This Wednesday, March 21, at 7pm, our Salon will welcome Ciaron O'Reilly, a peace activist and war resister. He was born and raised in Australia and lives today in Dublin, Ireland, where he works for a homeless shelter.
Ciaron has been an activst for the Catholic Worker Movement, which has been described as both Christian and Anarchist and fiercely pacifist -- there are many "non-believers" involved in the movement, attracted by its non-ideological direct action approach to activisim and way of seeing the world.
Ciaron has been involved in a number of "Ploughshares Actions" that non-violently attempt to "disarm" military hardware around the world. In one such action, Ciaron and other anti-war activists damaged US military equipment held at an aiport/hangar in Ireland, in an effort to impede the mission of US war planes headed to Iraq. The activists were arrested and tried. In their defense, they argued that their actions were legally permissible according to Irish law, which allows for actions that are done to prevent harm to life or property of others. All the activists were ultimately acquitted of the charges. (For more on the action and the subsequent trial, see the extensive coverage on Indymedia Ireland.)
For his non-violent activities and "disarmaments" of US military planes, Ciaron has served time in jail in the USA and has been in and out of the courts of Australia, USA, Ireland, and the UK for many years.
[You can also read more about Ciaron on Wikipedia.]
Ciaron will be joining us on Wednesday to talk about his experiences over a lifetime of activism. We hope that you will be able to join us.
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