The first was the annual Famine Walk from Delphi to Louisburgh, on Saturday 21st, commemorating the death of Irish people during the ‘great famine’ of the nineteenth century and highlighting the reality of hunger and food insecurity in the world today, the causes of which include war and obscene levels of military spending. This year the Famine Walk  focused especially on the question of food sovereignty, including the threats to it from increasing corporate control of the food chain and the treatment of food as just another commodity to be bought and sold. The theme of corporate power also dominated at the second event, a public meeting in Erris on Sunday 22nd, where activists from India exchanged their stories of oppression by multinational companies (especially Union Carbide and its devastation of Bhopal) with the tales of local campaigners against Shell’s unwanted and dangerous Corrib Gas pipeline.

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Impressions from Féile Bríde 2011: Seeds of Change

Saturday, 5 February 2011, Derby House Hotel, Kildare Town

The theme of Féile Bríde this year was food and it addressed some of the key concerns linked to food security: globalization, sustainable development and, in the words of Michael Kelly of Grow It Yourself, how we can take “control of the garlic situation”!

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Féile Bríde 2011 – Seeds of Change

Photo: Irish Seed Savers Association

Saturday, 5 February 2011, Derby House Hotel, Kildare

The symbolism of Brigid giving her father’s sword to a poor man seeking alms is ever more relevant in a world where the annual arms budget exceeds $1,500 billion. That spending represents food taken out of our mouths, particularly those of the poor. And food was the focus of this year’s Féile.

Though food may be a hobby or a profession for some, securing enough to feed a family is a matter of life and death for many more. Remarkably, the constant reality of a billion people hungry in our world has failed to trigger a response similar to that in the banking crisis, where billions of Euros were instantly found for a ‘bail-out’!

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Hedge School 2010: Food Sovereignty – Rooting out the Causes of Global Hunger

Saturday, 23 October 2010, Kimmage DSC, Dublin

The Afri Hedge School 2010 was organised in partnership with Kimmage Development Studies Centre (KDSC) and took place on Saturday, 23 October in Kimmage DSC in Dublin.

The event focused on the fundamental right to food and discussed the importance of food sovereignty as a precondition for food security and tackling world hunger. Introductory talks were given by Alan Matthews, from the Economics Department at Trinity College Dublin, Former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, and Clare O’Grady Walshe, who launched her new pamphlet, entitled Seeds of Hope in a World of Insecurity. The pamphlet deals with issues of food insecurity and loss of biodiversity and was edited by Dervla Murphy.

Afri Hedge School 2010 from Dave Donnellan

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Famine Walk 2010 – ‘Hunger in a World of Plenty: Sowing Seeds of Hope’

Afri would like to thank the hundreds of people who joined us on a wonderful sunny day for our 22nd Annual Famine Walk from Doolough to Louisburgh on Saturday, 22 May.

The walk leaders Justin Kilcullen of Trócaire, Felicity Lawrence, writer and journalist for the Guardian, and Jo Newton of the Irish Seed Savers Association opened the event with short reflections on the walk theme: Hunger in a World of Plenty: Sowing Seeds of Hope.

The various speakers outlined how the injustices that led to the Irish Great Famine continue today in terms of unequal global food distribution and the way in which multinational companies increasingly control agriculture and the food processing system, while small farmers and food producers struggle to survive. A linking thread was that food insecurity will continue and intensify today unless we tackle issues such as loss of biodiversity, global warming, corporate control of food production, and the patenting and aggressive marketing of genetically modified seeds.

Afri Famine Walk 2010 from Dave Donnellan on Vimeo.

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Education for Liberation in Kildare town

‘Hunger in a World of Plenty – Sowing Seeds of Hope’

Afri’s second of three ‘ Education for Liberation’ events, on the theme of ‘Hunger in a World of Plenty – Sowing Seeds of Hope’ took place on Thursday, 18 March 2010, in Kildare town. About 100 students aged 15-16 years old from 4 different schools in the Kildare/Laois region participated in the event.

Food and hunger have been issues of central concern for Afri since its inception 35 years ago. Afri was founded to respond to the scandal of hunger in a world of plenty, a situation which, unfortunately, has worsened rather than improved in the intervening period.

Afri believes in tackling the causes of hunger rather than merely responding to the symptoms. Those causes include the arms trade (costing a staggering €1400 billion annually); the neo-liberal economic system, which concentrates large amounts of resources, including food, in the hands of a small number of people; climate change and global warming; and the corporate takeover of food production, resulting in food being treated as a purely commercial product, thus denying access to the people who are most vulnerable.

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Awakenings – Afri’s Féile Bríde Conference 2010

The Afri Féile Bríde Conference 2010 took place on 6 February in the Derby House Hotel, Kildare.

The event celebrated the wonder of our Universe, captured remarkably in the film ‘The Awakening Universe’, and through the reflections of Nellie McLaughlin whose book ‘Out of Wonder’ is also a celebration of the incomprehensible beauty, intricacy and vastness of the Universe.

The indomitable human spirit too can often confound us in its power and ability to inspire. Such is the case of Richard Moore who, amazingly, despite being blinded by a rubber bullet at the age of ten, has never wallowed in bitterness or hatred. ‘I learned to see life in a different way’ is how he describes his remarkable acceptance of circumstances that would plunge most people into understandable despair, bitterness and desire for revenge. Not only did Richard accept his blindness but he had an abiding ambition to meet the soldier responsible for firing that rubber bullet on that fateful day. He persevered in his quest until he succeeded and Charles, the soldier, joined Richard on stage during a very moving and inspiring session entitled: ‘Transcending Conflict: Freedom in Forgiveness’.

Richard and Charles told their inter-twining story highlighting the consequences of war and conflict. Richard also went on to talk about his work in Development in Tanzania and Ethiopia and the importance of achieving the UN Millennium Development Goal of reducing by half the number of people suffering from hunger by 2015.

As every year, the discussions were embedded in music through the wonderful performances of Fionnuala Gill and Liz Madden and her band.

Féile Bríde 2010 – Image Gallery

Unless indicated otherwise, all pictures taken by Susan Hensel, Afri.

Féile Bríde 2010: Awakenings

Saturday, 6 February 2010 

Derby House Hotel, Kildare.

Clár

1.10 Lighting of the Flame – Richard and Charles

1.30 Registration

2.00 Opening Music – Fionnuala Gill

2.10 Introduction

2.15 ‘The Awakening Universe’ – short Film

2.30 Response

2.40 The Evolving Story of the Universe – Nellie McLaughlin

3.40 Music – Fionnuala Gill

3.45 Tea Break

4.15 Music – Liz Madden

4.20 Transcending Conflict: Freedom in Forgiveness – Richard Moore with Charles

5.00 Discussion

6.00 Concluding Music – Liz Madden and friends

7.30 Dinner

9.00 Céili (free admission for conference participants)

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Admission to the conference: €20 (concession: €15)

Dinner: €20

For the full programme of the week long Féile Bríde Festival check out www.solasbhride.ie

Education for Liberation Seminar

Thursday, 26 November 2009
Belvedere College, Dublin

with students from Belfast Royal Academy

Clár

10.00am  Introduction/Welcome – Joe Murray

10.10am  The Awakening Universe – film and presentation by Clare O’Grady Walshe

Questions and Discussion

What you can do – Susan Hensel

11.00am Break

11.15am Conflict, War and Poverty – Richard Moore

12.15pm Questions and Discussion

1.00pm Lunch

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