'It happened in the Phoenix Park all in the month of May'

Saturday April 23, 2005 11:44

by Joe Black

The political history of the Phoenix Park

I stared this piece intending it to be little more than an ad for this Maydays anarchist picnic in the Phoenix park (details follow) with perhaps a little bit of context thrown in. But suddenly I found myself carried away by the political geography of this park which was after all originally built as a Deer park for a discarded mistress of Charles II (hence the high wall). If you know even a little of that history the park becomes a different place and suddenly the events of Mayday 2004 fall into a greater context of political protest and the control of space.

One year ago, on Mayday 2004, the summit of the EU heads of state took place in Farmleigh House in the Pheonix Park. The entire park was filled with surveillance cameras, ringed with fences, draped with barbed wire, buzzed by helicopters, rigged with motion detectors and surrounded with riot police. In the end water cannons were deployed to keep a protestors out of the park

History is normally written by the winners and it is common to find each new generation of radicals having to rediscover the stories of those who went before them. Thus, it is not surprising that many of those who protested last year probably were unaware of the history of battles between radical movements and the state that the park played host to in the past.

While the park hosts many of the symbols of power in Ireland - past and present - from the monument to the arch-reactionary Wellington, to the US-ambassador's residence and the Garda Headquarters, it has also seen its fair share of opposition. The invincibles assasinated the British Secretary there in 1882, it was the site of many early 20th century trade union ralies and the magazine fort in the park was captured at the start of the 1916 rising and was raided again by the IRA in 1939. The phoenix park is, in many ways, a symbolic battleground for the soul of Ireland. In recent years radical movements in Ireland have re-energised Mayday in Dublin. This year, even without the pomp and grandeur of the EU heads of state, a series of radical events are planned to span the weekend. A festival of radical opposition that is once again bubbling to the surface. And once again the Phoenix Park is on the menu.

Mayday Radical Events: Anarchist 1st of May picnic in Phoenix Park | DCTU May Day Demonstration - Solidarity with Migrant Workers including a Get up stand up block to help organise the unorganised | Reclaim the Streets

The Phoenix Park and Mayday - a Long History

Did you spend Mayday last year trying to get into the Phoenix Park only to discover it filled with surveillance cameras, ringed with fences, draped with barbed wire, buzzed by helicopters, rigged with motion detectors and surrounded with riot police? Maybe you even got a blast from a water cannon.

It wasn't just you; the working class communities that surround much of the park were also not only excluded from it but virtually locked down for 12 hours. Kids coming in and out of the estates were searched and families turned back by squads of riot cops yelling 'hold the line'. All so 25 rulers could eat without the distant sound of angry drums being carried over the park wall.

Reclaim the park

So this Mayday lets go back to the park and have ourselves a picnic free of all that hassle and madness.

This will be at least the fourth anarchist picnic held in the park. But the tradition of using the Phoenix Park for radical gatherings goes back to the Land League. At one point the government had tried to ban them meeting in the Park and Michael Davitt threatened to lead a march to pull down the gates if they were shut in the Land Leagues face. In fact you can even go back further if your like, the largest mobilisation of the Irish Volunteers happened in 1882 in the park near the present day papal cross. The debates that took place during and around these mobilisations were to form part of the basis of the United Irishmen and the radical democratic risings of 1798 and 1803.

In 1914 the Irish Trade Union Congress annual meeting was preceded by a huge rally of workers in the park - the bitter defeat of the lockout had just passed but this demonstrated that the unions were not yet beaten. The Irish Citizens Army attended protest meetings in the park in 1915 - with their guns. Even the idea of radicals using the Park to celebrate May Day is not new - at the start of the last century it was the frequent destination for Dublin workers out to mark May Day. In a 1915 James Connolly reported that soldiers had tried to stir up trouble with the trade union May Day marchers in the park.

