Responding to injustice in the world caused by war and other violent conflict
‘On Thursday I heard Palestinian writer Adania Shibli, banned from receiving her prize at Frankfurt Book Fair, talk about how her parents kept silent about what they endured in the Nakba of 1948. It took her thirty years to realise they couldn’t talk about it. As humans we find it hard to talk about the memory of being rendered powerless. Continue reading “Contribution by Donal O’Kelly at the Famine Walk 2024”
Organised in partnership with third year students from the Community and Youth Development course in TU Dublin – Blanchardstown.
This year’s participants will look at the issues of food, fashion and fuel, how they contribute to climate change and what we can do about it!
Speakers include Saoirse McHugh, who describes herself as an environmentalist, a democratic socialist, and a grower.
Eddie Mitchell of Love Leitrim and North Leitrim Sustainable Energy Community
& renowned actor and activist Donal O’Kelly, who together with Brian Fleming and Ellen Cranitch will perform an intriguing piece called “Roxy’s Head is Melted”.
To register for this free event please go to: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/afri-hedge-school-2019-tickets-76758006263.
With the announcement in the closing months of 2018 that a local hotel had been ear-marked as a Direct Provision centre, Direct Provision became a ‘live’ issue for the town of Moville and surrounding area. As something new to the community and a concept that most of us wouldn’t be familiar with, the discussion that has arisen is both understandable and necessary. The Irish Immigrant Support Centre (NASC) summarises the process of Direct Provision as follows:
‘People who arrive in Ireland seeking asylum or “international protection” (asylum seekers) are offered accommodation by the State in residential institutions, under a reception system known as ‘Direct Provision’. The State ‘directly provides’ essential services, including medical care, accommodation and board, along with a small weekly allowance. The Direct Provision system is overseen by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), a body of the Department of Justice. However, the majority of the centres around the country are privately owned and operated, and the standards of accommodation and living conditions vary widely.’
In order to further this discussion and better understand the reality of living in Direct Provision, a witnessing event is being held in Glencrow Hall, Moville on Saturday 9th March at 3.30pm.
The event will begin with a performance by Donal O’ Kelly of his piece on Direct Provision. Donal O’Kelly is a playwright and actor. In 1999, when the Direct Provision system of asylum seeker accommodation was first mooted by the Department of Justice as a temporary measure, he wrote a poem to challenge its introduction and performed it around the country. Last year, he revived and rewrote that poem as Direct Provision marked eighteen years in operation. He’ll perform the poem and talk about facets of the Direct Provision system, including the current limits on the right to work.
Donal’s performance will be followed by first-hand testimony from Donnah Vuma. Donnah, originally from Zimbabwe, has been living in Ireland for several years in the Direct Provision system with her three young children. She is a board member of the Human and Earth Rights organization, Afri, as well as a member of MASI (Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland).
The event is an informal one. Everyone is welcome. Entrance is by donation with all proceeds going to the local St. Vincent De Paul Society.
There will be an opportunity for discussion afterwards.
This event is being supported by Failte Inishowen and Afri
Reflections by Joe Murray, Afri’s co-ordinator
Every now and then, life throws up some extraordinary surprises!
Such a moment occurred during Afri’s annual Hedge School in IT Blancharstown in November in the context of Michael Doorly’s explanation of the origins of Concern. Concern was founded in response to the Biafran War, following a series of meetings in the kitchen of John and Kay O’ Loughlin Kennedy. The new organisation’s first act was to send three ships loaded with food to the beleaguered people, caught up in the war and the poverty and hunger, which it exacerbated. When Michael had finished his presentation, Philip Uzomo stood up and identified himself as a survivor of the Biafran war and said that he’d been a recipient of the food sent on those very ships!
Find out who is going on facebook here.
Afri is delighted that Donal O’Kelly’s radio adaptation of his award-winning show Fionnuala, produced by the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK in Norwegian, made the shortlist of five for the famous Prix Italia in Radio Drama, whittled down from an original 35 productions.
Next week, Fionnuala competes as NRK’s nominated entry in the Radio Fiction category at the Prix Europa in Berlin with results to be announced on Friday 21st October.
On that night, October 21st, the production will be played, with dialogue in English projected on a screen, in Glenamoy Parish Hall, Erris Co. Mayo starting at 8pm sharp, duration one hour. Doors 7.30pm.
Afri is proud to host this event in Glenamoy Hall, where the first reading of Fionnuala took place during the Afri Hedge School in August 2012. News from Berlin will be communicated as it happens and refreshments will be provided.
