Hedge School 2013 – Resources, Conflict & Climate Change: The Links

Just a SecondAfri 2013 Hedge School organised in partnership with I.T. Blanchardstown

 

Tuesday 5th November 2013

9.30 am – 4.30 pm

Room A57, A Block, I.T. Blanchardstown (for directions click here)

 

Programme for the day

 9.30 am Registration

10 am Opening

10.15 am Natural Resources: Whose Gain, Whose Pain? From Ireland to the Wider World

Debate between David Horgan (Petrel Resources) and William Hederman (Journalist) with Q&A

11.15 am Panel Discussion with Justine Nantale (Uganda), Kevin Murphy (ITB) and a speaker from Shannonwatch

12.30 pm End of Art is Peace

Music and dance by I.T. Blanchardstown students

12.45 pm Gary White Deer (Choctaw Artist): The Art of Campaigning

1pm Lunch

1.45pm Donal O’Kelly’s play “Fionnuala”

2.35pm World cafe

4.30pm Finish

To book a place, call the Afri office 01 8827563 or email admin@afri.ie

Afri gratefully acknowledges the support of Irish Aid and Trócaire

‘Hairy Jaysus’ in the Viking Theatre

Hairy JaysusHairy Jaysus, Donal O’Kelly’s solo show inspired by Frank Sheehy Skeffington, will have its world premiere in the Viking Theatre @ Connollys’ The Sheds, Clontarf, Dublin, at 8pm for five nights from Monday 14th October until Friday 18th October.

Frank Sheehy Skeffington was James Joyce’s friend in UCD. When he professed to be an atheist, Joyce dubbed him ‘Hairy Jaysus’. He married Hanna Sheehy, they shared each other’s surnames, and campaigned for votes for women. He was a pacifist and a socialist. Close to James Connolly, he was active in support of the locked-out workers of Dublin in 1913. He served time in Mountjoy Jail for opposing recruitment for the First World War. He was summarily executed in Portobello Barracks Rathmines, on Wednesday of Easter Week 1916. He is rarely remembered among those executed.

Donal O’Kelly recently won a Fringe First in Edinburgh with his solo show about the Shell Corrib gas project, Fionnuala, also nominated for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award, and The Stage Best Solo Performer award. His 3-part musicdrama radio series, Francisco, which he wrote and directed, is nominated for Best Radio Fiction Series in the Prix Europa. Fishamble: The New Play Company will present his play, Little Thing Big Thing, on tour in Ireland early next year.

Hairy Jaysus will be broadcast on RTE Radio at 8pm on Sunday 1st December.

To book tickets (€10) contact The Viking Theatre: 087 1129970.

Donal O’Kelly’s “Fionnuala” wins Fringe First Award

Donal O'Kelly Fringe 1st (Willie Corduff)
Donal O’Kelly dedicates the Fringe First Award he received for “Fionnuala” to Willie and Mary Corduff

Afri are delighted to announce that Donal O’Kelly’s play about the Corrib Gas Project, “Fionnuala” has won a Fringe First award during the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Joyce McMillan described “Fionnuala” in the Scotsman as “Gripping, funny and full of a rich sense of Ireland’s great tradition of myth and legend… ruthlessly precise in its analysis of the deep malaise of 21st century Ireland in its subservient relationship with global corporate power and the threats faced by all of us in an age of ever more desperate energy extraction.”

“Fionnuala” is about the Corrib Gas fiasco foisted on a small rural community in County Mayo. Ambrose Keogh works for Shell. When the Tunnel Boring Machine he named Fionnuala sinks into the bog in Erris Co. Mayo, he is magically confronted by Fionnuala of the Children of Lir. Fionnuala puts a geas on him – he’s bound to tell the truth – about Shell. That brings to light some stark truths that Shell management would prefer wasn’t in the public arena. And it brings Ambrose back to his old primary school desk-mate, now an anti-Shell campaigner.

At the awards ceremony in Edinburgh, Donal dedicated the Fringe First to Willie and Mary Corduff and also thanked the people of Kilcommon for their support. Donal stated, “[I] hope that Fionnuala playing the Edinburgh Fringe Festival can be used to highlight the severe abuse of their basic civil rights for over a decade.”  Donal also thanked Afri and the 84 people who crowd funded the visit to Edinburgh for their support.

Article about Donal winning the Fringe First in Hotpress: here

Also, Donal speaking on RTE’s Arena show on Friday about the win (starting at 16 minutes in), click here.

