Famine Walk 2008

Water,
Walk Leaders:
Muireann de Barra
Michael McCaughan
John Rodsted
Oil,
and
Róisín Elsafty

Weapons:
resources and conflict
at home and abroad
From Doolough to Louisburgh, Co. Mayo
Saturday 17th May 2008, beginning at 2pm
Organised by Afri,
with
Louisburgh Community Project
Introduction
Some might wonder why we have chosen
the theme ‘water, oil, weapons’ for this
year’s famine walk. What do these issues
have to do with the commemoration of the
‘Great Famine’ in Ireland? What do they
have to do with famine and hunger in
today’s world?
Ireland’s Great Famine was the result of
many factors – political, economic and
environmental. The failure of the potato
crop was the trigger that unleashed a
catastrophe that had been made almost
inevitable by a combination of colonialism,
neo-liberal economic policies and over-
dependence by the majority of the popula-
tion on one crop, the potato. And while
people were dying of hunger, food in abun-
dance was available to those who could
afford it and some was being exported,
sometimes under armed guard, out of
Ireland.
In many respects the same conditions per-
tain today. Countries of the rich Northern
hemisphere adapt a neo-colonialist stance
towards the developing world while neo-lib-
eral economic policies flourish. Food con-
tinues to be exported from the poorest
countries to be sold on the supermarket
shelves of the rich.
Other resources are exported too, of
course. The Niger Delta, for example, was
once a rich food producing area of Africa.
The discovery of oil there led to the colonial
takeover of the region by multinational cor-
porations which exploited and exported its
resources and left a wasteland in their
wake. Many of today’s wars are largely
fought over oil, Iraq being the most obvious
example. And conflict over resources is not
just an issue ‘out there’. It has come home
to Ireland in recent years, as the people of
Erris know only too well: this issue,
amongst others, will be addressed on the
walk by journalist and author Michael
McCaughan.
The link between water and famine is well
documented. Drought and famine are syn-
onymous in the Sahel and Southern Africa
in particular. A BBC reporter speaking
about the experience of travelling in a land
beset by drought says ‘Any vehicle driving
through this barren landscape is confront-
ed along the road by villagers waving
empty plastic bottles, saucepans, bowls -
anything that might hold any drop of pre-
cious water.’ This precious resource too is
also under threat, a trend worsened by the
privatisation of water by profit-greedy cor-
porations. Muireann de Barra has docu-
mented the ‘water wars’ in Bolivia but she
will also refer on the walk to other areas
and to the threat to water in Ireland and in
Mayo, in particular.
Behind the exploitation of water and oil,
and the wars fought for their control, lies
the arms industry, whose turnover has
reached the staggering figure of $1, 200
billion per year. These weapons feed con-
flict and war, which results in hunger in
many parts of the world. The arms industry
also represents the most obscene wastage
of resources, resources which could be
used to provide food, water and shelter for
millions of people throughout the world.
Among the most offensive manifestations
of this cruel industry are cluster munitions,
an issue that will be addressed by John
Rodsted on the walk.
Shortly after the Famine walk, from May
19th to 30th, an international conference in
Dublin will attempt to bring in a permanent
ban on the manufacture, stockpiling and
use of these awful weapons (discussed fur-
ther below). Please lobby your local TDs
and/or Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot
Ahern on this issue, to ensure that a strong
treaty is negotiated – not a compromise
which bows to the vested interest of coun-
tries which manufacture and use cluster
munitions and which would betray their
numerous victims throughout the world.
Joe Murray
Biographies
Róisín Elsafty Róisín comes from
Conamara and grew up in a musical family.
She has been singing sean-nós from an
early age, inspired by her mother, Treasa
Ní Cheannabháin Elsafty. She has taken
part in several collaborations, which
include highly successful shows with Dónal
Lunny and Friends. She sang Brendan
Graham’s composition Óchón An Gorta
Mór in 2000 which features on Ceol Reoite.
In 2003, Róisín recorded An Phalistín for
Sharon Shannon’s much acclaimed album
Libertango. The song was penned by
Treasa Ní Cheannabháin and the music
composed by both Treasa and Dónal
Lunny. It was later released as a single in
Ireland. The aim was to help raise aware-
ness of the Palestinian plight and to aid the
Galway Palestinian Solidarity Movement in
bringing Palestinian children from the
Palestinian camps within Israel to Galway
for a short break.
Róisín's first solo album 'Má bhíonn tú liom
bí liom' was released in mid-January this
year. It has been described as 'A thing of
beauty from beginning to end' by The Irish
Times.
Muireann de Barra is a documentary film-
maker from Dublin. In recent years she has
focused on aspects of the global water cri-
sis and is particularly interested in the
impact of water privatisation on developing
countries. She has been documenting the
'water wars' which have erupted in Bolivia
since 2000 in response to water privatiza-
tion, and is co-director of a forthcoming film
on the subject. She has also documented
geo-political struggles for water in the
