Scoil Chois Claí

Scoil Chois Claí is a three day political festival with workshops, lectures and debates, in English and Irish, with ceol traidisiúnta, craic and for those that indulge, creamy pints of stout. The core focus of the school this year is anti-imperialism, Palestine and alternatives to capitalism.

‘Scoil Chois Claí 2024’ is the third school organised by Leftbloc a collaborative political education project that brings together ecosocialist activists from parties, social movements and trade unions to encourage new efforts in working-class self-education with the comradely support of the Democracy Collaborative and Trademark.

Why ‘Scoil Chois Claí’? These were ‘Hedge Schools’ a network of informal, road side schools that emerged, out of sight of crown authorities ‘beneath the sunny side of a hedge’ following the collapse of the Gaelic world during the colonial period and ensuing Penal Laws when communities took education into their own hands. The schools offered instruction through Irish in Maths, Philosophy, Latin and Greek, Robert Peel, the British Prime Minister said “I do not wish to see children in Ireland educated like …. the young peasants of Kerry who run about in rags with a Cicero or Virgil under their arms”

SPEAKERS

Bernadette Mcaliskey

a stalwart of Scoil Chois Claí is an Irish civil rights leader and former politician and now retired chief executive of the South Tyrone Empowerment Programme.

Clare Daly

A life long socialist activist, a CLLR, a TD, an MEP, she has been a trailblazing voice for radical politics in the halls of power. Shining a light on the horrors of imperialism, she been a powerful advocate for the Palestinian people.

Fionnuala
Nic thom

Mother, Gael, community leader and lifelong activist. Proud Mothers Against Genocide member.

ghassan
abu-sittah

is a British-Palestinian plastic and reconstructive surgeon known for providing medical assistance as a surgeon in conflict zones, particularly in the Gaza Strip where he provided medical assistance with Doctors Without Borders at the Al-Shifa Hospital.

John Smith

is a researcher based in Sheffield and author of the prize-winning 2016 book Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis

Kali AkunO

is co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, a network of worker cooperatives and community-led programs that sustain and grow a democratic, just and sustainable economy.

Nihal El Aasar

is a researcher and activist in the London Branch of the Palestinian Youth Movement. She has written extensively about decolonisation and Arab unity.

Mariela kohon

is senior international officer for the TUC, a former adviser to the FARC in the Colombia peace process, and vice chair of Justice for Colombia.

Neil Mcinroy

is The Democracy Collaborative’s global lead for community wealth building and is presently a community wealth building adviser to the Scottish Government.

MARK MALONE

Mark Malone is an anti-fascist researcher and works with the Hope and Courage Collective supporting communities impacted by hate organising.

Maev mcdaid

is a researcher working across Britain and Europe on transnational models of authoritarian control over workers and social movements

Meabh Ni hOileain

Founder of Mothers Against Genocide, life long activist, for change that ensures inclusion, equality, fairness and justice for all.

Niamh ní bhriain

coordinates the Transnational Institutes War and Pacification programme, which focuses on the permanent state of war and pacification of resistance.

Nuala Ní Scolláin

Mamai, yogi, Gael and an activist for social change from West Belfast, Nuala has been a member of Mothers Against Genocide from the early days.

patrick bresnihan

Patrick Bresnihan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University. He works in the fields of political ecology and environmental justice, focusing on the contested politics of water, land and energy in Ireland’s postcolonial context.

Sopo japaridze

is a researcher and journalist based in Tblisi and is Chair of the Solidarity Network Union.

V’cenza cirefice

is an ecofeminist artist, researcher, and activist from the Mourne Mountains who explores environmental justice issues and community resistance to extractivism such as the planned Dalradian gold mines in the Sperrin Mountains.

Yasmin El Souda

Yasmin is the general coordinator of the British chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement an international movement of hundreds of Palestinian and Arab youth working towards the liberation of Palestine across North America and Europe.