Mitchell Institute events: Ethics of peace negotiations, Christian ethics and peacebuilding

Upcoming events at the George Mitchell Institute at Queen’s University Belfast can be found at https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/mitchell-institute/events/ These include a presentation by Kristoffer Lidén on ‘The ethics of peace negotiations’ at 5pm on 13th January, ‘The Cost of Flying the Flag’ in Northern Ireland, with Prof Declan French at lunchtime on 22nd January, a symposium on ‘Peace in/from the Margins’ on 23rd and 24th February, and a conference on ‘Christian Ethics and Peacebuilding in the Age of AI and Autonomous Weapons Systems’ on 3rd March.

Afri’s Féile Bríde, year in print and film

Afri’s annual Féile Bríde conference takes place in Kildare on Saturday 7th February from 10 am – 4 pm with the title Walking the Way of Brigid. Further details and speakers in due course on the Afri website at www.afri.ie The informative annual Peacemaker newsletter from Afri is at https://www.afri.ie/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Peacemaker-Afri-Newsletter-2025-Small.pdf and a ten minute video of some of Afri’s 2025 is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0O2-cVNOA The Doolough Famine Walk will be on Saturday 13th June this year.

More war machinery made in Belfast

Thales in Northern Ireland has a hand in a new radiowave machine for targeting drones. It is a type of Radiofrequency Directed Energy Weapon which uses high frequency radio waves to disrupt or damage critical electronic components inside drones, causing them to crash or malfunction.  “Thales, which led the development of the RF DEW demonstrator, employ around 100 highly skilled engineering and manufacturing staff in Northern Ireland on the project ……” https://www.gov.uk/government/news/british-soldiers-take-down-drone-swarm-in-groundbreaking-use-of-radio-wave-weapon You can see just some of the past resistance to Thales in Belfast at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72177720297420924/

Development Education and Hope

The Centre for Global Education (CGE) and Comhlámh are organising a webinar titled “Development Education and Hope” which will share and debate the content of Issue 42 of Policy and Practice: A Development Education Review on the theme “Development Education and Hope”.  It will be held on Wednesday, 14 January 2025 from 12.00pm – 1.30pm (online).  Register at: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/development-education-and-hope-webinar-tickets-1974263128162?aff=oddtdtcreator CGE website is at https://www.centreforglobaleducation.com/ and Comhlámh is at https://comhlamh.org/

AVP: Another busy year

AVP, the Alternatives to Violence Project, has continued to grow and now includes 70 outside volunteers, 35 of whom are trained outside facilitators, alongside 50 inside facilitators, of whom many have only recently begun their facilitation journey. It delivered 43 workshops across 11 prisons in 2025, with a total of 451 participations by inside and outside participants. In addition there were numerous community gatherings in prison as well as online practice sessions. https://www.avpireland.ie/

Financial Justice Ireland

Financial Justice Ireland (FJI), formerly Debt and Development Coalition Ireland and formed in 1993, works for a financial system that serves the needs of all people, for global financial justice, rather than just some people, and which does not take the planet for granted. Further details at https://www.financialjustice.ie/ where there is a teachers’ portal with material for post-primary teachers. Their new strategic plan for 2025-2029 is also there.

Síolta Chroí upcoming events

These include a tree harvesting day on Sunday 20th January, a webinar on ‘Food, Farming and Medicine’ with Dr Rupa Marya from 7 – 8 pm on 22nd January, and a ‘GIY’ workshop on ‘Food gardening for beginners’ on Saturday 21st March. More information about Síolta Chroí and the above events at https://sioltachroi.ie/   Síolta Chroí is at Aghacloghan. Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.

Feasta: Economic literacy

Feasta and other Wellbeing Economy Alliance Ireland Hub members will be contributing to an Economic Literacy webinar organised by Cultivate: “Exploring Different Economic Approaches”, on Tuesday 27th January from 3.30 – 5pm Irish time, as part of a new ‘Reclaim the economy’ week. This webinar will explore ecological, circular, social solidarity, and wellbeing economy frameworks. https://www.feasta.org/

Arms resistance in Bogota

On 1st December 2025, antimilitarist organisations, activists, and artists carried out a Nonviolent Direct Action against the Expodefensa Arms Fair in Bogotá, Colombia. Despite its nonviolent nature, the nonviolent action was harassed and violently repressed by the Public Forces, leaving several people injured. See https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2025/colombia-nonviolent-direct-action-against-expodefensa-repressed-public-forces

Petty Belarus action against Our House activist

In a serious but small-minded action, the apartment of Our House leader Olga Karach in Vitebsk (Belarus) has been confiscated by the Belarusian authorities. Personal belongings were partly seized and listed for auction, while others were looted by representatives of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The apartment itself is expected to be put up for a state auction. These new reprisals follow a long line of actions aimed at punishing Olga Karach and all human rights defenders of Our House for their persistent work to protect Belarusians. In July 2024, the Brest Regional Court sentenced Olga Karach in absentia to 12 years of imprisonment and imposed a fine of 600,000 Belarusian rubles (approximately 170,000 euros), one among many penalties. Our House website is at https://news.house/