Mayday has been a day of celebration of anarchist resistance since the 1860's. Both because it is a traditional day for workers of the land and factory to skive off and because it celebrates the lives of our comrades who were martyred in Chicago in 1887 after the police riot of May 1886. That riot was in response to the growing movement for the reduction of the working day to 8 hours which had seen the workers of Chicago come out on strike. Since then it has sometimes been a day of protest, sometimes a day of parties and surprisingly often a day of picnics. The left and union movement today seems to have been drained of the sense of fun it once held but events like RTS ensure that this traditions is also upheld. And the picnic in the park can form a useful hinge between the union march and 'Stand up for your Rights' action the day before and the Reclaim the Streets on the day after.

So this year we will be protesting on the 30th, picnicking on the 1st and partying on the 2nd. This Mayday come along and join us in the park. Bring a kite, a football or a frizbee. Bring something to eat and drink not just for yourself but that you can also share with others. Bring your kids or your parents or both.

Meet with reaction

We'll meet up at 1pm at one site of reaction in the park, the giant obelisk erected for the Duke of Wellington. This reminds us that the park has not only played a role in radical politics in Ireland but is also a home of reaction. Today it contains the Garda HQ, the Presidents palace, the US Ambassadors residence and the Papal Nuncios residence to name four. The Royal Irish Constabulary staged its final parade in Phoenix Park before disbanding.

Wellington was not only a misanthrope and an anti-Catholic bigot but also part of the suppression of the radical workers movement in Britain. These movement's demands included the reduction of the working day to 10 hours. This is a curious link through history with the anarchists of Chicago who were executed for leading the struggle for the 8 hour day but the park contains many curious links some more of which I will mention here.

Wellington was brought into the cabinet in 1815 to help suppress the wave of radical protests that had broken out at the end of the Napolonic wars. August 1819 saw the Peterloo massacre in Manchester when a mass demonstration of around 200,000 which included "bands and a series of embroidered banners carried by friendly societies and fledgling unions" was attacked by the cavalry leaving 11 dead and 500 injured. Some 10 years later when Wellington visited Manchester his carriage was stoned by Manchester workers because of his role in the Peterloo massacre. The Iron Duke - so called because he had bars put on all the windows of his house - was Irish, although he didn't like to advertise that fact.

Peterloo set off a wave of protests across Britain, which culminated in the 1820 rising in Scotland. "Ordinary people from all over an increasingly industrial Scotland had been inspired to rise and overthrow the state in order to secure their rights and better working conditions." This included on April 3rd what is probably one of the first general strikes in history as "people from many different trades, but especially weaving, stopped work. They were not only refusing to work, but were in many cases preparing for war. Reports flooded in of groups of men engaged in military drills, and making weapons such as pikes from any material that could be obtained." Something to remember for all of us planning to go with Dissent to Scotland this summer to protest the G8 - it didn't start in Seattle - it won't end in Gleneagles.

Meet with rebellion

We'll leave the Wellington monument at 1.30 to head for the area behind the magazine fort. This is a nice quiet bit of the park with plenty of room for running around - if you know where it is you could head straight there but it would be nice to go across country as a group from the Wellington monument. You can also get there by bike or car if your mobility is limited.

The magazine fort was built in 1735. Jonathan Swift wrote that:

"Now's here's a proof of Irish sense
Here Irish wit is seen
When nothing's left that's worth defence,
We build a Magazine."

This bit of the park also has quite a radical history as attempts to storm the magazine fort formed part of the plan of many republican insurrections. It's isolated position in the park made it quite vulnerable and soon after the IRA had managed to get in and get a few lorry loads of guns out in 1939 it was abandoned. Liam Brady described that raid in his unpublished biography 'A Libertarian in the Thirties'.

Don't get too excited by the title - he is referring to have lived in the Liberties rather than to having been an anarchist in the 1930's! But there is another odd link here because Liam Brady was the grand nephew of Joe Brady, one of the Invincibles who was hanged in 1882 for his part in the Phoenix Park assassinations

It happened in the Phoenix Park all in the month of May,
Lord Cavendish and Burke came out for to see the polo play.
James Carey gave the signal and his handkerchief he waved,
Then he gave full information against our Fenian blades.

