Evening with Martha Hennessy Granddaughter of Dorothy Day-U.S. Radical & Founder of Catholic Worker

dublin | anti-capitalism | event notice Monday November 10, 2008 14:28 by Dublin Catholic Worker

An Evening with Martha Hennessy Granddaughter of American 2oth. Century Radical and Founder of the Catholic Worker movement Dorothy Day

7.30 pm Sunday, November 16th.
The Teachers Club
36 Parnell Sqaure
Dublin

More info Ph. 087 918 4552

-Music from Paul O'Toole
-A Guest Academic appraises the Catholic Worker contribution to the peace and justice movement.
-Ciaron O'Reilly on the recent experiments with the Catholic Worker in England, Scotland and Ireland.

-Martha Hennessy on the radical legacy left by her grandmother Dorothy Day and her experiences growing up in the Catholic Worker.

Martha Hennesey Opens the 75th. anniversary gathering of the Catholic Worker movement, Worcester, Mass, U.S.A. 2008
Audio
http://www.pieandcoffee.org/2008/07/11/martha/

Reports, Audio (academic and movement), Photos from the 75th. annivesrsary Conference
http://www.pieandcoffee.org/cw2008/

Doorthy Day was a suffragette, anarchist and a radical journalist in the New York left scene in the '20's writing for "The Masses" and jailed for her opposition to WW1. Dorothy converted to Catholicism and in 1933, along with French street philosopher Peter Maurin, intiated the Catholic Worker newsapaper and movement.

The Catholic Worker movement continues today, with a remarkable coherency of belief and praxis given its decentralised nature, with 180 communities predominantly in the United States but also in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, England, Germany and The Netherlands. Rejecting state funding while practising the "acts of mercy" offering shelter to the homeless, feeding the hungry, visiting the imprisoned etc.

Over the last 75 years Catholic Workers have contributed greatly to the development of a faith based anarcho pacifist praxis of nonviolent resistance to the warmaking state. Catholic Workers were interned in WW2 and were the first to burn their draft cards publicly in the U.S. in the early years of the Vietnam war, many participated in the Berrigan led draft board raids of that period http://c9.mdch.org/ . Over the last three decades Catholic Workers have participated in the plowshares actions of direct nonviolent disarmament www.plowsaharesactions.org and have deployed as a nonviolent presence to war zones in Central and South America, East Timor and Iraq.

The Catholic Worker has attracted participation, pracitcal and financial support from people of a variety of faith and nonfaith backgrounds. Some of the more well known having been Abbie Hoffman, Martin Scorcese, Martin Sheen, John and Joan Cusack, Alex Cox, Utah Philips, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton but the movement is largey sustained by the solidairty of more anonymous folks.

The presence of the Catholic Worker in Ireland is very much tied in the public mind to Irish complicity in the ongoing war on Iraq and the Pitstop ploughshares action at Shannon Airport in Feb 2003 www.peaceontrial.com the three trials and acquittal of the defendants the subject of Harry Browne's recent book "Hammered by the Irish" (AK Press/Counterpunch) but also included work with homeless activist community building as a basis for further resistance and solidarity.

This evening will be opened to questions and discussion after speakers contributions to explore aspects of interest. Should be a good night!