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Hedge School/Scoil Chois Claí 2008

A unique blend of conversation, debate, art, film, fun and food.
Pipelines and Profits:

People Under Pressure

Begins:
October 24th 8.30pm
with film screening in
McGraths, Pullathomas.

Conference sessions on
Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th
in Glenamoy
Community Centre,
Erris, Co. Mayo
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Introduction
The original hedge schools emerged from a time of colonial oppression and prohibi-
tion and were places of learning and resistance. They are associated with the time,
for example, when Cromwell was imposing his brutal rule and have been described
as, in their own way, ‘a kind of guerrilla warfare’. William Carleton, a hedge school-
master of the nineteenth century, and Patrick Pearse, a schoolmaster of the twenti-
eth century, drew an analogy between the great educator-philosopher Plato’s per-
sonalized approach to education and the approach in the Irish hedge schools.
Hedge schools had the added advantage of being largely free from the influence of
church and state.

Maths, science, music and languages were among the subjects taught in the hedge
school, often set up in a barn or ‘on the sunny side of a thorn hedge’. So success-
ful were the hedge schools that a writer called McManus recounts: “A knowledge of
Latin was a frequent enough accomplishment among poor Irish mountaineers in the
seventeenth century and was spoken by many of them on special occasions. And it
is authoritatively boasted that cows were bought and sold in Greek in mountain mar-
ket-places of Kerry."

Afri has adopted the concept of the hedge school to reflect on issues like colonial-
ism and corporate exploitation - at home and abroad - and to encourage discussion
and informed activism. The hedge school is part of our development education pro-
gramme, a programme which is based on Paulo Freire’s vision of education for lib-
eration. Unfortunately, much contemporary education is provided in a way that feeds
the worst aspects of consumerism, individualism and personal accumulation.

It is the thorny issue of resource extraction, inextricably linked to broader questions

of consumption and wealth accumulation, that will be at the centre of this year’s dis-
cussions. Peak oil and climate change – brought about in large part by our addiction
to fossil fuels – are now high on the global political agenda. If more of the remaining
fossil fuel reserves are to be exploited, is it possible at least to develop them in a
manner that is environmentally and socially sustainable?

During this hedge school week-end, we will see the film The Wind that Shakes the
Barley and hear from its screenwriter; we will also hear from pipeline experts, from
local farmers, from indigenous people, from human rights activists, from politicians,
from actors, musicians and poets and from all those who come in solidarity.

We will have people from all over the world at this year’s event: from Ecuador,
Nigeria, the United States and France. We probably won’t have any Greek speakers
but it is possible that a cow or two will be bought or sold in French or Spanish in Erris
this hedge school weekend!

Joe Murray
(Afri Coordinator)
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Clár
Friday evening 4.15-5.15pm Session 4: Drama out of a Crisis with
Paul Laverty and Michael
Opening session of the Hedge School in McGrath’s, McCaughan,introduced by Donal
Pullathomas. O’Kelly
Film screening:
5.20pm “Teenage kicks” with Pete Mullineaux
8.30 pm “The Wind That Shakes the Barley”
(Ken Loach) introduced by Paul 5.30pm Conclusion
Laverty (screenwriter)
6.30pm Dinner in Glenamoy Community
Saturday 25th Centre

9.15am Registration at Glenamoy 8.00pm An evening of music, drama and more

Community Centre (also the hosted by actor and playwright Donal
venue for all events, unless O’Kelly
otherwise stated)

9.40am Fáilte – Joe Murray

Sunday Morning
9.45am Song by Astrid Ni Mhongain in Glenamoy Community Centre

9.50-11am Session 1: Pipelines: Myth versus 10am-12.00am Dialogue – The Art of the Possible
Reality with Richard Kuprewicz and with Catriona Ruane, Denis Halliday, and
Willie Corduff (chair: Andy Storey) Ciarán O Murchú (chair: Mark Garavan)*

Break + Music Break + Music

11.15-1.20 Session 2: Oil and Gas, Dollars and 12.15am-1.45pm Soil and Soul with Alastair
Death – Mayo, Ecuador, America and McIntosh, and response by local resident
the Niger Delta (chair: Clare O’Grady Walshe)

Part 1 2.00pm Soup and Music on the beach!