The Invincibles were a working class republican group close to the Fenians who stabbed to death the British secretary and also the under-secretary for Ireland somewhere along the road opposite the Aras. In Europe and the USA 1882 was part of the 'propaganda by deed' period which parts of the anarchist movement had entered after the suppression of the Paris commune when some 30,000 communards were executed. Propaganda by deed consisted of assassinations of members of the ruling class; in particular those associated with oppression.

Press reports at the time often referred to the Invincibles as anarchists and Engels even called the Invincibles 'Bakunists'. But there is no evidence of any links with anarchism either in Ireland or abroad. In London however the short-lived German anarchist paper Freiheit (worker) was shut down as a consequence of an article "applauding the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish by Fenians in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in May 1882". The Invincibles had formed of ex Fenian/IRB men in 1881 in the aftermath of the brutal suppression of the Land League and with the objective of "removing all the principal tyrants from the country".

Meet with our history

This and other references to the Invincibles has left me with a lasting curiosity about them. I've spent some time opposite the Aras looking for the possible site of the assassination. We know that as late as 1938 it was remembered and even marked out by some working class Dubliners because of another of the odd links that crop up in connection with the Park.

In 1938 James T. Farrell came to Dublin to visit Jim Larkin. He relates that while there Larkin "asked me if I wanted to see the monument to the Invincibles ... I imagined that I was going to see a statue, but this did seem passingly curious. The idea that there would be a monument commemorating the Invincibles in Dublin didn't make sense. We stopped in Phoenix Park, just opposite the Archbishop's palace. ... We got out. Jim walked along a path, looking down at the grass. I was bewildered. Jim became nervous, and he stared on the ground with some concern. Then he pointed. There it was. I saw a little hole where grass had been torn up. A cross had been scratched in the earth with a stick. I gathered that many Dubliners did not know of this act commemorating the Invincibles. Jim's boys always went out to Phoenix Park, and marked this cross in the earth. No matter how often grass was planted over it, it was torn up. The cross was marked in the earth."

I only found this account today - but I do remember when looking for the site coming across a cross scratched in the grass on the left hand side of the road. This evening perhaps I'll talk a walk up there to see if someone is really still carrying on that tradition.

I should probably also ask my mother. Probably part of my interest in the Park comes from spending a lot of summer days there as a kid visiting my grandparents. They lived in Kirwan street but as a child she had lived in Neill st which is very close to the North Circular entrance to the park and so she spent a lot of time there. History gets forgotten if we don't retell it. [ Well she didn't know about the cross but she did say that a distant relative was meant to have been a maid in the Viceregal lodge at the time and was said to have come across the scene just after the murder. That side of her family later ended up in Liverpool - and there was more to tell there. ]

Whatever the exact site the assassinations took place less that a kilometre as the crow flies from the magazine fort. Blowing up the entire fort was also supposed to be the signal for the start of the 1916 rising. If the main magazine had gone up the resulting explosion should have been heard all over Dublin. But although the fort was captured around noon on Easter Monday 1916 by volunteers Patrick Daly and Garry Holohan they were. "Unable to locate the key to the main store, the men were able only to set off a small charge with a cache of gelignite which did not make a sound to be heard all over Dublin as the rebels had planned."

You can see why the state decided it was probably better to abandon the fort, today the dry moat is full of brambles and the gates are long padlocked shut. It's a quiet spot where you can easily believe you are deep in the country side rather than a short walk from Park Gate Street.

Meet with each other

So this Mayday lets return to the Park and celebrate resistance and struggle from Chicago to Dublin. And lets be at the trade union march the day before and the Reclaim the Streets the day after.

May weekend events in Dublin

* May Day Demonstration - Solidarity with Migrant Workers
This years May Day trade union demonstration will take place on Saturday April 30th meeting at 2.30 at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square. The demo will march to Liberty Hall and is on the theme of solidarity with migrant workers. The march has been called by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69176

Join The Get Up Stand Up Bloc And Help Organise The Unorganised
This Mayday weekend, the Get Up Stand Up Campaign will be organizing a block on the Trades Council March In Dublin. After the march we will be returning to the roots of Mayday and parading through the city to distribute leaflets on basic workers' rights to people working in casualised labour. Join us in building the labour movement.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69495

