Cooley Environmental & Health Group Organising another Workshop

by Sean Mon Jan 24, 2005 20:49

Arthur Morgan TD has agreed to "open" the workshop at 2.00 p.m. on Saturday 29 January 2005 in The Strand, Omeath. Please note that The Strand is situated about 80m to the right as one approaches the pier which is centrally situated in the village of Omeath.

by Sean Crudden Thu Dec 30, 2004 19:18

1 Cathal Kearney Head of Accountancy and Management Department DkIT

2 Mary Grehan MD MCC

3 Archbishop Michael Desmond ("Dessie") Hynes PhD OMA

4 Dr Tom Collins Director DkIT

Break

5 Kalichi

6 Paola Catizone

7 John Maguire Health Promotion (Mental Health) NEHB

The first speaker will address the issue of what, in general, makes a healthy organisation.

The second, third and fourth speakers will address the topic from their own perspectives in the health service, the church and in formal education.

The fifth and sixth speakers will, possibly in collaborative way, address the question of what is making us sick, personal strategies to promote equanimity and good health and what we can do as individuals to solve problems.

The seventh speaker will tell us about developments taking place at a national level concerning provision for the mentally ill.

Each speaker will be entitled to an equal share of the time which extends (with one short break) from 2.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. on Saturday 29 January 2005.

Each and every speaker will be keeping in mind the theme of the workshop - "ORGANISATION AND HEALTH."

by Sean Thu Dec 02, 2004 21:02

"I thought I saw Joe Hill last night alive as you and me."

We all remember the legendary American union man’s advice: "It pays to organize." Many people around Dundalk including myself have the experience (and the doubts) about whether our attempts to organise were, in fact, good for our health. Almost certainly they were not good for our careers. However the struggle of the dispossessed, the marginalised, the disabled, the downtrodden, the working man woman and child, must go on and that is why the song-writer finds a resonance in our hearts when he penned in connection with the executed Joe Hill the line:

"‘I never died,’ said he."

To some people the union was more important than the Church. But is the organised Church simply regulating and depressing its members in the name of One who said, "My yoke is sweet, my burden light"? Is the Church good for our health?

To a cynical person like myself it often appears that formal education in this country is an organisation which is stultifying and destroying an important segment of the nation’s children.

We know that the "health system" is robbing us. Is it also, not so stealthily, killing us? Are the health services a healthy organisation?

Syndicalism and anarchism never were, perhaps? Maybe they never will be. However their ideas are not to be sneezed at. Let me quote a couple of paragraphs from an article entitled "Anarchy and Organisation" by James O’Brien which appeared on www.indymedia.ie on 20 October 2004:

"For anarchists the starting point about any discussion on organisation is our end-goal; a free egalitarian and self-managed society. Because we see means and ends as intrinsically linked, we try to foster as much of that end-goal in the here and now as possible. That means creating organisations that are run directly by those participating and that everyone has an equal say in how things are done."

Further on in the article O’Brien says:

"I should remark that contrary to some misconceptions anarchists on the whole favour organisation. As Chomsky pointed out, gathering together people of like minds for a common purpose, which is what organisation essentially is, breaks down feelings of isolation which are common in this society. Too often people think they’re on their own with their radical opinions and that there’s not much they can do to change things. And usually they’re right, you can’t do much on your own, but by hooking up with people of similar inclination you can start to make an impact. In addition your own opinions get reinforced, you no longer seem slightly crazy for thinking Labour and Fianna Fail are more or less the same. After all a lot of others are thinking along the same lines! You also get to learn a lot from those who have had different experiences."

Of course it is not only our families that are disorganised - the laws of thermodynamics tell us that the energy of the universe is burning up and inevitably becoming disorganised and useless. In particular it seems to me to be the greatest scandal of universal society the way the finite stock of fossil fuel on this planet is being recklessly and irreversibly plundered, depleted, dissipated. It is frightening to consider the almost absolute dependence of humanity as it is presently organised on this remnant of organised chemical energy.

However organisation is not the be-all and the end-all where health (or anything else) is concerned. We do not need the lesson of modern art to recognise the value of spontaneity, improvisation, extemporisation.

When chaos reigns cometh the man, woman, child.

These are only some preliminary thoughts on "Organisation and Health" - the theme of Cooley Environmental and Health Group’s fifth annual winter workshop which is scheduled to take place in The Strand, Omeath, on Saturday 29 January 2005 starting at 2.00 p.m. Speakers who will be trying to unravel the subject will include: Archbishop Michael Desmond Hynes PhD OMA; Mary Grehan MD MCC; Dr Tom Collins; Cathal Kearney; Kalichi, Paola Catizone, Larry Staudt.

Members of the public are welcome to attend and contribute their tuppence worth.

Yours sincerely

Sean Crudden
TREASURER
Cooley Environmental and Health Group
Workshop facilitator

by Archbishop Hynes Sun Oct 10, 2004 13:34

It is very dangerous to hastly assume anything! Come to the meetings and then comment!

Archbishop Hynes is Secretary of the group and Signor Sean Crudden is the Treasurer. Deputy Arthur Morgan TD is the Chairman.

Put all that in your pipe and smoke it Lol.

You may learn a lot about the environment if you get familiar with us. Maybe you rather joking and scratching [your collipers].

Looking forward to more of those jokes before I get too busy this week.

by oneperson Sun Oct 10, 2004 05:23

I am fast coming to the conclusion that "Archbishop Hynes" and Sean Crudden are one and the same person, and that the "Cooley Environmental and Health Group" only has one member.