My role in International Womens Day

The news, this morning, bleakly reports the murder of two British soldiers in Ulster. It may be that terrorism is on the rise again – lets hope not.gerry adams was on the radio doing his usual turn: 'it was wrong' is his comment.Oh yeah, an inconvenience, nothing about the grief the bereaved families will be feeling.Of course what would you expect from 'Grizzly adams' and the butchery,in the name of 'the armed stuggle', that he supported for years. Even if it's a minority of a minority,it only takes one finger to pull a trigger. Depressing.

In Zimbabwe, a couple of days ago, Morgan Tsvangirai was injured and nearly killed in a so-called crash in which his wife, Susan, died. Many are saying the crash was an assassination attempt but the full facts are not known. Depressing.

It was at this unhappy time that I found myself involved in a charity walk for International Womens Day organised by a bright young student member of Amnesty International. The walk was organised by AI and on a cold Sunday early-afternoon I made my way up to the Central Bank Plaza, Dame Street and arrived, well wrapped up, at about 12.50pm and the walk was scheduled to begin at 1pm.

Before we started moving those present were introduced to Noeleen (Amnesty Ireland), Neltah (A formidable Zimbabwean now living here) and to Tendai (who is an amazing speaker and is a candidate in the forthcoming local elections). Neltah's words quite moving and it was easy to empathise with the troubles Zimbabwean women are going through. A minutes silence was observed for Susan Tsvangirai, a beacon of hope for Zimbabwean women.

Following the speeches we moved off and made our way down O'Connell Street, bound for the Phoenix park, as the weather became bright, sunny, dark, rainy, snowy and bright again.The north inner city felt the weight of our feet and some motorists beeped as we went by. Some of the younger Amnesty walkers chanted and there was a wonderful unity of purpose about our walk. I had contributed some Zimbabwean Cd's containing vibrant tunes and they boomed around the place.

As we set off I got talking to Gary, a great campaigner for the freedom of the Burmese people. He's a brilliant guy and our conversation roamed from subjects as interesting as: Burma, the needless proliferation of Mobile Phones, regulation of the banks to his dislike of Margaret Thatcher. If I ever get to his age and have as much energy I'll be doing well. It was a pleasure and a privilege to talk to such a caring, learned man.

The walking and talking continued through the streets of north Dublin city and we soon arrived at Europe's largest park – Phoenix park. We made our way up to a giant obelisk in the park and, after about half-an-hour, we dispersed (without meeting the president, whose residence is located nearby). Some of us repaired to a pub for some coffee, appropriately sober like the troubles in Zimbabwe.

Amid the gathering in the Phoenix park, my Cd's went astray much to my dismay. However I did manage to retrieve one of them and gave it to one of my colleagues. Gerard, I hope you enjoy it. Even though I no longer have ownership of the two Cd's, I did get myself a nice black T-shirt with the Amnesty insignia on it. A sort of quid pro qou.


I joined some of my colleagues when leaving the sprawling northside park and collectively we took the Luas back to the city centre and was soon on the 45 bus heading home. I earned Amnesty E36 for my troubles and this was the source of satisfaction. Not having a girlfriend may by hard to accept but I feel I've done a good turn for all the women of the world. After all where would we be without them?
© Ian Callagy 2009