Anarchist 1st of May picnic in Phoenix Park
This Mayday let us go back to the park and have ourselves a picnic free of all the state imposed hassle and madness of last year. This will be (at least) the fourth anarchist picnic held in the park. Meet up at the Wellington Monument at 1pm
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69488

Reclaim The Streets
On Monday, May 2nd, starting from the Spike on O'Connell Street at 1.30pm, Reclaim The Streets and Dissent! Ireland, along with Critical Mass will be holding a free street party to help highlight the effects that the G8 leaders have on the world, and to help people mobolise to take action and travel to this years G8 Summit at Gleneagles, Scotland on July 6th.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69141

More information
The anarchist origins of Mayday in Chicago - http://struggle.ws/about/mayday.html

The Peterloo massacre - http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/manchester/trails/TRA25555.html?trailpage=3
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/distress/peterloo.htm

Original texts reporting on Peterloo
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/terrace/adw03/c-eight/distress/peter3.htm

The 1820 revolt in Scotland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/scotland/strathclyde/article_1.shtml

Liam Brady and 1939 raid on the magazine fort
http://www.searcs-web.com/brady.html

The Invincibles
http://lark.phoblacht.net/shadowgunman.html

Larkin and the Invincible monument
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/farrell/works/1940s/lestweforget.htm

History of the park
http://www.obeirnefamily.mcmail.com/issue4/History%20of%20Phoeniex%20Park.htm

About the park today
http://mbm.dotnet11.hostbasket.com/iis/zajms/phoenix.htm

A kids game based in the park
http://www.araskids.ie/html/park/

This is the caption that goes with the cartoon of Wellington
Wellington

The pen and the sword
"The cut depicts a set of scales with a quill pen in the left-side dish clearly outweighing ... representations of a repressive legal apparatus. ...The suggestion is ... a free press has been able to keep a repressive government in check.

Further to the right, however, stands the figure of ... in the process of adding his sword (i.e. military force) to the legal documents in the right-side dish of the scales. The sword has not yet landed, and it thus remains to be seen whether or not the pen will continue to outweigh the combined force of legal and military repression.
From http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/hone/deditext.htm

copyright of images with orginal holders

The platform at Peterloo - note the 'Caps of Liberty' also used in Ireland in 1798

A cartoon from the time of Wellington putting his sword on the side of repression

A commemorative jug

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Comments (26 of 26)

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That is interesting

by MG

Fri Apr 22, 2005 15:10

...about the Invincibles. A relative of my aunt by marriage was one of the men executed for the assassinations. They were executed in the yard of Kilmainham Jail, not hanged from a gallows but from a rope dropped from a high yard to a lower one. There is a small plaque at the spot.

The Phoenix Park was also used for children's revolutionary picnics in the early 1900s, when the Countess and others organised alternatives to state sponsored children's entertainments to mark 'Royal' events, the visit of the Famine Queen, etc.

Why an Anarchist Picnic?

by eeekkkk

Fri Apr 22, 2005 19:01

Why not just a Mayday People's Picnic? It is alienating to people who like picnics but do not describe themselves as anarchists. Inclusive kind of title would be better no?

Fantastic article Mr. Black

by Paul Baynes

Fri Apr 22, 2005 19:19

Fairview

It reminds me of the limited nature of my own individual view of history.

Any version of history is selective. History is a version of events from one point of view. When alternate views are put forward, this is often called revisionism.

For those of us who don't like a lot of things about a particular system, it is very helpful to know that there is a history of dislike for such systems. It may not be told very often, but there is a history of such movements of dissent. When these histories are told, we need to bring them to more and more people. The reality is that these histories are invisible to many of us.

Anyway, thanks for widening my view... A lot of interesting stuff there I didn't know about.

re: eeekkk

by Joe

Fri Apr 22, 2005 19:47

I think you'd have to admit that anarchists rarely 'brand' any of the events we play a major part in organising. Mayday however is a little special because of its history. In the words of August Spies

"Anarchism is on trial! If that is the case your honor, very well; you may sentence me, for I am an anarchist. I believe that the state of castes and classes--the state where one class dominates over and lives upon the labor of another class, and calls this order--yes, I believe that this barbaric form of social organization, with its legallized plunder and murder, is doomed to die and make room for a free society, voluntary association, or universal brotherhood, if you like. You may pronounce the sentence upon me, honorable judge, but let the world know that in A.D. 1886, in the state of Illinois, eight men were sentenced to death because they believed in a better future; because they had not lost their faith in the ultimate victory of liberty and justice!"

