"I PERSONALLY BELIEVE IN COMMUNITY, I REALLY DO!"

INTERVIEW WITH CLARE O'GRADY WALSHE, ENVIRONMENTALIST

Clare O’Grady-Walshe walks the walk. She was part of the first Irish Coffee Brigade when she went in 1988 to Nicaragua in an act of solidarity with the people there who had overthrown a dictatorship.

“I’m concerned with the fairness and equality of society, the lack of respect for human dignity we see, say in relation to people with disabilities.”

A committed environmentalist, Clare returned from Nicaragua and became director of Greenpeace in Ireland. She is currently a director of Irish Seedsavers, lectures in Development Studies in a number of universities and is AfrI’s Spokesperson on Food.

‘Changing Ireland’ interviewed Clare at the first Claiming Our Future conference held on October 30th, 2010, in Dublin.

I PERSONALLY BELIEVE IN COMMUNITY

I personally believe in community, I really do. I believe we’re going to have to turn to our neighbours and start knocking on doors. All of the best social movements started that way. Sometimes when your back is against the wall, that’s when you find your most resourceful reaction.

And we need to continue to inform ourselves about where power lies and who’s controlling what and where.

3 CORPORATIONS CONTROL 90% OF WORLD’S GRAIN

Globally, 90% of the world’s grain is now controlled by three corporations and that only happened in the last 20 years. It happened on our watch and I now personally feel responsible for that. Somehow or another, as a mass movement we’re going to have to tackle that one, that’s a big one.

We have to build our civil society in Ireland. Even in America, there’s 25 million people on food stamps and so you’re getting some amazing movements of community change happening, with people there becoming active on food security and food sovereignty issues. That’s the future.

ON BEING A MEMBER OF THE TROCAIRE GENERATION

What we really have going for us in this country is the people – we’re very resourceful, very connected to community. We’ve a tremendous sense of place and the landscape and the fertility of our country is amazing.

Many of us have travelled the world and seen places that are desolate. But we still act as if we don’t own our country and that’s a psychological gap that we still have. Maybe it’s a post-colonial, but we really need to get over ourselves, we have the ability to be a successful people.

But why are we so passive? We are challenged now to come out of our comfort zones.

I call us the Trocaire generation, we grew up conscientised by the absolute dire poverty in the southern hemisphere and it’s an insult to our intelligence and our dignity to claim that all people are equal. I’ve been involved in activism for my entire adult life.

It’s important now for us to move from our own issues and start to build a movement together.

BANKING CRISIS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS WE FACE

My personal belief is that the banking crisis is in the half-penny place in comparison to the monumental environmental crisis we’re facing. We need to protect ecosystems – to protect soil and water. These are the fundamental building blocks of life on the planet, you can’t eat money.

The report I look to is the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment Report which came out in 2005 and reported that 1,300 scientists from 95 countries agreed that 60% of the planet’s ecosystems are in danger of collapsing.

Look at the reasons for climate change, for instance the absolute corporate takeover of huge tracts of land and the practice of monoculture cropping. Historically, this country was utterly dependent on 3 varieties of potato where any Andean farmer would have have been growing up to 2000 varieties. There are real ecological dangers in being dependent on monoculture and that’s the way agriculture is going at the moment.

It’s all billions and squillions this banking crisis. It’s crazy. Take a wider view of debt and development - how can poor countries pay it back when they have a leather boot on their head?

CLAIMING OUR FUTURE

I thought Claiming Our Future was a very good event. It was challenging for us to meet with others who have been campaigning in other areas – in trade unions, in healthcare, in social change.

I got involved as a mother of two young children and I’m wondering about the future of their country.

FOLLOW-UP RESOURCES:

Find out more about the upcoming national Claiming Our Future event: http://www.cwc.ie/2011/03/claiming-our-future/ and http://www.claimingourfuture.ie/

For a summary of the findings of the MILLENIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT REPORT check out: http://www.greenfacts.org/en/ecosystems/index.htm

For 12 pages telling how you we can GREEN IRELAND, create jobs, safe ecosystems and survive as a country:

http://www.deti.ie/publications/trade/2009/developing_the_green_economy_in_ireland_key_actions_02.12.09.pdf