Afri Hedge School: Learning the lessons of war
The Aftermath of war – Learning the Lessons is the title of Afri’s Hedge School 2003 taking place on Saturday 1st November at the Mill, Kildare. The day runs from 11.00 through to 5.30 pm dinner followed by seisiún. The programme includes Lara Marlowe talking to Barbara O’Shea about her recent visit to Iraq, an analysis of the causes, consequences and aftermath of war and Ireland’s place in it by Colin Coulter, Nuria Mustafa on an exile’s experience, and Donal Kelly and Sorcha Fox in ‘Alice in Plunderland’ look to Lewis Carroll for some parallels to today’s global realities. The fee for the day is €30 including refreshments, light lunch and dinner. Afri, 134 Phibsborough Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7,  ph 01 – 8827563 / 8827581, e-mail afri@iol.ie  

PANA – Peace And Neutrality Alliance
The AGM of the Peace & Neutrality Alliance will be held on Saturday 18th October from 2 – 5 pm in the UCD Students Union Hall, Belfield, University College Dublin. There will be reports from the treasurer, secretary, international secretary and chair, elections (restricted to PANA members) and an address by Ulla Sandbaek MEP for the Danish June Movement who campaigned against the Iraqi War. The AGM is open to the public and all are welcome. Individual annual membership is €35 for waged and €7 for unwaged.

PANA campaigned throughout 2003 against the conquest of Iraq by the American Empire and the decision of Ahern to destroy Irish neutrality and undermine the United Nations by participating in the conquest and occupation of Iraq by turning Shannon airport into a US airforce base. In 2003 PANA intends to continue to campaign against the war as well as seeking a Protocol to the proposed EU Constitution which would exclude Ireland from the militarisation of the EU.  See PANA’s website at www.pana.ie    PANA, 113 Springhill Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin, e-mail pana@eircom.net or phone 01 – 2859111, 2808247, 2844765, 2894315, 2806700 or mobile 087 – 2611597.  

INCORE update
Prof Mari Fitzduff left INCORE in July to take up a new post at Brandeis University in Boston.  Prof Gillian Robinson was appointed the new INCORE Director.

The INCORE Local International Learning Project (LILP, funded by EU Programme for Peace and Reconciliation) started in July. The aim of the LILP project is to facilitate both local and international policy-to-practice learning on peace building and community relations issues. It focuses on three main areas: peace building approaches, management of diversity and interface conflict.  LILP held a ‘Break the Log-Jam’ conference in September, designed to bring politicians and a wide cross section of the community together to discuss the need to move forward. The response to this was overwhelming and the conference itself as a success.

INCORE is also pleased to announce that it has successfully tendered for a British Council Chevening Programme on Peace and Conflict Resolution for South Asian participants (SAARC); the programme will involve 20 participants from South Asia and will run at the Magee campus for a 12-week period beginning 12th January 2004.  INCORE, University of Ulster, Magee Campus, Aberfoyle House, Northland Road, Derry/Londonderry BT48 7JA.  Ph 028 – 7137 5500,   fax 7137 5510,   web  www.incore.ulst.ac.uk  

Getting Sustainable
The Sustainable Ireland Co-operative now produces a useful monthly e-mail Sustainable Ireland Network Bulletin ‘providing communication and networking for individuals and groups working for a healthy, just and ecologically sustainable world’.  They also have a 32-page booklet covering 60 events October – December for the price of a s.a.e., or it can be sent by e-mail.   Cultivate Sustainable Living centre, 15 –19 Essex Street West, Dublin 8, ph 01 – 6746396, e-mail info@sustainable.ie and web www.sustainable.ie

Sustainable Northern Ireland is now based at 89 Loopland Drive, Belfast BT6 9DW, ph 028 – 9050 7850, fax 9094 2154, e-mail info@sustainableNI.org and website www.sustainableNI.org They have started a quarterly magazine entitled ‘3’ (available in paper and online versions). 

Amnesty International – North and South
Amnesty International Irish Section launched a new campaign, entitled Imagine, a worldwide human rights education campaign, back in May, and will begin a campaign on Violence Against Women in March 2004.  The September/Issue (No.121) of their magazine Amnesty Ireland (free to members, 3 issues a year or €2 where sold) includes a review of AI’s very varied activities in the year to autumn 2003. 

Local Amnesty groups in the Republic include the following; Carlow – Carlow Town; Cork – Cork City, Clonakilty, Schull, Youghal, Mallow; Donegal – Letterkenny; Dublin – Dublin Central, Dublin West, Dundrum/Ballinteer, Dun Laoghaire/Blackrock, Sandymount, Swords, Rathgar, Tallaght; Galway – Galway City; Kerry – Tralee, Dingle, Killarney; Kilkenny  - Kilkenny City; Limerick – Limerick City; Louth – Dundalk; Meath – Navan, Kells; Offaly – Tullamore; Sligo – Sligo Town; Tipperary – Nenagh, Cashel, Carrick-on-Suir; Waterford – Waterford City; Wexford – Wexford Town, Enniscorthy. There are also networks on the areas of Mental Health; Military, Security and Police; Anti-Death Penalty; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender; Freedom Writers. 

