ICND: Annual commemoration of Hiroshima, Dublin, 6th August
The annual commemoration for the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, and for all victims of nuclear testing and weapons, will take place on Sunday, 6th August, the 78th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, at 1.10 p.m. at the memorial cherry tree in Merrion Square Park, Dublin 2.
The ceremony will take place at the memorial cherry tree planted by Irish CND in 1980. His Excellency Mr Norio Maruyama, Japanese ambassador to Ireland, and Cllr Danny Byrne, representing the Lord Mayor of Dublin, will speak at the ceremony, and there will be a short reflection from the vice-president of Irish CND, Adi Roche (CEO, Chernobyl Children International). There will be short contributions of traditional music and the laying of flowers at the memorial tree.
An estimated 80,000 people were directly killed by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, with casualties reaching 140,000 within a year. Approximately 14,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world today, with just under 2,000 ready to fire within minutes. While this is less than the Cold War peak, it is still enough to destroy life on earth as we know it many times over.
In recent weeks, the movie Oppenheimer has raised general awareness of the utterly destructive force of even the rudimentary nuclear weapons used in 1945, and of the moral conflict over the use of such weapons which troubled many of those involved in their development. At the same time, the dark shadow of the real possibility of nuclear war has been emphasised in the form of explicit threats from both Russia and North Korea – chilling reminders that there is still much to be done before the world is free from the menace of nuclear annihilation.
This annual ceremony gives us all an opportunity to stand in solidarity with the victims of these horrific weapons of mass destruction, and to affirm our determination to work for their elimination, the only way to ensure that the ghastly events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will not be repeated. http://irishcnd.blogspot.ie/
Hiroshima commemoration, Galway, 6th August
The annual Galway Hiroshima Peace Memorial will take place on Hiroshima Day, Sunday 6th August at 1.30pm in Eyre Square, Galway city centre. The event will commemorate the 78th anniversary of the USA bombing the Japanese city The urgent and important theme of this year’s event is: – ‘Ukraine: Peace Talks not Nuclear War / Keep Ireland Neutral’.
Galway resident Margaretta D’Arcy, the well-known veteran feminist peace activist will give a short address. One of the founder members of Bertrand Russell’s Committee of 100 in 1960, dedicated to civil disobedience and direct action against nuclear weapons, Margaretta was part of the successful campaign against the cruise missiles at Greenham Common. She says of herself that she is ‘Inspired by trade unionist Louie Bennett, who worked with James Connolly, who said that war is necessarily bound up with the destruction of feminism. Every country must face the fact militarism is now the most dangerous foe of Women’s Suffrage.’
The Hiroshima peace event will also have live protest music and a minute’s silence for the victims of the Hiroshima/ Nagasaki nuclear bombing atrocities. The uranium atomic bomb ‘Little Boy’ was dropped on Hiroshima at 8.16am Japanese time (16 minutes past midnight Irish time). Up to 140,000 people were killed instantly with another 100,000 seriously injured. Just three days later at 11.02am Japanese time (3.02am Irish time) the US dropped the plutonium implosion atomic bomb ‘Fat Man’ on downtown Nagasaki.74,000 were killed in the area and 75,000 more suffered serious injuries. The devastating legacy of those nuclear attacks continue to this day with nuclear waste, and nuclear fallout that contaminated water, land, all living things, and added to climate catastrophe. They also promoted the nuclear arms race, with competing nations spending huge amounts of their economic budgets on these weapons of mass destruction instead of on the beneficial needs of their people and the planet.
Event organisers Galway Alliance Against War believe that it is becoming more imperative with each passing year that we stop and take time to remember the terrible events of August 1945, as a warning of where the world appears to be heading today.
