* Irish Campaign for * Nuclear Disarmament
Feachtas um Dhí-armáil Eithneach
http://indigo.ie/~goodwill/icnd.html P.O. Box 6327, Dublin 6, Ireland e-mail: irishcnd@ireland.com Telephone: (01) 836 7264
SECRETARY'S REPORT, MAR. 2003-NOV. 2004
This report covers the period from the AGM in March 2003 to the AGM in November 2004. First of all, an apology for the length of time that has elapsed between AGMs. We were attempting to organise an AGM in May/June 2004 but there were problems in liaison with the then Lord Mayor's office.
At the last AGM, Billy Fitzpatrick was elected Chairperson and Eoin Dubsky Secretary. Billy had the opportunity to spend a year in France, and Eoin was spending several months abroad. Fergal Brennan agreed to act as Chairperson and John Goodwillie to act as Secretary, leaving the position of Vice-chairperson vacant. Eoin Dubsky remained as an ordinary member of Executive.
The Executive has met monthly, and individual members have taken an interest in particular areas. The website was maintained and it is intended that members of the Executive with special interests would contribute to this.
We have as usual answered various enquiries for information. Because of our limited personnel, many of these are answered with references to our website.
Eoin Dubsky attended a Pax Christi conference on Explosive Remnants of War and Development in April 2003. Eoin Dinan attended the commemoration of the Carnsore protests in August 2003 and the awarding of the Archbishop Tutu human rights award to Joe Murray the same month. John Goodwillie attended various PANA meetings, and a meeting of the NGO Peace Alliance in February 2004. Mary McCarrick attended a film on Mordechai Vanunu, sent a message to him on his release and submitted an article to the Irish Times on his release (not printed).
The members' mailing list, which had operated on several printouts for several years, was reorganised as we discovered that the copies of the mailing list varied, and only some had been updated with new addresses etc. The mailing lists have now been consolidated into one.
We had contacts with the student organisers elected at the last AGM, but this work did not really get off the ground.
Visitors to Dublin whom we met were Lou and Judi Friedman of People's Action for Clean Energy and the Nuclear Information Resources Service (Connecticut), Rob Green and Kate Dewes on the Mayors for Peace project, the Parliamentary Network for Nuclear Disarmament, and peace education, and Bruce Kent on the Movement for the Abolition of War.
The International Peace Bureau awards the Seán MacBride Peace Prize each year, funded by Irish CND in lieu of affiliation fees. The 2003 Prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, the organisation of Hibakusha, and the 2004 Prize to the architects of the Geneva Initiative on an Israel/Palestine settlement.
Our attention was drawn to the fact that 2004 was the centenary of the birth of our former President Seán MacBride: we contacted Amnesty and the Irish United Nations Association to see if any joint commemoration would be possible, and the matter was taken up by the UNA but without any outcome.
We have held our annual Hiroshima commemoration in August of both years. Thanks are due to Bríd McGrath for doing most of the organising of the 2003 demonstration and providing all necessary documentation for the 2004 demonstration.
We continued to pursue the question of the nuclear-free signs in Dublin, but were disappointed when after many years of prevarication the City Council finally notified us that it had decided not to replace the signs. However, we were pleased to note that the current Lord Mayor has restored the nuclear-free logo to his official notepaper.
It was agreed to produce Peacework twice a year. Problems arose with arranging material into newsletter form, but it is hoped that an issue will be available at this AGM. As mentioned in this, we are setting up an email list for contacting our members during the year.
The period was marked by many protests against the Iraq war. We were unhappy with attempts to bring the Palestinian issue into protests, with lack of clarity in demands, and with possibilities of violence, and so we officially participated in them on a selective basis.
May I finally thank all who have contributed their help, and if our record of achievement seems slight it is an opportunity for others to get involved in the work.
John Goodwillie
2/11/04