Subscriptions to AI Irish Section are €40 individual, €10 unwaged/student, household/couple €60, unwaged household/couple €15. Amnesty International Irish Section, 48 Fleet Street, Dublin 2, ph 01 – 677 6361, fax 677 6392, e-mail info@amnesty.ie and web www.amnesty.ie which gives more details on the very multi-faceted work of Amnesty International.

Amnesty International in Northern Ireland is establishing new groups in Armagh and East Antrim; existing branches are Belfast, Foyle, Mid-Down, Mid Ulster, Newry, North Atlantic and Omagh.  For details contact as below.

The Northern Ireland Regional Conference, ‘Global Issues. Local Action’  takes place in Belfast on Friday 10th evening and Saturday 11th October. AI-NI has their annual lecture on Thursday 16th October with Xanana Gusmão, President of East Timor speaking on Peace, Justice and Reconciliation; it takes place at Queen’s University, G06 at 7pm, admission free but by ticket only which are available from AI-NI. Also upcoming is comedy benefit Stand Up For Justice at the Whitla Hall, Belfast at 8pm on Tuesday 28th October as  part of the Belfast Festival. 

AI-NI, 397 Ormeau Road, Belfast BT7 3GP, phone 90 64 30 00 or e-mail nireland@amnesty.org.uk or go to www.amnesty.org.uk/ni

WAVE Trauma Centre
We’re just too late going to press to usefully include details on a WAVE conference, ‘Put Out’, looking at ongoing and increasing levels of threat and intimidation in places in Northern Ireland. However WAVE, established in 1991, provides care and support to people bereaved, injured and/or traumatised as a result of the Troubles.  WAVE has centres in Belfast, Armagh, Omagh, Ballymoney,  Ballymena and Derry/Londonderry, and provides a comprehensive range of services. Contact locally or WAVE Trauma Centre, 5 Chichester Park South, Belfast BT15 5DW, phone 028 – 9077 9922, fax 9078 1165, or see the website www.wavetc.clara.net

Feasta: Land – the claim of the community
A two-day conference takes place in Dublin on 9th and 10th October entitled Land: The Claim of the Community, ‘an international conference to explore initiatives in affordable housing, infrastructure provision and local government finance’. The privatisation of land and other natural resources continues today on a global scale; it is both immoral and environmentally unsustainable. What can be done about it? The conference is organised by  Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, and the Henry George Foundation. There are around twenty speakers including Kevin Cahill, Pat Conaty, Fred Harrison, Alanna Hartzog, Joshua Vincent and Dave Wetzel, plus workshops.  It takes place at the Tara Towers Hotel, Booterstown, Dublin. The standard fee is €240, limited numbers for NGOs at €120.   Feasta, 159 Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 2,  ph 01 – 491 2773, fax 491 2203,  e-mail feasta@anu.ie or see more details on the Feasta website at www.feasta.org/events/landconf.htm

Peace News and Nonviolent Action
The current issue of the excellent international English-language quarterly publication Peace News is on the International Arms Trade (produced in cooperation with CAAT, Campaign Against Arms Trade in Britain). The cover include a multi-coloured ‘red’ carpet of flags – interesting to see the Irish flag there with all the others; the magazine looks at the situation in a worldwide context.  For those wanting to keep up to date with the peace movement in Britain, the monthly Nonviolent Action, available also on joint subscription with Peace News, does the trick.  Peace News subscriptions are £12 minimum in UK, €25 Europe; Nonviolent Action is available at a minimum of £6 in the UK; a joint subscription is available at £17 minimum in UK.  Peace News / Nonviolent Action, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DY,  or see www.peacenews.info

NVDAG Sri Lanka – 25 years
NVDAG is the Sri Lankan section of the WRI/War Resisters International and affiliated with IFOR/International Fellowship of Reconciliation and the IPB/International Peace Bureau. It has worked since February 1979 in a variety of fields including community development, preschool education, relief and rehabilitation, income generation, maintenance of refugee camps etc. It has assisted thousands and thousands of families over this period in the Jaffna Peninsula.  However NVDAG suffered heavy losses and damage during the war in 2000 and was displaced and unable to function for nearly a year.  It is now functioning again and trying to raise funds to support pre-school programmes, nutritional programmes, and it also needs furniture and equipment. Cheques can be made out to NVDAG,  CA 1763, People’s Bank, Chavakachcheri, Sri Lanka; the postal address of NVDAG is PO Box 02, Chavakachcheri, Sri Lanka (while the offices themselves are at 29 Kaithady Nunavil, Kandy Road, Chavakachcheri).  The phone number is 0777 – 111494, and e-mail  nvdag@rediffmail.com 

Justice Not Vengeance
Justice Not Vengeance (JNV) in Britain (see NN 112) is continuing the useful anti-war briefings produced by Arrow on Afghanistan and Iraq (etc); see www.justicenotvengeance.org for details.

In’it INNATE
The next INNATE Belfast networking meeting will include discussion on (and showing of) Turning the Tide’s video, ‘Nonviolence for a change’; there’ll also be a short business session. 7.30 pm Monday 20th October at 7 University Avenue; all welcome, enquiries to 90 64 71 06.