Middle East, including the distribution of
shared water resources in Palestine and
Israel. While her focus to date has been on
water struggles in the developing world,
Photo: Afri
she recognises water security as an
increasingly critical issue in Ireland and the
importance of water remaining a public
good here at home.
Michael McCaughan is an Irish writer who
has spent most of the last twenty years liv-
ing and working in Latin America, writing for
a number of publications, including the Irish
Times. His latest book The Price of our
Souls: Gas, Shell and Ireland was pub-
lished by Afri in January of this year. He
has published two books previously: True
Crimes, a biography of Argentinian writer
Rodolfo Walsh, and The Battle of
Venezuela, about the government of Hugo
Chavez. His next book, due out in summer
2008, is about death row prisoner Mumia
Abu Jamal
John Rodsted has documented the
humanitarian impact of landmines, cluster
munitions and other unexploded ordnance
in some of the most war torn regions of the
world. In 2006, he spent several weeks in
southern Lebanon documenting the civilian
impact of cluster munition strikes by Israel.
His work has been widely exhibited in
London, Washington, Sydney and at the
United Nations. As the official photographer
of the International Campaign to Ban
Landmines, he documented the ‘Ottawa
Process’ leading to the 1997 Mine Ban
Treaty and subsequent Nobel Peace Prize
award to that campaign.
Gary and Janie Whitedeer being interviewed for
RTE's 'Nationwide' Programme before the 2007
Famine Walk
 Cluster Bombs Can
Be Banned
Photo: John Rodsted
Zahra Hussein Soufan
Cluster bombs are either dropped from
aircraft or fired from the ground and are
designed to break open in midair,
releasing dozens or hundreds of explo-
sive sub-munitions and saturating
areas that can be the size of several
football fields. Anybody within that area,
be they military or civilian, is very likely
to be killed or seriously injured. As so
many of the sub-munitions fail to ‘work’
properly, huge quantities are left on the
ground and, like landmines, remain a
fatal threat to anyone in the area long
after a conflict has ended – killing and
injuring people trying to rebuild their
lives, and preventing access to land,
schools and hospitals.
In August 2006, Israel used cluster
bombs in Lebanon. An estimated 3.2-
4.6 million sub-munitions from cluster
bombs were scattered across large
parts of southern Lebanon. Despite
ongoing clearance efforts, hundreds of
thousands of sub-munitions still litter
the ground, rendering large areas of
agricultural land hazardous, and killing
and injuring people to this day. One of
the victims is 11 year old Zahra Hussein
Soufan (pictured). Zahra, like many
children, was attracted by the small size
and curious shape of the sub-munition
that blew her hand off when it exploded
after she picked it up.
Cluster bombs have killed and injured
tens of thousands of civilians during the
last 40 years in at least 30 countries
and territories. The US used massive
numbers of cluster bombs in Cambodia,
Laos and Vietnam during the 1970s.
More recently, cluster bombs were used
extensively in the Gulf War, Chechnya,
the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan,
Iraq and Lebanon. Their increasing use
in Africa, and use by non-state armed
groups in Afghanistan and Lebanon,
has raised alarm over proliferation of
the billions of sub-munitions in stock-
piles around the world.
After 40 years of such suffering, and
public outrage against it, there is now
hope for a lasting global solution. From
19–30 May 2008 the Irish Government
will host the Dublin Diplomatic
Conference on Cluster Munitions,
where countries will conclude an 18
month process by finalising negotia-
tions on a new international convention
to ban these weapons as well as pro-
viding assistance to affected communi-
ties and victims. The Dublin Diplomatic
Conference is part of a process which
began in Oslo in February 2007 and
continued in Lima in May 2007, Vienna
in December 2007, and Wellington in
February 2008.
Ireland is one of many governments
supporting a treaty to ban cluster
bombs, and has been leading interna-
tional efforts to achieve a strong and
effective treaty. However, it is expected
that during the negotiations in Dublin a
number of mainly European countries
will try to weaken the treaty by creating
loopholes to exclude certain types of
cluster munitions which they stockpile.
The recently formed Cluster Munition
Coalition (CMC) Ireland is calling on the
Irish government, as Chair of the con-
Dr. Owens Wiwa and Christy Moore were among the
ference, to ensure that the Dublin nego- leaders of the 2006 Famine Walk
tiations deliver a treaty that will ban all
cluster bombs and ensure that affected
communities are given assistance to
clear their land and help survivors. The
Dublin Conference is the opportunity to
deliver the most significant disarma-
ment treaty in more than a decade. We
cannot fall short in the face of this his-
toric opportunity. To support the confer-
ence, CMC Ireland is organising a
series of activities to raise awareness of
the civilian harm caused by cluster
munitions and to highlight the impor- The remarkable view as walkers emerge from the
Doolough valley.
tance of a comprehensive treaty ban-
ning these weapons. The strong sup-
port of Irish civil society for a meaning-
ful and robust convention will be crucial
to ensure that the Irish government
stands firm as Chair of the conference.