But if that association is too much for you, even this once, feel free to come along and have a 'peoples picnic' alongside us.

Haymarket 5 - 4 were executed the 5th cheated the hangman by killing himslef in prison. Spies is top left

Just being the divil's advocate joe

Fri Apr 22, 2005 20:32

really nice article btw - it is great seeing various history related essays popping up on indymedia - got me thinking about my own little personal historical obsession in that area of the city on the other side of the river - the history of illegal and very rowdy celebrations / remembrances of the dead at Bully's Acre and the stiff resistance met by various authorities who attempted to suppress the celebrations at various stages in history.

it's a beautiful place and it's criminal that the RHK have it locked for the last few years. The wall is very jumpable and no-one keeps a close eye on it. It is a graveyard stretching back centuries and wow it has atmosphere in spades after dark. Was a cholera graveyard in the 19th (and early 20th?) century.

and another thing............

by henry

Sat Apr 23, 2005 13:29

henrycie at yahoo dot com

The Phoenix Park was also the location for a peace camp outside the American Embassy during Reagans visit in '84.

The camp was broken up by the Gardai and the women were illegally detained.

Failte Mr. President a documentary on TG4 tonight (Saturday) at 9.05 provides a great insight into these events.

Great work, wish I could be there to learn more...

by Michael

Sat Apr 23, 2005 17:38

I can't be there in person on Mayday, but I'll keep an eye on this thread as I'm sure there'll be more info. Great article. How come I never learned this stuff in school? (Don't answer that.) :-)

P.S. Freiheit, the name of the anarcist zine, means "freedom", not "worker".

phoenix park as heart of greenway scheme

by dunk

Tue Apr 26, 2005 17:25

phoenix park is europes largest city park

we are trying to make it part of :greenway for dublin::
we are currently opening gardens in city, planting food in ground, connecting communities, enjoying being outside
http://easa.antville.org/stories/1099039/
part of which would be an orbital metro route using the now derelict rail tunnell under the park, from heuston to connolly

another garden was started this morning:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=69560&condense_comments=false#comment105966

we hope you think about and support the idea of this greenway for dublin
and with that try to make dublin an example to the world: dublin eco city, its perfectly set up... just up for last little push now

greenway for dublin

The Magazine Fort

by anarchaeologist

Tue Apr 26, 2005 20:12

Great piece Joe, it's great to get some local history on Indymedia.

We (me and 2 year old) went on a cycle up to the Park just after Mayday last year and cycled right past a snoozing cop guarding the gate of the fort.

Inside were several blokes dismantling telecommunications equipment, one of whom approached us. From his accent I figured he was from southern Germany/Austria and we had a brief conversation in German before being escorted off the premises by what I took to be Branchers (who didn't have funny German accents). The cop at the gate got a good bolliking.

I'd been up there before as part of an archaeological trip and it's quite an impressive place. Apart from the huge magazines and blast walls, there are the remains of massive bread mixers and ovens. Apparently, the fort was used to bake bread for the soldiers in the Dublin region during the Emergency as well as being the main arms depot for the country.

I've heard stories about the raid in republican circles in Cavan which basically say that the raid was too successful. Several of the trucks broke their axles with the weight of the stuff on board and not enough arms dumps were organised beforehand to hold the new additions to the IRA's armoury. In fact, subsequent police raids are supposed to have recovered more weapons and ammo than had been taken in the first place.

The place was earmarked for use as the headquarters for the Duchas underwater unit a few years ago, but that fell by the wayside when Duchas was abolished. I don't believe that the National Monuments Service has any further plans for it.

It certainly wouldn't be a bad place to squat: good water supply, buildings in reasonably good nick, easily defensible(!)...