Play now running in Dublin deals with themes taken up by UN Report

Afri welcomes the report from the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, in which she said she was concerned about “the situation faced by defenders and activists defending the right to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, particularly those peacefully protesting against the Corrib Gas project … There is tangible frustration amongst local residents who are standing up for their rights and feel powerless, isolated and have lost trust in public institutions”, she said.

Her report is strongly critical of the way in which the Gardai are policing the project and of the lack of adequate redress via the Garda Ombudsman’s office.

Coincidentally, a play dealing with the social and civil rights issues surrounding the Shell Corrib gas project is running this week, Thursday to Saturday in the Viking Theatre @ Connollys The Sheds, Clontarf, at 6.30pm (6pm Sat). In it, Ambrose Keogh, the Shell PR executive who named their Tunnel Boring Machine Fionnuala, is put under geas (spell) by Fionnuala of the Children of Lir to tell all he knows about Shell’s operations in Erris. The play is a combination of bog magic realism and factual documentary, set against the background of the installation of the TBM Fionnuala in the Shell site in Aughoose, Co. Mayo, in August last year.

“Cuts a swathe through Shell/State propaganda” Hot Press; “O’Kelly performs superbly” Sunday Independent.

One of the information sources used by the Special Rapporteur was the Ailliliú Fionnuala programme/booklet issued by Afri.

Notes:

1. To read the UN Special Rapporteur’s Report see here: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A-HRC-22-47-Add-3_en.pdf especially page 13 onwards.

2. To book “Ailliliú Fionnuala” contact Viking Theatre Dublin on 087 112 9970 or email vikingtheatre@dublin.com

New Run of Ailliliú Fionnuala

Ailliliu_WEB
Afri is proud to be associated once again with the new run of Ailliliú Fionnuala, written and performed by Donal O’Kelly, directed by Sorcha Fox, designed by Robert Ballagh and presented by Benbo Productions.

Ailliliú Fionnuala takes place on the shore of Sruwaddaconn Estuary in Erris, North Mayo, where the Shell high-pressure raw gas pipeline is under construction.

Ambrose Keogh works for Shell. When the Tunnel Boring Machine he named Fionnuala sinks into the bog, he comes face to face with Fionnuala of the Children of Lir herself in a fairy fort. Fionnuala puts a geas (spell) on him – he’s bound to tell the truth about Shell’s operations in Erris, such as the attack on Willie Corduff in the Shell site at Glengad. During his ordeal, Ambrose comes face to face with his primary school classmate, Malachy Downes, now an anti-pipeline activist, and echoes from the past resound.

Ambrose Keogh was the silent minion in Donal O’Kelly’s international success Bat The Father Rabbit The Son, premiered by Rough Magic in 1988, and touring to acclaim in Edinburgh, New York and Australia. A quarter of a century later, Keogh’s found his niche in the corridors of power, at the heart of the Shell/Corrib gas project. Continue reading “New Run of Ailliliú Fionnuala”

Ailliliú Fionnuala

Afri is proud to be associated with the upcoming première of Ailliliú Fionnuala, written and performed by Donal O’Kelly, directed by Sorcha Fox and presented by Benbo Productions.

 

Ailliliu_WEBAilliliú Fionnuala takes place on the shore of Sruwaddaconn Estuary in Erris, North Mayo, where the Shell high-pressure raw gas pipeline is under construction.
Ambrose Keogh works for Shell. When the Tunnel Boring Machine he named Fionnuala sinks into the bog, he comes face to face with Fionnuala of the Children of Lir herself in a fairy fort. Fionnuala puts a geas (spell) on him – he’s bound to tell the truth about Shell’s operations in Erris, such as the attack on Willie Corduff in the Shell site at Glengad.

Ambrose Keogh is joined in this ordeal by his primary school classmate, Malachy Downes, now an anti-pipeline campaigner. They are pushed to reveal truths about how the holders of power operate in Ireland, behind closed doors, with no regard for civil rights of citizens, then and now.

In the foyer of the theatre is a photo exhibition by photojournalist William Hederman, documenting the past seven years in the struggle against Shell in north Mayo. http://www.facebook.com/events/112718452222480

For more details on this event, please see our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/events/453610148013600/

Where: Theatre Upstairs, Lanigans, Eden Quay, Dublin 1.
When: 1pm to 1.50pm Monday-Saturday, 5th November –17th November 2012.
To book: Please contact The Theatre Upstairs directly – by email theatreupstairs@gmail.com or by phoning 085 727 375.
Tickets cost €10 (or €8 concessionary rate).  Ticket price includes soup and bread.