Governments must put the protection of

civilians at the core of their approach to
the treaty, not the protection of unac-
ceptable weapons.

Find out more on the CMC Ireland web- Casting shadows…

site: www.stopclusterbombs.ie.
Photo credits:

Susan Hensel
Co-ordinator, Cluster Munition Coalition
Ireland
Email: susan@stopclustermunitions.ie
Front cover: Water: Afri / Oil: Israel Aloja/ Cluster
Munitions: John Rodsted
Inside: Derek Speirs, unless otherwise indicated.
 Famine Walk 2008
Name of walker Card no.

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Sponsor Address Amount

Total
Thank you for supporting Afri’s work for justice and peace
Please return to Afri, 134, Phibsborough Rd, Dublin 7.
The Death March
at Doolough, March 1849
Anyone who goes on the Famine Walk along
Doolough Lake from Louisburgh to Delphi Lodge
is retracing a journey of horror which the local
people made on the night and morning of 30-31
March 1849. Although that ‘death march’ has
been given little publicity until recent times, it has
remained fresh in the mind of the people of the
area. The place has been well named ‘A Road to
Remember’.
The year 1849 was probably the worst of those
famine years in the Louisburgh area. The imme-
diate cause of the death march was the expect-
ed arrival in Louisburgh on Friday 30 March of
two ‘commissioners’, Colonel Hogrove and
Captain Primrose. They were to inspect the
poorer people and certify them as paupers, so
entitling them to a ration of three pounds of meal
each. For some reason the inspection was not
made, and the hundreds of people were told that
they must appear at Delphi Lodge (ten miles
away) at 7am the following morning if they were
to be certified. They set out on foot along the
mountain road and pathway. The night and
morning snowed. A writer (‘Ratepayer’) to the
Mayo Constitution on April 10th 1849 com-
plained that seven people died on that journey,
nine more never reached their homes and sever-
al of those who did ‘in a short time ceased to
live’. He identifies nine victims: three members of
a Dillon family, Catherine Grady, Mary McHale,
James Flynn, Mrs Dalton, her son and daughter.
According to this account the total number of
deaths was no more than twenty on the road and
an uncounted number later in their homes.
There is, however, a strong folk tradition in the
local Louisburgh community that the numbers
who died that snowy night on the Doolough
Road should be counted in hundreds. So there is
quite a divergence of opinion. In favour of the
smaller numbers it can be said that contempo-
rary newspaper accounts establish only these.
Further, in her major work, The Great Hunger,
Mrs Cecil Woodham-Smyth (1961) has no
account of hundreds of lives being lost in such a
march. The folk tradition can hardly, however, be
discarded out of hand. In view of the remoteness
of the area and the lack of communications at
the time, it is possible that the full extent of the
tragedy was not reported. An editorial comment
in the Mayo Constitution of 24 April 1849 cited
reports from the locality that descriptions had
fallen far short of the frightful scenes that were
witnessed.
That the people of the parish were starving there
can be no doubt. The Church of Ireland incum-
bent at Louisburgh, Rev.P.J. Callinan, had writ-
ten to the Evening Packet on 10 February 1849
to say ‘… I am hourly beset with crawling skele-
tons begging for food’. Against such a back-
ground one must allow the real possibility, if not
indeed the probability, of hundreds of deaths on
the fatal journey less than two months later.
One further point is worthy of mention: The only
written source which favours the theory of hun-
