Action from Ireland | |
Type | NGO |
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Location |
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Website | www |
Afri (Action from Ireland) is a Dublin-based NGO that promotes human rights, peace, justice and environmentalism, especially in the Global South, with a focus on injustice caused by conflict. Its patron is Archbishop Desmond Tutu. [1] Another patron of is former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday. [2]
It is a member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, the International Peace Bureau, Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, and Irish Development Education Association. [2]
Its offices are in Phibsboro, Dublin.
Its mission is the promotion of global justice and peace, and the reduction of poverty; this includes, but is not limited to, the progressive reduction of global militarisation.
Initially, as of 1 September 1975, AfRI was taken from the phrase "Aid from the Republic of Ireland". At the International Conference on World Peace and Poverty in 1982 the Afri name was re-designated, now meaning "Action from Ireland". [3]
Each year since 1988, Afri has hosted a Famine Walk to commemorate the Great Hunger at Doolough in south County Mayo. [5]
Feile Bride celebrates and reflects on the spirit of St Brigid’s millennium-old message of justice, peace and hope. It happens annually in Kildare around the start of Spring in February. Its roots may be traced back to an episode in 1983 when five young men from Derry learned how to make Brigid Crosses and donated the proceeds from their sale to Afri. This developed into a schools’ campaign, the Brigid Peace Cross Campaign. Ten years later, in 1993, the first Féile Bríde was organized, to celebrate the success of the schools’ campaign, intended as a ‘one-off’ justice and peace conference. It was held in Kildare and has been re-run there every spring-time since. [6]
Since 1998, Afri has runs a hedge school at different places around Ireland, which has become an annual event reflecting on 'contemporary issues of injustice and oppression through conversation, debate and music'. [6]
Afri initiated a national “active citizenship” campaign in 2010, after a Government-initiated 'Active Citizenship Office' was closed the previous year, saying “traditional sources of authority have proven to be ineffective”. [7] [8]
Afri were co-organisers of the POSSIBILITIES event, which in 2011 welcomed the Dalai Lama to Ireland. [2]
In 2014, the organisation ran two petitions on Change.org including one to ban fracking and another to inspect war planes using Shannon Airport.[ citation needed ]
Their partnerships with the global south include the Kenya Pastoralist Journalist Network and the Niger Delta communities. [2]
Afri also work in Northern Ireland with the charity Children in Crossfire. [2]
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. In the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, it is named after the village of Mayo, now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority. The population was 137,231 at the 2022 census. The boundaries of the county, which was formed in 1585, reflect the Mac William Íochtar lordship at that time.
Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland is the patroness saint of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish hagiographies, she was an abbess who founded the important abbey of Kildare, as well as several other convents of nuns. There are few documented historical facts about her, and her hagiographies are mainly anecdotes and miracle tales, some of which are Christianisations of hero tales from Irish mythology. They say Brigid was the daughter of an Irish clan chief and an enslaved Christian woman, and was fostered in a druid's household before becoming a consecrated virgin. She is patroness of many things, including poetry, learning, healing, protection, blacksmithing, livestock and dairy production. In her honour, a perpetual fire was kept burning at Kildare for centuries.
Brigid's cross or Brigit's cross is a small variant of the cross often woven from straw or rushes. It appears in many different shapes, but the most popular designs feature a woven diamond or lozenge in the centre. The cross is named for the Christian saint Brigid of Kildare.
Kildare is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. As of 2022, its population was 10,302, making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. It is home to Kildare Cathedral, historically the site of an important abbey said to have been founded by Saint Brigid of Kildare in the 5th century. The Curragh lies east of the town.
Naas is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. In 2022, it had a population of 26,180, making it the largest town in County Kildare and the fourteenth-largest urban center in Ireland.
Clondalkin is a suburban town in County Dublin, 10 km (6 mi) west of Dublin city centre, Ireland, under the administrative jurisdiction of South Dublin. It features an 8th-century round tower that acts as a focal point for the area.
Castleknock is an affluent suburb located 8 km (5 mi) west of the centre of Dublin city, Ireland. It is centred on the village of the same name in Fingal.
Stillorgan, formerly a village in its own right, is now a suburban area of Dublin in Ireland. Stillorgan is located in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, and contains many housing estates, shops and other facilities, with the old village centre still present. Stillorgan is at least partly contiguous with Kilmacud and neighbours other southside districts such as Mount Merrion, Sandyford, Leopardstown, Dundrum, Blackrock, Goatstown and Foxrock.
Monasterevin, also Monasterevan, and Mevin is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. The town lies on the River Barrow and the Barrowline, a canal branch of the Grand Canal. In the 20 years between the 2002 and 2022 census, the population of Monasterevin more than doubled, from 2,583 to 5,307 inhabitants. The town is in a townland and civil parish of the same name.
Kill is a village and parish in County Kildare, Ireland near the county's border with Dublin beside the N7. Its population was recorded as 3,818 people in the 2022 census.
Kilcullen, formally Kilcullen Bridge, is a small town on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Ireland. Its population of 3,815 at the 2022 census made it the 13th largest settlement in County Kildare. From 2002 to 2011, it was one of the fastest growing towns in the county, doubling its population from 1,483 to 3,473. It is situated primarily in the Barony of Kilcullen, with a part in the Barony of Naas South, and subsidiary areas include Logstown, Harristown, Carnalway and Brannockstown, Gilltown, Nicholastown, and Castlemartin.
Don Mullan is an Irish author and media producer. His book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday is officially recognised as a primary catalyst for a new Bloody Sunday inquiry, which became the longest-running and most expensive in British legal history. Mullan, who is dyslexic, has spoken widely and was co-producer of a highly acclaimed and multi-award-winning film about Bloody Sunday that was inspired by his book.
James Warren Doyle, OESA (1786–1834) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin in Ireland, who used the signature "JKL", an acronym from "James Kildare and Leighlin." Doyle was active in the Anti-Tithe movement. A campaigner for Catholic Emancipation until it was attained in 1829, he was also an educator, church organiser and the builder of Carlow cathedral.
Willie Corduff is an Irish environmental activist from the farming community of Rossport, Kilcommon, Erris. Corduff's parents first arrived in Rossport in 1947, and reclaimed a farm by hand out of bogland. He became a campaigner against Royal Dutch Shell's activities in his local area when the Corrib gas controversy began. He is married to Mary and they have six children and four grandchildren.
Féile na nGael is an annual tournament comprising the sports of hurling, camogie and handball organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. Its stated aim is to bond communities, forge friendships, provide educational opportunities and unearth new leaders.
The Doolough Tragedy is an event that took place during the Great Irish Famine close to Doo Lough in southwest County Mayo. At least seven starving people died after being "forced to walk for miles to present themselves for inspection" by poor law union officials who would determine whether they would continue to receive outdoor relief.
The Camogie Association organises and promotes the sport of camogie in Ireland and around the world. The association has close ties with the Gaelic Athletic Association, but is still a separate organisation.
The National Famine Commemoration Day is an annual observance in Ireland commemorating the Great Famine. A week-long programme of events leads up to the day, usually a Sunday in May. It has been organised officially by the government of Ireland since May 6th 2008. The main event is held in a different place each year, rotating among the four provinces of Ireland. There is also an international event, held in a place important for the Irish diaspora.
The Murrisk Millennium Peace Park is a five-acre park located north of the R335 road overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in the village of Murrisk, County Mayo, Ireland at the foot of Croagh Patrick mountain.