The Ban Bus

We drove into Galway and rang our local contact Sarah. She is a really bright spark of a person and explodes with great ideas and good energy. Nothing is a problem and she takes multitasking to new dimensions. As we were driving into town she gave us a series of lefts and rights until we nearly drove into her as she was walking her dog. Our first impressions of Sarah were wrong as a high energy person. She is twice as speedy as I first thought and lives every second in hyper drive. It’s dizzying to watch but I am always in awe of those who just keep powering on and getting things done. I wish I could muster 20% of what she has.

We dumped our gear in the hotel and went for a walk around the town in search of a cleansing pint of Guinness, for our health of course. Galway is a really vibrant west coast town of about 80,000 people. There is a really strong arts community here and as we sat and drank we met many people. Sarah seemed connected deeply into this community on so many levels. She seemed to have a few guiding rules like, don’t ask permission but just say sorry once the police arrive and complaining people are just background noise. These simple philosophies have buffered her well against the nay sayers to all her various enterprises.

Tomorrow nights talk was to be held at the city Museum and a meeting with the director was scheduled for the morning so we headed in our different directions till then.

The director was certainly under Sarah’s spell as she cheekily referred to the space as her Museum. He was pro active too and wanted all manner of events to be held at the museum. If it’s always changing and vibrant then the people will come. Every request that we had was met with a sure, why not, I can’t see a problem with that, whatever you need. I was now starting to think I’d stepped into a time machine and landed in a place where they keep all the exceptionally nice people. Galway is great.

We invaded the place with a temporary exhibition and our huge outdoor banners stretched along the outside of the museum and Mette and Raechel spun their charms and started talking to every pedestrian that passed by. The Ban Bus had arrived in Galway and was making its presence felt.

Tonight’s presentation was to be Aine Bonner and myself. Aine is a young Dublin journalist who got her teeth stuck into the issue of governmental ethical investment. In particular she started looking into the investment of the national pension fund and the arms industry. As she investigated her leads with the pain staking detail of a detective she found a mire of money woven deeply into the arms industry. As she dug deeper she discovered alarming fact after alarming fact that turned so much of the pensions fund into blood money. Cross checks between when wars were actively being fought and an increase in profits began to emerge. War was obviously good for business and positive for getting the best return from your investments in the arms industry.

She went deeper and began to dissect exactly where the funds were invested and into what weapon systems they were supporting till finally she found that 27 million euro was directly invested in the manufacture of cluster bombs. This was a national scandal as Ireland had put their hands up to be a leading country in a ban of these weapons. A major feature article was published and the lid was off these grubby little secrets. The government was caught out and embarrassed. This is the kind of journalism that takes passion and dedication to follow through. She had done it and her research now demanded answers.

This investigation is forcing the Irish government to look closely at their pensions fund and start paying attention to principals of ethical investment. This is not a first for governments and industry and there was a great precedent with the Norwegian pension fund. This is the national bank account from the Norwegian oil industry and like the Irish pension fund it’s invested all over the globe for maximum return on their money. Unlike the Irish fund the Norwegians have an ethical board of advisers and investigators who closely look to where this fund is invested. They simply scrutinise every transaction and make sure that there is no investment in blood industries.

This example and others is forcing the Irish government to re-examine their investments and pull funds out of the tainted companies. The power of a few and the focus of one had made a change in Irish history.

By the late afternoon we had the ground floor of the museum well and truly invaded with cluster bomb information and pictures and were ready to go. All we needed now was an audience. One or two wandered in and began chatting to each other. Aine was very nervous as she is a writer and not used to public speaking. I think she would have preferred a knife fight with a pack of drunks than doing this but here she was and soon the stage would be hers.

I stepped away from the non crowd and sorted out my computer and data projector and got a good image up and when I re-emerged there was a buzzing crowd and all the seats were full. This was a great start and it really does make your enthusiasm soar.

