Pete St. John to join annual Afri Famine Walk in Doolough Valley

This coming Saturday, May 18, Afri begins a fourth decade of walking, remembering and expressing solidarity on the famine road in the Doolough Valley in County Mayo.

Composer of the world famous ‘Fields of Athenry’, Pete St. John will join us on this year’s walk where his composition, Waltzing on Borrowed Time’, expressing his concern for the welfare of our Planet ‘ will be performed in music and dance.

This year’s walk leaders provide an inspirational example of the kind of commitment required to tackle the urgent issue of climate change. Oisin Coghlan, as Director of Friends of the Earth, has been a constant and tireless advocate for radical, practical and urgent action and change.

Hanny van Geel, through her work with La Via Campesina, champions ‘the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food, produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods’.

Every individual and every sector of society must take responsibility and to take action in the face of the urgent threat posed by climate change. Artists have an especially important role to play in promoting awareness and change.

And people like Pete St. John have taken on that responsibility. Pete wrote ‘Waltzing on Borrowed Time’ – outlining the threat of climate change – several years ago and it has been performed in many places throughout Ireland and beyond. Inspired by Greta Thunberg and the young people around the world, who have taken to the streets, let us organize, campaign, lobby, walk and waltz to save our planet.

In the plaintive words of Pete’s wonderful song:’ when will we learn to show concern for our world on borrowed time’?

The Famine Walk is part of a ‘Famine Walk week-end’ which will also include a seminar entitled ‘Food for Thought’, organised by Feasta and Afri in GMIT Castlebar on Friday, May 17, beginning at 11 a.m.

Walkers are asked to gather in Louisburgh at 12 noon on May 18 for registration before the walk begins.

Register online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/afri-famine-walk-2019-waltzing-on-borrowed-time-tickets-60575110787