Hedge School 2015: One Earth, One Change – Climate Change & Human Rights

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Hedge School 2015_WEBAfri Hedge School 2015: One Earth, One Chance – Climate Change & Human Rights

I.T. Blanchardstown, Room A57

Tuesday 10th November 2015, 9.30am – 4pm

In our history, Hedge Schools were places of learning, continuity and resistance, emerging out of the draconian Penal Laws that forbade formal education to most Irish people. Learning about and resisting the causes of poverty is at the heart of Afri’s work and the Hedge School symbolizes the kind of resilience and creativity needed to address the crisis facing our world as a result of climate change and the obscenity of the war industry.

The 2015 Hedge School will explore the themes of climate change and human rights.  This year’s Hedge School is organised in partnership with the students from the Social and Community Development Course from I.T. Blanchardstown.

The 10th November 2015 is the 20th anniversary of the execution of the great nonviolent environmentalist Ken Saro Wiwa and the Ogoni 9.  We will be marking this event at the Hedge School.

To book tickets go here and visit our facebook page here.

Impressions from the 2014 Hedge School

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Cathyrn O'Reilly (standing) and Vonnie Munroe of the Dunnes Stores Anti-apartheid strikers speaking at the Afri Hedge School in ITB.
Cathyrn O’Reilly (standing) and Vonnie Munroe of the Dunnes Stores Anti-apartheid strikers speaking at the Afri Hedge School in ITB.

By coincidence, the Afri Hedge School 2014 took place on the 96th anniversary of the official ending of World War 1.  I say ‘official’ ending as of course a monstrous machine of that size and ferocity doesn’t suddenly come to a halt all at once. Active battling in which several human beings lost their lives continued well after that iconic moment of the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month on which the leaders cried ‘stop!”. And signatures were made on a piece of paper.  I say ‘official’ as the fallout, the ramifications of that horrific war, ironically titled in the recruitment propaganda as ‘the war to end all wars’, is still to this very day having its devastating impact. The battles continue long after Armistice. The trauma has traversed generations in the many insidious ways that trauma can. Palestine is just one of many, many ongoing casualties that continues to bleed and die.

The lives of those men who had chosen to become or had been forced to become soldiers and were sacrificed in that war are traditionally remembered by silence and ceremony on this iconic day.

The Afri Hedge School chose not to hold the silence, but rather to facilitate the raising of voices. It invited the testimony of witnesses and casualties beyond those in active combat. It welcomed the awkward questions. And it framed all of this within the matrix of conscience. Continue reading “Impressions from the 2014 Hedge School” →

Date for the Diary: 2014 Hedge School

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Hedge School poster

The 2014 Hedge School will be held on Tuesday 11th November in Room A57, Aontas Block on the I.T.B. campus, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.  

Registration is at 9.30am and the Hedge School will run from 10am to 4pm.

This event is organised in partnership with the students from the Social and Community Development Course in I.T. Blanchardstown.

You can book a ticket and find out directions for the 2014 Hedge School via our Eventbrite page here.