Aine and I took the stage and I launched into my talk. There was a little agitation at the start which is normal but as I got into the depth of the subject that soon died away. The enormity of the cluster bomb problem quickly sank in and a collective sense of outrage soon grew in the crowd. The history, the impact on normal lives, the different arguments both true and false, the legacy left behind that destroys any future for any community affected by these weapons was all laid bare till I’d began speaking of the political solution. This is the pass to Aine. I stepped aside and she was on. I got a flash of terror in her eyes as she stood to the microphone and I sat down then she was away.

A tiny quaver was in her voice as she began her talk. That lasted about five seconds and then she was away with talking about a subject that she was passionate about. Her nerves were gone and one fact after then next rolled off her tongue as she explained the depths that she had gone to investigate the investment issue. The audience was engrossed as this directly affected them and they wanted to know more.

We finally finished the talk with some simple asks. First, form an opinion and second, get involved. We then opened for questions. There were a few who wanted to soap box themselves so at that it was time to wind it up and on to the next location. We hit a pub in town for a relaxing pint or two. The road would lead us out of town in the morning and back to Dublin to pick up our new ordered gear till we then headed north for the whole of next week.

What is hard about coming to Ireland and doing an advocacy project like this is that everyone seems to be deeply political and no one trusts the government. As soon as I get to the part of the talk that addresses Ireland as a key player in this treaty process I am met with general disbelief. They all feel that Ireland will buckle at the end and allow for many of the concerns of governments that are hostile to the treaty to be heard. That is only speculation at this point and for now we must give them the benefit of the doubt and allow them to chair an open and inclusive process.

The next day took us across the country to Limerick and a talk at the University. Mette drove the bus and Raechel filmed while I write and sorted the talk. The organiser was a guy called Edward and he was a real civil society campaigner. He realised that the local airport was being used for US troop transporting to Iraq and Afghanistan and set about creating a local protest group that picketed the airport and other actions. Part of their reasoning was that Ireland was a neutral country so should not have been assisting the US in any way in their conduct of this war. Many of them had been arrested and they had even managed to get through the fences and damage some planes. These people were real activists with a huge social conscience and they weren’t just talkers but doers.

Edward organised a lecture room at the University and advertised broadly around the campus. We arrived and set up our banners and pictures and Mette worked the campus grounds talking to whoever she could collar for a conversation about cluster bombs. The hour for the talk arrived and a steady flow of people came in till we had a full house. I was as primed for this as I could be and launched into a fast and aggressive history of the international use of cluster bombs. The affect on the audience was immediate and people were incredulous that these weapons were not banned years before. As I bounced from one issue to the next the engagement completed with people wanting to get involved. We steered them to the Irish coalition and urged them to follow through on the campaign till the treaty was concluded in three weeks time. The clock was definitely ticking and people were coming to the issue. This is why outreach work is so important.

After the talk Edward wanted us to come with him to Shannon Airport which is the site used by the US military and their troop flights to Iraq and secret CIA movements. He had been barred, banned and arrested while being anywhere near the airport but still he was not intimidated by any of this. We dumped his car in an industrial carpark and drove him into the airport in the Ban Bus. Now one thing about the Ban Bus is that it is not exactly subtle with all of the very large signage. A stealth vehicle we are not and now we had the local super campaigner in the front seat navigating. What could possibly go wrong, besides arrest that is.

We cruised the perimeter looking at planes and looking to see if there were any military aircraft or secret unmarked ones. On this occasion there were none but if it wasn’t for the vigilance of people like Edward, then no one would have known about the secret CIA rendition flights. He and his group had spent many weeks watching every aircraft movement through Shannon and cross checking their information with an international network doing the same thing. This way they could cross check aircraft movements and build travel lists of many of these flights. It’s just one of the many ways to look into the secret way this so called war on terror was being conducted.

We took a photo outside of the airport terminal then it was time to load up and head north to Galway. We dropped Edward at his car and parted company at the freeway split.

The west of Ireland is beautiful and now it was bathed in warm afternoon sun. The flicker of the light through the trees has a slightly hypnotising strobe affect on the senses and makes you dream of other things. I was thinking about the upcoming treaty negotiations and what pressure that we as civil society could really put on the worlds governments. I knew one thing for sure, it was not going to be easy.