11.15-12.15pm with Julio Prieto and Larson Bill Gathering in the marquee on the beach
where soup will be provided by the Solidarity Camp.
Part 2
2.15pm ‘From ideas to action’ - planting a hedge!
12.20-1.20pm with Tari Ebimo Dadiowei and Maura
Harrington (both 3pm Ends
sessions chaired by
Michael McCaughan)
Please bring footwear appropriate for wet country terrain in
input will be followed by small group discussions October!
and feedback to panels
* Representatives of the Government and other political parties
1.20pm Lunch Soup with bread for all have been invited and may participate in this session also.

Saturday 25th 2.20-3.50pm

Session 3: parallel discussions: information and exchange of ideas

Human Rights The Way Forward – Aims and Strategies

with Eve Tessera of Sherpa, Andrew Anderson of open forum for discussion
Frontline Defenders and Julie Cavanaugh-Bill of (chair: Andy Storey)
Western Shoshone Defense Project (chair: Joe Murray) in the marquee on the beach
Community Centre
followed by a short break
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Contributors
Andrew Anderson has been the Deputy Director of
Front Line since March 2003. Previously he worked for
thirteen years at the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International where he was Director of the Campaigning
Program and Director of the Africa Program. He has led
Amnesty and Front Line missions to the field, represent-
ed the organizations at the UN and in other international
fora, led training courses, managed projects, raised
funds and conducted evaluations. He has led Front Line
missions to Bahrain, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Guatemala, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Tunisia, Western Sahara
and Zimbabwe amongst others.
Larson Bill is Western Shoshone and is the Community
Planner for the Western Shoshone Defence Project. In
that capacity, he serves as the lead organizer for
community meetings and dialogues with corporate and
government entities. Larson has been active in the
defense of Western Shoshone rights for many years and
has been a lead delegate on numerous National and
International Summits in the U.S., Canada and Central
America, the United Nations in New York, and to the U.S.
Congress. He recently returned from a five country
indigenous leadership strategy session in Bueños Aires,
Argentina where representatives from Peru, Argentina,
Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia extended a special invitation
to Larson to share the ideas and thoughts of the
indigenous movement in the South with the peoples in
the North. He helped coordinate the recent 15th
Protecting Mother Earth Conference hosted by the
Shoshone at the South Fork community.
Julie Cavanaugh-Bill (formerly Julie Ann Fishel) is an
attorney and the Director of the Land Recognition
Program for the Western Shoshone Defence Project in
Nevada. She has worked with indigenous communities
in Nigeria, Suriname, Central America, and the United
States in various legal forums Her involvement has
resulted in groundbreaking decisions at both the Inter-
American Commission on Human Rights and the United
Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination. Ms. Cavanaugh-Bill teaches courses on
Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights Lawyering in St.
Thomas College of Law in Miami. She also serves as a
seminar faculty member for the University of Arizona’s
Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program and has
taught seminar courses at the Colorado School of Mines
on corporate responsibility. Ms. Cavanaugh-Bill is a
member of the Executive Board of Great Basin Resource
Watch and serves on the Committee for the Initiative for
Responsible Mining Assurances in Vancouver.
Willie Corduff is a farmer living in Rossport. He was
jailed for three months in 2005 for his opposition to
Shell’s inland gas refinery at Ballinaboy and high pres-
sure pipeline through his farm. He was awarded the
Goldman Environmental Award in 2006, which is often
referred to as the Nobel Prize for the Environment.
Regarding Shell’s project in Erris he says: ‘the bottom
line is we will not lie down. We can not. There is too
much at stake. We’d have to leave our homes if we were
to accept this. We have to protect ourselves because no-
one else will.’
Tari Ebimo Dadiowei was born in Obunagha town in
Bayelsa State. He attended County Grammar School
Ikwerre-Etche. At University he obtained a Bachelor of
Science and Botany in 1988 and Bachelor of Science in
Accounting in 1999. His interest is to work towards the
