Development Education
Féile Bríde 2007
Hope in the Dark
Saturday January 27th 2007
10.30am to 5.30pm
St Joseph's Academy
Kildare Town
Introduction
This year's Féile Bríde marks the anniversary of a number of significant events. 2007 is the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in the so-called 'British Dominions'. So it is appropriate that one of our themes for this year is 'human trafficking - the new slave trade'. A recent report suggests that 700,000 women and children are trafficked every year for sexual exploitation, forced marriage, forced labour and forced adoption. Although some of the victims of this new slave trade end up in Ireland, the Irish government has failed to introduce urgently needed legislation on the issue. The necessity for such legislation will be a central theme of this year's Féile.
It was also two hundred years ago that the Brigidine Sisters were founded. They concentrated on education, which they saw as 'a pathway to a fuller and better life for all'. In more recent years their work has focused on the disadvantaged and marginalised in society, including victims of human trafficking. Afri has worked in partnership with the Brigidines for many years and together we have developed the unique event that is Féile Bríde - a celebration, a source of information and inspiration, and a springboard to action.
It is an event which this year will include discussion of Shell's activities in Erris and the Niger Delta and the heroic resistance of local communities. It will look at the war in Iraq and those who have resisted it. It will include a drama by students from Loreto college Crumlin on the issue of 'seed-saving' and it will incorporate the wonderful music of Cormac Breatnach agus a Cháirde. And it will end with dancing! Joe Murray
The Artists Cormac Breatnach is one of Ireland's leading musicians. Donal Lunny's Celtic Orchestra was the first band of which he was a member. He went on to play with his own band Méiristem and was also part of the very successful,Deiseal. His debut solo album is called musical journey,described in the Sunday Tribune as 'an outstanding album'.
Pete Mullineaux is a graduate of drama from Middlesex University where he received the Fuller award for outstanding achievement. He is a poet and playwright who has worked with a broad range of groups and organisations across Ireland and Britain. He has produced a number of stage plays and two radio plays for RTE. Afri is delighted that Pete has been working with students from Loreto College Crumlin to prepare Jackie and the Beanstalk, which deals with a very important theme and also links our schools work with our other events and activities.
The Speakers
Deirdre Clancy, anti-war activist and member of the Pitstop Ploughshares Group, was in prison and then on bail for three and a half years for disarming a US warplane at Shannon Airport, before being found not guilty of all charges in July 2006.
Kathleen Fahy is director of Ruhama, with which she has been working for the past two years. She previously worked in overseas development, primarily in Africa. She spent seven years, before joining Ruhama,in Somalia, where she was manager of an emergency and rehabilitation programme with an Irish aid agency.
Mark Garavan is lecturer in Sociology at the Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology. He is spokesperson for the Shell to Sea Campaign and is currently compiling a book on the Rossport 5. Copies of a recent paper entitled The Politics of Moral Force, given by Dr. Garavan at the 11th Ken Saro-Wiwa Seminar in Cork will be published by Afri and will be available at Féile Bríde.
Sigma Huda was appointed Special Rapporteur on trafficking in October 2004. She became Bangladesh's first female lawyer at the age of 21. She is the founder and current president of the Bangladesh Women Lawyer's Association and Secretary General of the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights. She is active in a number of other organizations working to combat trafficking and sexual exploitation particularly of women and girls from Bangladesh to India.
Philip Ikurusi is from Basyelsa State in Nigeria, one of the major oil-producing states of the Niger Delta Area. Philip has established and worked with different organisations in the Niger Delta seeking justice, environmental regeneration and greater control of natural resources. He is in the process of establishing Niger Delta Awareness in Ireland to inform people about the struggle of the peoples of Erris and 0f the Niger Delta against Shell.
Brendan Nix, SC was one of the legal team representing the Pitstop Ploughshares in their historic trial. He has been described by Mr. Justice Paul Carney of the High Court as 'the last of the great orators'. Anyone who heard his closing speech, at the Ploughshares trial would agree that this high praise was entirely justified. He has an abiding passion for securing justice and is recognized as one of Ireland's foremost Criminal lawyers.
Joe Noonan is a Cork-based solicitor, who acted for the Pitstop Ploughshares when they were acquitted of all charges in relation to disarming a US war plane on its way via Shannon to Iraq. His firm, Noonan, Linehan, Carroll and Coffey also acted for Ed Horgan in his constitutional action relating to the Government decision to allow intensive US military use of Shannon Airport. He is a founder member of the Irish Environmental Law Association and a member of the editorial Board of The Irish Planning and Environmental Law Journal.
Clare O Grady Walshe has been associated with Afri for the past ten years and now works on Afri's development education programme. She is an active member of the Irish Seed Savers Association and has served on the Irish Aid Advisory Committee and the Heritage Council.