“With the blockbuster movie Oppenheimer currently in the cinemas, we hope that it provokes an awareness of the true horrors of nuclear weapons as experienced by the Japanese victims, and why such occurrences must never be allowed to happen again. In a time of forever warfare, it is important that Ireland continues its role as international peacemakers rather than becoming aligned with warmongers. We must heed Article 29 of the Constitution Bunreacht na hÉireann: –
‘Ireland affirms its adherence to the principle of the pacific settlement of international disputes.’ This is of the upmost importance now as the war in Ukraine intensifies. Evermore weapons are being piled into the war zones. US cluster bombs are being transported to Ukraine, with a possibility that they are being transported through Shannon airport. Internationally banned cluster munitions are pushing the conflict closer to nuclear war, which is a mortal threat to everyone on the planet.”
https://www.facebook.com/events/1615319308951198/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A
Report urges increased Northern arms trade
A report from the British Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) advocates increased Northern Ireland involvement in UK arms production, particularly highlighting the ‘big three’ of Thales, Harland and Wolff and Spirit AeroSystems but also looking at cybersecurity. See https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/occasional-papers/defence-industry-northern-ireland-leveraging-untapped-potential It advocates the North getting a larger share of the massive British arms industry, selling the proposal on ‘prosperity’ and jobs despite nationalist objections (and obviously there is no coverage of the irony of a place previously wracked by a small scale war contributing to warfare elsewhere). The report is also covered in the 28/7/23 issue of The Phoenix.
TG4 programme on Irish neutrality: Éire Neodrach?
An informative and relatively well balanced programme from TG4 on the current situation with Irish neutrality, in Irish with English subtitles available, can be found at https://www.tg4.ie/en/player/play/?pid=6331390812112&title=%C3%89ire%20Neodrach?&series=Ini%C3%BAchadh%20TG4&genre=Cursai%20Reatha It was broadcast in July, and presented by Kevin Magee in the Iniúchadh current affairs programme. If you need English subtitles, click on the the logo which is third from the right on the bottom task bar when the programme starts.
Irish FOE campaigner on fossil fuels
Irish Friends of the Earth are recruiting a campaigner who will drive its work on phasing out fossil fuels, including work on LNG, data centres, and the proposed Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. The campaigner will carry out our policy analysis and advocacy as well as designing and implementing supporter, activist, political and media engagement strategies in conjunction with colleagues across the organization. Details at https://www.friendsoftheearth.ie/jobs/campaigner-fossil-free-ireland/ with a closing date of 13th August – lots more info on their website about current campaigns and work.
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Eco-Awareness with Larry Speight
Fires Across Southern Europe
The broadcast and print media in Northern Ireland and beyond have keep us on the edge of our seats as we’ve followed the almost surreal drama of the devastating forest fires in southern Europe, in particular on the Greek islands of Rhodes and Corfu.
Some of the reporting has the distinct tenor of wartime reporting with holidaymakers, including about 500 from Northern Ireland, fleeing on foot from their hotels to places of refuge, where they wait to be flown out of the country.
The numbers correlate with that of a major war with a reported 20,000 people having to flee their hotels and homes. In time we will know the full scale of the evacuation as both islands are popular holiday destinations for people in the Irish Republic and other northern European countries. From listening to the news reports it is clear that many will carry the memory of their ordeal with them for the rest of their lives.
Many people have commented that the 40 C-plus temperatures in southern Europe, and the wettest July on record in the UK and Ireland, is the new normal. The meteorologists tell us that this is incorrect as based on the continuous rise of global warming emissions the average global temperature is going to breach the red-line of a rise of 1.5° C above that of pre-industrial levels set at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015. The present figure stands at 1.2° C.
The perilous state we are in with regards to climate breakdown might cause some to despair others to experience climate anxiety. This need not be the case. The thing to keep in mind is that human beings are innovative, adaptive and empathetic. These are our super-powers, which we can use to good effect.
The science tells us that the one thing we can do that will arrest the rise in global warming is to consume less meat and dairy because they produce methane. The International Energy Agency estimate that by reducing our emission of methane by 50% over the next 30 years could mitigate the average global temperature by 0.2C by 2050 thus giving us a little extra time to make the significant changes necessary to bring about a rapid decline in our emission of CO2 and other global warming gasses. With government subsidies, and a change to mixed agriculture, farmers need not take a financial hit.
As John Barry, Professor of Green Political Economy at Queen’s University, said recently on Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme: “We are the people you have been waiting for.” In other words, we more than any other generation have to live as good ancestors. We are the agents of positive change.