evolution of an environmentally sustainable and socially
just society in which the needs of all people are met with-
out threatening the health of the natural environment or
well being of future generations and to enhance the
capacity of communities to manage their natural
resources and environment. He has done research and
presented papers on environmental impact assessment
and crises in the Niger Delta.
Denis Halliday with the rank of United Nations Assistant
Secretary General, and at that time U.N. humanitarian
Coordinator in Baghdad, resigned after a 34 year career
in order to be free to speak publicly on the genocidal
impact of UN economic sanctions on the people of Iraq,
imposed in 1990, and retained in full knowledge of the
human cost afterwards by the member states of the UN
Security Council. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2003 and is also recipient of the Gandhi
International Peace Prize. He is currently visiting
Profesor at Pennsylvania Swathmore University in the
US.
Maura Harrington is a native of Erris, Co. Mayo. She
has been active in the campaign of opposition to Shell
from the beginning. She says her activism is driven by an
awareness of the importance of the connection between
‘place and people – people and place’. She recently
undertook a hunger strike, which ended after eleven days
when Shell’s pipelaying ship Solitaire left Irish territorial
waters.
Richard B. Kuprewicz is president of Accufacts Inc., a
pipeline consulting firm based in Washington. He brings
30 plus years of experience in the industry offering
special focus on appropriate pipeline design and
operation in areas of unique population density or of an
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environmentally sensitive nature. His background draws
from a wealth of operational and field experience
garnered from gas and liquid pipelines operating across
some of the most sensitive areas of the world. These
unique qualifications allow him to serve as an expert on
all aspects of pipeline operation including, but not limited
to, siting, design, maintenance, operation, leak detection,
inspection and testing emergency response, regulatory
compliance, risk analysis, and management.
Paul Laverty obtained a law degree in Glasgow,
Scotland. In the mid-80s he lived in Nicaragua, Central
America, where he worked providing evidence of human
rights abuses during the war between the Nicaraguan
Government and the US-backed "Contras". After his time
in Central America Paul made contact with British
director Ken Loach. He wrote his first screenplay Carla's
Song, starring Bobby Carlyle, followed by My Name is
Joe, and Bread and Roses, starring Adrien Brodie. His
script Sweet Sixteen won Best Screenplay award in the
Cannes film festival of 2002. In 2003 he wrote Ae Fond
Kiss, and in 2005 The Wind That Shakes The Barley, set
in Ireland's War of Independence and Civil War. Most
recently, he wrote It's a Free World.
Alastair McIntosh lives in Glasgow, Scotland and is a
writer, lecturer, social activist, broadcaster and
campaigning academic from the Isle of Lewis; a Fellow of
the Centre for Human Ecology (CHE), a director of the
GalGael Trust, a Visiting Fellow of the Academy for Irish
Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster, and Visiting
Professor of Human Ecology at the University of
Strathclyde.His major books are Soil and Soul (2001),
Love and Revolution (poetry, 2006) and Hell and High
Water (2008). Soil and Soul – People Versus Corporate
Power is his best know book, described by George
Monbiot as "world changing", by the Bishop of Liverpool
as "life-changing", by Starhawk as "inspirational", and by
Thom Yorke of Radiohead as "truly mental".
Ciarán O Murchú, spokesperson for Pobail Le Chéile, is
a qualified Sailing Senior Instructor, a Windsurfing Level
3 Instructor, a Level 2 Kayak instructor and a surfing
instructor. He also has qualifications in Mountaineering
and Confidence training. In 1996 he was awarded the
President’s Gold Award for achievements in a number of
areas including teaching adventure sports to physically
disabled people. He has now devoted himself full time to
providing safe, satisfying courses at Coláiste U.I.S.C.E.
U.I.S.C.E is a major source of employment on the Mullet
peninsula and is particularly significant as it offers
employment opportunities to indigenous Gaeltacht
speakers.
Julio Marcelo Prieto Méndez is an Ecuadorian lawyer.
He studied at the University of Salamanca (Spain) until
2002 when he returned to Ecuador where he coordinat-