The logistics were coming together well and Mette went out to get the new signage for the Ban Bus. We waited for the transformation from blue mini bus to something more spectacular. The wait lasted all afternoon till Mette walked into the flat with a grin.

“What’s it like,” we asked?
“Oh, it’s ok I suppose,” said she.

We traipsed down stairs to the car park and found an absolute transformation. The bus looked fantastic with every panel covered in magnetic signage. There was absolutely no mistaking as to who we were and what we were to be doing. All of the design work of Mette’s had really paid off and despite the initial hic ups when the company made normal stickers, the end result on magnetic sheeting looked amazing. They even matched the colour of the van with the background of the magnetic sheets and you would swear the van had been spray painted. We were now fully fitted and ready to hit the road

Sunday came and we grabbed a few hours off to go for a bike ride in Phoenix Park. The park is huge and in the middle of Dublin. It’s so big you could seriously get lost there. The really special character of the park is it has herds of wild deer wandering free. We found a large herd and quietly stalked them. They were so used to being safe and not interfered with by people that they couldn’t care less about our presence. They grazed about and wandered from place to place happily while we took a few photographs.

Ireland is doing well economically and they have put a lot of effort into issues like bike paths and public transport. The bus lanes on most major roads are sacred to public transport while the car lanes are choked with the result of the boom. The boom has created an affluent middle class where now everyone has a car. This rapid boom has put so many cars into a road system that is struggling that the end result are some horror traffic jams.

Our friend Raechel arrived this night too from New Zealand. She will be working with us doing some filming of the whole Ban Bus and treaty process. The footage will be used in a variety of ways as pool for media but a prime outlet is You Tube.

She called from the airport that she had landed but her bags were lost. That is the ultimate drag after over 30 hours of travelling. It’s very cheesy to be in the same clothes after so long in a plane and then after a refreshing shower changing back into the same cheesy undies. The airline, BMI, was totally disinterested and said that they had lost many bags today and they would get them to her when they finally had time. On their website they promised all sorts of responsibilities but in practice delivered none. Finally after lots of calls they said the bag would arrive by 11 pm the next day. We stayed in with the phones on a waited. Nothing. We tried calling but no one there. Another day gone. The next morning Raechel rang again and got the same amazing customer service. She stuck to her guns and finally had them agree to find her bag and deliver it by mid day. We waited again. Mid day came and went and still no bags. She rang again to no avail till finally a courier dropped them off in the early afternoon. A happy girl emerged from the shower with clean clothes and feeling like new.

Dublin is definitely a city with its own character. It’s truly Irish in all ways and not a homogenised society. So many capital cities are no different from the next capital besides the language. Although there are many peoples from many nations here they all seems to soak a large amount of Irishness.

The River Liffey that flows through Dublin is tidal and rises and falls every few hours. It seems we are right at the point of equilibrium between tidal rise and the flow of the river and we get a great view of the ‘garbage wars’ that take place when the tide peaks. A heap of garbage is pushed up stream by the incoming tide while more garbage floating down stream collides with the tidal rubbish. It spins and swirls then all join the flow as once again the tide and river head for the sea as one. Its not that the Liffey has any more garbage than any other city river it’s just that it all gets compressed in front of our flat for an hour or two each day.

Rae rang and wants to meet us at a pub near Phoenix Park. We head out and trawl the streets looking for the pub. Finally we call him and his directions have been completely confused and we are at the wrong end of Dublin. He had meant to say near St Stephens Green and not Phoenix Park. Taxi time. The taxi driver was an older guy from Summer Hill and the whole way to the pub told us how much he liked to fight at the football or pub or anywhere.

“Jus dive on in an av a poke and dig at any ol’ skull. Oh I love it I love it I do” he says.

We pay him and ask for a receipt and he pulls all of his receipts off the roll and says, “Help ya selves to one a deez.”

We tear off the bottom one and Mette notices that the next one was from a month and a half before. He’s truly been working the Dublin untraceable cash society.