Donal O’Kelly’s live solo show about the Shell/Statoil gas project in Mayo won a Scotsman Fringe First award in Edinburgh, and has been performed all over Ireland, as well as Edinburgh, Geneva, Oslo and Rapid City, South Dakota.
Continue reading “Unique presentation of Radio Play ‘Fionnuala’”
To mark the national famine commemoration day a famine walk was held in Drumshanbo on Sunday, September 11th 2016. The walk took place from St Patrick’s Church to the famine graveyard a short distance away, where a wreath was laid and a tree planted to the memory of the famine dead. The walk was organised by Bryan Ryan a student of Drumshanbo traditional music school run by Mossie Martin.
The walk consisted of over sixty people which included Sinn Fein councillor Brenden Barry and Nancy Woods of Drumshanbo Comhaltas as well as poets and musicians from around Leitrim, A bass drum played by Ronan McManus of the four Green fields flute band lead the walk as it made its way to the famine graveyard where over 500 victim’s of an Gorta Mor are buried. The graveyard was attached to the old pre emancipation Church of Murhaun which stood there in 1744 before St Patrick’s Church was built in 1851 closer to the village. Continue reading “Famine Walk in Drumshanbo, Leitrim”
Film by RoJ
On Monday July 25th Afri and friends gathered in Dublin to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the acquittal of the Pitstop Ploughshares on charges of $US 2.5 million criminal damage of a U.S. Navy War Plane at Shannon Airport en route to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Continue reading “The Resistance Continues”
Afri funded and coordinated a group of anti-fracking activists from Spain and the UK to come to Ireland on a four day visit over the weekend of November 27th 2015. Their visit began with them giving a talk in Dublin, hosted by the Worker’s Solidarity Movement in Jigsaw. The following day they made their way to Co Leitrim and on to Fermanagh to meet members of the anti fracking group LAMP (Letterbreen and Mullaghdun Partnership). A visit to the site of the planned exploratory well in Belcoo followed before the main event Making the Connections, Fracking No!
Making the Connections, Fracking No! took place in The Glens Centre in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim on November 28th, bringing together anti fracking activists from northern Spain, England and Ireland in an evening of theatre, singing, discussion, music and dancing.
Donal O’ Kelly performed his awarding winning one man show ‘Fionnuala’, in which the human rights abuses perpetrated at the hands of Shell during the Corrib Gas Project in Erris, Co Mayo are starkly conjured up. Spanish surtitles accompanied the performance to critical acclaim and oddly timed laughter!
Next up came the Kidz from the Glen who sang an anti-fracking song called Stand Up for Ireland written by Michael Mc Loughlin. Continue reading “Reflections from ‘Making the Connections: No Fracking’ event”
The 2015 Hedge School was held in IT Blanchardstown and the focus this year was on climate change and its impact on human rights. Students from the Social and Community Development Course, with the guidance of their lecturer, Liam McGlynn, had been preparing for the Hedge School for several weeks and students were actively involved in contributing to all aspects of the day – including workshops on the theme of climate change and human rights as well as registration of attendees, creating a short film on climate change and organising the above action: “act now or pay later”.
As well as the students’ contributions, Maitet Ledesma from IBON International, spoke eloquently about the impact of climate change in the Philippines as well as the lead into the Paris conference on climate change. This was followed by a debate between Oisin Coghlan of Friends of the Earth and Harold Kingston from the Irish Farmers’ Association on the impact of Irish Agriculture on the climate. Harold was arguing that the Irish climate is best suited for growing grass – which is then used in dairy or beef farming. He also maintained that the targets set by the EU were unrealistic. Oisin on the other hand, refuting this, stated that targets are essential to drive action to tackle climate change and held that the government weren’t even trying to meet the 2020 EU targets in order to get easier targets for 2030. Oisin also held that Ireland needs to do its fair share to tackle climate change and should not be looking for special exemptions. The debate was chaired by Afri chair Nessa Ní Chasaide.
After lunch Donal O’Kelly drew parallels between the nonviolent environmental activist Ken Saro Wiwa and Frederick Douglass, a freed slave, in a dramatic piece. The day of the Hedge School itself coincided with the 20th anniversary of the hanging of the Ogoni 9 – of which Ken Saro Wiwa was part – by the Nigerian military dictatorship with the collusion of Shell. At the beginning of the day a candle was lit by one of the IT students – who is from Nigeria – in memory of the Ogoni 9.
The day concluded with a world cafe – an opportunity for all participants to reflect on how they felt about climate change – hopeful, angry, despairing and so on – and a chance to mingle with those who felt differently.
Afri would like to thank ITB and in particular Liam McGlynn for hosting the 2015 Hedge School