As for Bully's Acre, this is another little known spot which should be reclaimed by the people of Dublin. The gate towards the bottom is easily climbable and there is a special atmosphere inside, what with the gravestones, trees and the granite high cross marking the limits of the medieval monastery of Kilmainham.

The hollows in the adjacent meadow probably mark the burial sites of thousands of Dubliners, which didn't stop the area becoming the focus of popular celebrations such as those at the more famous Donnybrook Fair.

Anyway, we're looking forward to the picnic.

PS Did you find the spot opposite Mary Mac's gaff where the Invincibles struck?

Fascinating stuff

by Barry

Tue Apr 26, 2005 20:17

Maybe its time for a statue to those boys ?

The spot

Wed Apr 27, 2005 11:18

Cycled through the Park this morning on the way to work to look for it but no sighting. Would probably have more luck walking through further into the summer when the grass will have died down a bit/

Has an odd moment when I realised I cycled through the park this same morning last year but then of course to have a look at the various fortifications that were being erected. They included cherry pickers with cameras mounted on them that were scattered all over the park as well as the huge double fence that had been built right down to the zoo.

It's here!

Wed Apr 27, 2005 15:59

That's Mary's place across the road behind the gentleman emerging from the head of the woman with the basket.

I've seen another contemporary image with a better angle on the Aras, but the spot should be found easily enough.

Quick question though... is the cross there to commemorate the Invincibles or Cavendish and Burke?

Wow

Wed Apr 27, 2005 16:40

Now that is impressive, should be quite easy to locate the spot from this picture. Where is the source of the picture?

Who knows how it started out but
1) By Larkins time it was obviously to commemorate the Invincibles
2) It strikes me that a statue or something as impressive would be more likely if this was a memorial for the local heads of state for the imperial power.

Any more information on the magazine fort?

by avidmc

Wed Apr 27, 2005 17:32

MaxWiggan at gmail dot com

I have long admired this abandoned structure and longed to take a closer look. but it has allways been too dificult to get in or there was sombody hanging around. A mate of mine says he once got in through an open gate and got access to some type of tunnel system which possibly connects the fort with other important instalations within the park he is a bit of a bullshiter but the story kinda got me interested. Does any body else have any info or has any body been inside for a snoop? is there any more info on the web? google dosent turn up much?
TG4 did a documentry on underground dublin which includes a trip into the phoenix park rail tunnel. http://www.rte.ie/tv/leargas/20022003/1411.html.
If you are interested in urban exploring have a look at this dutch site
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kazil/
we need more of this type of thing going on in ireland kicking around on waste ground looking down holes for the laugh

Magazine Fort

Wed Apr 27, 2005 19:28

Well, as someone who makes a living looking down holes for a laugh, I suppose I've gotta agree with you.

Anyway, here's a plan of the fort. The image of the cross was found by googling images for Cavendish Burke and the Phoenix Park. There's a fairly bloody one from the Illustrated London News or some other similar rag up there as well, but stylised, without the topographical information necessary for a good identification of the site.

I'd known about a European liberatarian appropriation of the Invincibles and a rumour that they had a green and black flag as an emblem but I've never seen any real documentary evidence for this and it probably isn't a terribly good idea to bandy about a flag when you're supposed to be a secret revolutionary organisation.

I'm gonna try and find the other image later but I'm off now to have another look at that gate!

bealtaine- celtic festival, now celebrated as mayday

Sun May 01, 2005 15:58

enjoy "the day of fire"

heres a good audio article from urban75 about the history of mayday, from its celtic origins, outlawing of mayday in 1600's
http://radio.indymedia.org/uploads/mayday_128.mp3
from imc-radio network
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2005/05/4711.php

celtic origins:
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/print.php?id=90106
and
http://newworldcelts.org/Beltaine%20%28May%20Day%29.htm

bealtine, mayday day of fire

Catholic Worker celebrates 72nd. birthday on Mayday, 3 years in Dublin

by DCW

Sun May 01, 2005 16:53

087 918 4552

The anarcho pacifist Ctholic Worker began in New York City, with the publication and distribution of its paper at May Day 1933. Co-founded by Dorothy Day who had been a suffragette and resister to WW1 and was active in the 1920's New York left circles that included Emma Goldman, John Reed & Eugene O'Neill and later converted to Catholicism. Co-founded by Peter Maurin an itinerant street-speaker (Times Square) who had been influenced by the personalist school. in France.