dreds of deaths on the ‘Doolough March’ is that
of James Berry in Tales of the West (ed.
Gertrude Horgan). Reputable historians would
look askance at his writings as embellished
social history. There are, then, two conflicting
lines of opinion about the numbers who died on
the fateful journey on a snowy March night in
1849. Written contemporary accounts mention
twenty or more deaths. Local folklore often
speaks of hundreds. Perhaps the truth lies
between.
Leon O Morchain
Hunger and the Millennium
Development Goals
According to the Food and Agriculture
Organization and the World Food Programme
there are more than 850 million people suffering
from hunger in the world today, while at the same
time there is enough food to feed 12 billion peo-
ple. This means enough food to feed double the
world’s current population!! In September 2000, in
light of such official reports, world leaders agreed
a set of goals for the international community, to
bring about a world in which sustaining develop-
ment and eliminating poverty would have the
highest priority. These are known as the
‘Millennium Development Goals’. The first of
these eight goals is to ‘Eradicate extreme hunger
and poverty’. 191 UN members have pledged to
reduce by half the number of people suffering
hunger by 2015. Despite these pledges, since
2000 the number of hungry people in the world
has not stopped growing.
 Transport
Shuttle buses will leave Louisburgh from 1pm, taking walkers to the start point at
Doolough. If there is sufficient demand for seats, a bus will be organized to leave
from Parnell Square in Dublin at 8.30am on the morning of May 17th and return
the same night. Please confirm this on the week before the walk.

Bus seats must be booked and paid for in advance.

Details available from Afri at 01 8827563 or afri@iol.ie

IN THE INTEREST OF HEALTH AND SAFETY, PLEASE WALK ON THE

RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE ROAD FOR THE DURATION OF THE WALK.
A creative response by local school children to the theme of this year’s
famine walk, organised by Louisburgh Community Project, will take place in
Louisburgh Parish Hall on the evening of Friday, May 16th at 8pm.

Céilí on Saturday night in the Derrylahan, Louisburgh

from 9pm – 11.30pm. Fáilte roimh gach duine.
Afri is a justice, peace and human rights organisation, which was founded in
1975. Afri’s first ‘Famine Walk’ took place in 1988, with the aim of linking the
experience of Ireland in the 1840s to contemporary issues of famine, hunger,
food insecurity and human rights abuses. Since our first famine walk, we have
taken up themes of injustice in the Philippines; Central America; South Africa;
East Timor; the exploitation of the Maya people in Guatemala and of banana
Workers in Belize; the legacy of colonialism; Ireland’s ‘Welcome to the
Stranger’; ‘War is Terror is War’; the rights of migrant workers; ‘Land for
People not for Profit’; ‘Erris, Gas and global Warming’, and, this year, ‘Water,
Oil, Weapons: resources and conflict at home and abroad’.

Please help Afri to continue its work by getting sponsorship and taking part in
this walk.

Louisburgh Community Project is located in Louisburgh on the west coast of

Mayo. The Project works from an anti-poverty perspective and seeks to sup-
port and promote community activity. It has a strong focus on community
arts and human rights and has been involved in organising the annual Famine
Walk since 2001.

gratefully acknowledges the support of Irish Aid and Trócaire.

Afri, 134 Phibsborough Road, Phibsborough, Dublin 7.
Telephone: +353 1 8827563 Fax: +353 1 8827576
email afri@iol.ie www.afri.buz.org