Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

http://indigo.ie/~goodwill/icnd.html P.O. Box 6327, Dublin 6, Ireland e-mail: irishcnd@ireland.com

The four people who were elected to the Executive in December 2005 felt that the first priority was to expand the Executive in order to allow a reasonable level of activity to be undertaken. This involved a period of discussion, which included the sending of a letter to the Dublin membership. There were a couple of offers of help, but it was difficult to obtain volunteers for the Executive. Eventually in November we were able to co-opt David and Shuna Hutchinson-Edgar, whose presence and activity have been very welcome.

As this was the necessary priority, other activities were at a comparatively low level.

We were in contact with other organisations over the question of nuclear power, and Hilary attended a meeting in Mullingar of local people organising on energy.

We were very sorry to lose our President, Dr John de Courcy Ireland, in April. John had been ill for a couple of years but we remember his dedication to peace and his enthusiastic work even after he had reached the age of 90. Hilary and Mary represented us at his memorial service in June.

It was decided not to hold the traditional Hiroshima Day commemoration because of the work involved and the state of our organisation. Instead, members of the Executive laid flowers at the cherry tree in Merrion Square without making speeches.

We have for some time paid for a medal to be made for the Seán MacBride Peace Prize awarded by the International Peace Bureau, in lieu of our affiliation fees. As no award had been made in 2005, we agreed to pay for two medals in 2006, which were awarded to the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, representing the organisation 'Mayors for Peace'.

We organised stalls in the Food Co-op in January and at the Green Party conference in February and received a few membership applications and signatures on a petition on depleted uranium. We produced a leaflet for the purpose of introducing ourselves.

We sent a letter to the British Embassy protesting about the proposed replacement of Trident. We also sent a letter to the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs protesting about the use of Shannon Airport.

The Executive met 9 times during the period. The Irish CND website was maintained to a certain extent, but again the pressure of work has meant that it is not as up-to-date as it ought to be.

Because of the lack of activists, we were unable to issue our newsletter Peacework during the period. To the members whose email addresses we know we issued a circular of PANA events, notice of Dr John de Courcy Ireland's memorial service, and a notice of our decision about Hiroshima Day.

As I have already informed the Executive, I have decided to retire after 19 years on the Executive in one capacity or another. May I take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to those I have served with for their co-operation and friendship and their resilience in the face of the tasks which continue to confront the peace movement.

John Goodwillie
29/03/07

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