The program of hospitality houses & farming communities was extended to nonviolent resistance as WW2 broke out and saw scores of young CW men interned for draft resistance. In the '30's there was a strong relationship with CW & the local IWW. In later years the anarchist "Living Theatre Company" and Abbie Hoffman were also connected.

The 185 Catholic Worker communities are autonomous and although the tradition is radical Catholic, anarchist & pacifist - there would be many people who are active with the communities and nonviolent resistance projects who would not necessarily identify as catholic, anarchist and or/pacifist.

Much has been published on the movement - both academic studies and movement reflection pieces. It has been celebrated in song by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco with the track "Anarchy" on their "The Past Didn't Go Anywhere" album and a mainstream movie (of debatable quality) "Entertaning Angels" starring irish actress Moira Kelly as Day & Martin Sheen as Maurin (available at video rentals near you!).

The Catholic Worker is well known and largely celebrated on the American left, but there is general ignorance on the Euro-left to its existence and history. (Most communities are located in North America working with street homeless, most Euro CW communities are focussed on solidarity and hospitality to assylum seekers & illegals in Oxford, Hamburg Amsterdam)

The Catholic Worker first appeared in Dublin at the 2002 Reclaim the Streets volunteering for the job of police liason. They were in Pearse St. Garda Station working on earlier arrests when Dame St. kicked off.

Five members were later arrested at Shannon Airport for disarming a U.S. Navy war plane en route to the invasion of Iraq and have been on bail for 2 1/2 years. their first trial collapsing after 6 days in the March of this year (www.peaceontrial.com). The DCW is presently exploring opening a voluntary project with street homeless folks in downtown Dublin,

The link below has more contact info on the Dublin CW including an interview with anarchist folk singer Utah Phillips on the CW.

listen to utah philips interview with amy goodman

Sun May 01, 2005 17:16

http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2004/01/1359.php

Nice weather

Sun May 01, 2005 19:51

Good day - around 30 turned up as well as 3 foot cops, 2 vanloads in reserve and 2 mounted cops. Food was eaten, drink was drunken, kites were flown, stories were exchanged and in between shift changes we went and had a look in the magazine fort. It's huge inside.

Some photos of the anarcho-picnic

by sovietpop - wsm

Mon May 02, 2005 22:41

We came, we had a picnic. The guards came. They left.

Picnic
Picnic

the guards turn up for a bit of a gawk

anarcho-kids and guards

A horse!

Adious horses

re: horses

by :-)

Tue May 03, 2005 10:40

lovely geldings, if i'm not mistaken.

dangerous picnicing?

Fri May 13, 2005 13:51

So what exactly is happening in these pictures some people went for a picnic in a public park and the guards turn up for what? this is quite strange behaivour . Where they there to protect the picnickers?

The invincibles

Fri Feb 03, 2006 01:01

Just discovered another reference to the Invincible cross in Sean O'Caseys first autobiography, p208 "Johnny remembered the cross cut deep in the path a long way up the road from the main gate of the park"

Not history but...

by R. Isible

Fri Feb 03, 2006 01:36

Ulysses has some mention of the Invincibles and Skin-the-Goat Fitzsomeoneorother who was the getaway cab driver

This reminds me. Be caereful where you put your nose.

by shortmemory

Fri Feb 03, 2006 19:53

Somebody got a fine yesterday of 1,000e and bound to the peace for hitting a camera across the head with a beer can during that ruckass.

by pat c

Fri Feb 03, 2006 20:09

no, i dont think he was fined over the invincibles incident. justice isnt usually that slow. i think it was the mayday affair. a bit less blood spilt. and it was the cameraman who was hit over the nose, not the camera.

drunken gobdaw. its people like that who give demos a bad name. a demo is no place for booze.

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'It happened in the Phoenix Park all in the month of May'

Comments (26 of 26)