the emralded island and anarchist activists

I finally arrive home after a week and a bit of not being in the same bed twice. I have seen more of Ireland then many Irish who have spent there whole lives here. I have done so many touristy things that I embarice myself. ie. kissing the balarney stone- which supposedly gives you the gift of the gab. As we walked towards the balarney castle we only talked using one and two sylaball words and refused to speak in complete sentences - we sounded kind of like cave people. And after lieing on our backs and kissing this shiney part of the castle wall that hundreds of thousands have kissed before us, we suddenly started speaking in th emost flowery language we could think of. Teh second most touristy thing we did was going to Bunranny castle and the fair. It was like an irish Black Creek Pinanier villege. Great chessy fun ;)

If I ever figure out how to get my pics on line again I will put up some of my trip, I took plenty of photos, 120 to be exact. They are mainly of waterfall, cliffs and mountain ranges. I was showing them to a few mates and it was like "thats the cliffs of moher, and another cliff shot, and thats from another angle and another cliff shot . . . ." and so on. I always knew I was mad for water falls, but my photos prove it so much. I have waterfalls from caves, cliffs, mountainsides, parks and so on . . .

After a week of might craic and random b&b's I got dropped off in cork for the grassroot gathering. It was odd - six months of not seeing my mom passes by, 10 days of 24-7 and then a quick goodbye on the side of the road in cork. As we approached cork, my stomach started to feel really upset. I was thinking that it had to do the massive amounts of beans that I eat that morning at the b&b . . . but I came to realize those feelings could be understood as sadness. I get physical reactions to emotional events. And if I'm not in touch with the situation I can miss diagnosis my bodily reactions.

I suppose much of what that stomach upset was not just that I was going to miss my mom, but also a feeling of sadness that we didn't get to spend more one on one time. The only time it was only the two of us was the first night as janet slept inthe bed next to us and we chatted liek school girls at a sleep over for hours. and the second last night the two of us went for an hour walk as janet watched tv and rested her sinuses.

I thought after 10 days of 24-7 I would be sick to death of spending time with them, but when it came down to it, I was sad that we didnt' have more time.

not sad enough to skip the grassroot gathering and go with them to waterford for a tour of the crystal factory!

I went to my first grassroots gathering. It sounds strange to say that. I felt like had been doing them for a while now. I suppose that was because it was liek so many other events I've been to such as social forums and such. It was clearly different since it is filled with anarchist and is coming from a clearly egalitarian non-hierichal perspective. But the thing is even though I havn't been to one before, I have missed them because I had other events on and I got informed with the ins and outs of what went on. Meaning that I wasn't really a newbie at all.

I was going to write that I will continue with this tomorrow but in reality tomorrow is international womens day and I will be writing about breaking the information act by handing out pro-choice information outside the minister of justice office. And as Mud reminded me usually when I'm posting here and say I will get back to that - I don't. I suppose that is because no one is counting on me to get back to it. If I have a lull in posting I'm sure I will go back to these missed topics or maybe not at all.

Highlights of grassroots . . . . a talk from this activist wno resently got out of prison. It was eye opening to get a first persons perspetive of the prison system and it was very motivational in terms of prison solidarity and the effect of the the solidarity. He said that he felt he got better treatment from the gaurds beucase they started to see him as a prisoner of consciousness. The hundreds of letters he got while in there were addressed to him and under his name people wrote prisoner of consciousness. Plus the many vidguals that happened outside of the prison created a sense of solidarity that was positive for him and effected how he was seen and interacted with in prison. There was a point that his fellow prisoners were chanting for him to be freed!!

the pro-choice workshop - so many ideas and energy for action came out of this workshop. It was good to see that the work was not just being done in Dublin and that cork for example seemed to be even more active then dublin.

the food - ok there was vass amounts of free delious vegan food all weekend need I say more . . .

the media workshop- although this workshop was direct to how to deal with the media during may day (which I found interesting) I was albe to apply the tips and stratigies to my own limited experiences and I felt more confidnet after this workshop on how I would approach interactions iwth the media for other events.

the womens space - this felt like pams pulbic speaking group, it brought together over luch the women actiivsts to talk about why there are not more women involved, why women are not speaking up more in the large groups sessions and why more women arn't facilitating workshops. we talked about our fears, our expereinces and how we can support each other for speak up more. A few really producitve ideas come out of this such as having a womens space before the grassroots starts to introduce ourselfs and talk about what we want out of the grassroots and how we will help supporting each other. Plus an idea of having a workshop on chairing and facilitaitng workshops so we can feel more confident doing so. I think also what came out of this is that these fears are not specific to women - it is just thorugh sociallization and a lack of pracitse and roll models that there are a disportional amounts of women who are marginalized in this way. And that we can challange that by supporting each other.

what else what else, I'm sure there was much more, but right now I'm more aware that the electricty box is beeping at me meaning that we have run out of electricty and since the store is closed now, most likely the power will go out shortly. So before this post gets lost I will publish it. I can't promise that I will get back to this, although I would like to talk more about anarchism soon . . . .