Grassroots anti-war meeting takes place in Kilkenny

A grassroots meeting with Iranian, Palestinian and Irish speakers was held at Lyrath House Hotel in Kilkenny on Wednesday.

The meeting, a fringe event at the annual conference of the Teachers Union of Ireland, was well attended by local people and TUI delegates.

Many in Ireland are struggling with the impacts of oil price rises due to the war on Iran and the event gave a chance to hear the human stories from individuals and countries that are directly impacted by the US-Israeli attacks.

The speakers were Dr Naghmeh Kamali, academic and scientist, Eman Alhaj Ali, a writer and journalist and Jim Roche, Trade Unionist and peace activist with the meeting chaired by Kate Mooney.

Dr Kamali said she has not been a supporter of Iran’s government but she unequivocally condemned the US-Israeli war on Iran and that it had united Iranians.

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She said no matter what political difficulties, it’s for the people of a sovereign nation to resolve its own internal problems and there can never be an excuse for an outside power to make war on an independent country.

She talked about Iran’s thousands of years of culture and high value placed on education and science. In three weeks of US bombing 763 schools and colleges and 361 health care facilities have been destroyed or damaged along with 245 primary and secondary schools.

Hundreds of children have been killed by the bombs, including 165 children at the Minab Girls’ Primary School. Medical research institutes, some with Nobel prize-winning medical research staff, have been targeted.

Even a music school has been bombed and Dr Kamali concluded by saying that “bombing children can only leave a legacy of trauma and hatred, children should be learning science, not violence.”

Ms Alhaj Ali, a young writer and journalist from Gaza, Palestine, spoke movingly about her feelings as a young person who has ‘escaped’ the genocide, but whose emotions are constantly drawn to her family and community who remain in danger, as bombing continues.

Since 2023, 267 Palestinian journalists have been killed by the IDF, targeted in order to cut us off from news from Gaza and the West Bank.

She described her time in Gaza, writing in the dark, with no electricity and no internet, but inspired by other Palestinian writers, including the poet Reefat Aleer, to be a voice for Palestine “to tell the stories behind the numbers.”

She said that Palestinians want dignity, not pity. After all their terrible losses, her people have not been destroyed by the ‘war machine’.

Jim Roche, PRO of the Irish Anti-War is a founding member of the Irish Neutrality League and an Architect. He stressed his belief in the importance of actively campaigning to keep Ireland’s neutrality and the Triple Lock.

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