ed para-legal training projects for communities and also
organised a seminar “Environmental Rights and Lawsuits
in Ecuador” (2003). His legal essay was entitled: “About
the Ownership and Use of Forest Resources” (2004) and
his thesis: “Legal Schemes for Clean Development
Mechanisms” (2004-2005). He has been lawyer for the
Jurisprudence College of the University of San
Francisco de Quito (2005), and litigate lawyer in the
environmental trial for the indigenous community against
ChevronTexaco (before the Amozonia Defence, from
2005 until now). He is also Attorney for the Cofán
people, who have begun suing for moral damage against
Chevron (2007 until now). He is a specialist on
environmental lawsuits, impact of hydrocarbon opera-
tions, environmental damages and their reparations.
Caitriona Ruane was born in Swinford, Co Mayo. She
worked as a Human Rights and Development worker in
El Salvador and Nicaragua for four years, returning to
Ireland to become Latin American Project Officer with
Trócaire in 1987. Subsequently, she was Coordinator for
Human Rights with the Centre for Research and
Documentation in Belfast. She later held the position of
Director of Feile an Phobail in West Belfast. In 2003 she
was elected as an MLA for South Down and became
Equality and Human Rights Spokesperson. She became
Minister for Education in the Northern Assembly in 2007.
Eve Tessera was born in Paris in 1982. She completed
an International Public Law Degree in the Sorbonne in
Paris in 2003. Subsequently, she completed a Masters in
International Public Law and Business Law in the
Universidad la Complutense de Madrid in 2004, followed
by an Advanced Post-Masters Diploma in International
Public Law and International Organisations in the
Sorbonne. She came to Ireland in 2006 where she
undertook internships with Afri and Oxfam Ireland and
subsequently completed a 9-month internship with
CALDH in Guatemala. She now works as head of the
extractive industries department with the Paris-based
human rights organization, Sherpa. She is the author of
the formal OECD complaint which was lodged with
National Contact Points in Dublin and Amsterdam
recently.
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Mark Garavan is lecturer in Sociology at the
Galway/Mayo Institute of Technology and author of the
book ‘The Rossport 5’ published in 2007. Afri also
published ‘The Politics of Moral Force’, which was a
paper given by Dr. Garavan at the 11th Ken Saro-Wiwa
seminar in Cork.
Michael McCaughan is an Irish writer who has spent the
last twenty years living and working in Latin America,
writing for a number of publications, notably the Irish
Times. Afri published his book at the beginning of the
year: The Price of Our Souls – Gas, Shell and Ireland,
which is the result of six months research on the Corrib
gas dispute.
Joe Murray was born in County Longford and has been
involved with Afri since 1980. He worked in Sudan in
1989 and was a member of a human rights delegation
that visited East Timor in 1999 just before the elections in
which the Timorese people voted for independence. He
has visited Central America in recent years where Afri
has supported a project entitled: ‘water as a human right’
Clare O’Grady Walshe is a graduate of UCC where she
received a masters degree in sociology. She is
Coordinator of Afri's Development Education
Programme. She is a former director of Greenpeace in
Ireland and has served on the Irish Aid Advisory
Committee and the Heritage Council. She is also a Board
member of the Irish Seed Savers Association and
Children in Crossfire.
Andy Storey is a lecturer in the Centre for Development
Studies in UCD and chairperson of Afri. He worked in
Rwanda in 1994 and 1995, following the genocide there.
He has a doctorate in sociology from Queen’s University,
Belfast.
TEENAGERS WELCOME!If enough teenagers turn up at
the hedge school on Saturday, the uniquely talented
Pete Mullineaux will provide a drama skills workshop
dealing with local issues. Teenagers will work from 11pm
to 1am and from 2pm to 4.30pm in Kilcommon Lodge
and then give a short dramatic presentation at 5.00pm in
Glenamoy Community Hall. Please let us know in
advance if you are a teenager, intend coming along for
the event and want to be involved in this workshop.

gratefully acknowledges the support of Irish Aid, Trócaire and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
is a member organisation of the International Peace Bureau
Afri, 134 Phibsborough Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7.
Telephone 01 8827563 or 01 8827581 email: afri@iol.ie www.afri.ie