The pub is jumping and has been jumping since 1739. It’s called O’Donoughues and is quite a local institution. Small, packed and loads of Guinness passing across the bar and three musicians belting out some Irish music. The atmosphere is alive and soon we are slopping down a pint and yelling at each other over the music and crowd. The musicians are great and swap instruments between them. There is no shyness here as spontaneously the crowd breaks into chorus with them as they belt out another Irish folk gem. A couple of American tourists wander in and just don’t seem comfortable with the closeness and intensity of this place. It’s a place where you push and are pushed, all spilling Guinness over each other.

When the musicians took a break I went and had a chat with them and told them about The Ban Bus and the treaty negotiations coming up in a few weeks. Would they be interested in playing at something associated with the conference and the NGO’s? Andy played guitar and banjo and loved the idea of getting involved. Maybe we can network through these guys into the Dublin music scene and get a Cailly happening. A Cailly is basically an Irish jam session and they are so full of fun and life it would be a great party maker at the end of these negotiations. The network is building and if you want to campaign about anything then hit the streets and start talking to everyone. It’s amazing who will get involved with a cause like this.

After the nights chat with the Dublin Anti War Movement, it was time to head south to Kilkenny to do a public presentation. We had been in contact with a passionate campaigner called Guy who ran and organisation called the Irish Lebanese Cultural Foundation. He’s a Lebanese man married to an Irish woman called Christine and they had coordinated all sorts of cultural and aid projects to Lebanon. Kilkenny has a large Irish army base there and many a soldier had served in Lebanon as a peace keeper. I was amazed to hear that the Irish army had been in Lebanon for 23 years. That must be some kind of record for staying involved and engaged.

With such a close connection between these troops and Lebanon it made it an obvious choice for a talk on cluster bombs. Guy really worked his connections well and sent out over 300 personal invitations to teachers, the military and local politicians. Many a reply was given that they would come and it all was looking like a good audience would be in attendance.

We headed out of Dublin towards Kilkenny and discovered the nightmare of a badly programmed GPS. All the way this woman’s voice just gave us the worst directions, turn left, turn right, turn around, everywhere except to where we needed to go. It was driving us nuts so the most useful thing was the off button. We finally had another go at reprogramming it and found the original direction was to the middle of a field about 200 km away. Not very useful. The adventure ended with us arriving at the hotel we had booked and guy came over to meet us.

There are a few people who impress you at first meeting but Guy did. He was quietly motivated to create understanding between Lebanon and Ireland and this was his motivation to get us to come down and talk about cluster bombs. We headed to the location for the talk and set up our materials, data projector, bomb clearance gear, information, badges, stickers and some T-shirts. All was ready for the 7.30 start.

The allotted time came, and then it went and we found ourselves standing in an empty room. Not a good omen for the rest of the night. In a few minutes the two men arrived and then a woman. We all looked a little sheepishly at each other and there was a distinct discomfort at the lack of an audience. We waited 15 minutes and still no more people came so I broke into the talk. These few folk had come to find out more about cluster bombs and find out they would form me. I don’t care if its only one person who comes as they have shown the interest in the issue and they wanted more information.

It felt a little awkward to begin with but once we had all moved our chairs in together and introduced ourselves, the awkwardness disappeared. The talk works through the whole problem with cluster bombs from so called military utility to the catastrophic legacy that is left behind. It builds the nightmare that was inflicted on the people of Laos in the 1960’s and 1970’s and threads through all the major conflicts from then till now and ends in the madness of Lebanon two years ago. The one thing that binds all of these wars together is the terrible legacy that cluster bombs leave behind. Laos has that sad distinction of being the worlds most heavily bombed country and we finally ended up in Lebanon with 4 million cluster bombs being dropped in the last 3 days of the conflict.

The stories that have the most impact are the tales of Krouch Kin in Cambodia who had just lost her husband to a 40 year old cluster bomb and Tzanga Mana in Eritrea who was trying to hide them so that the children wouldn’t play with them. These are the stories that hit the ordinary humanity of the problem. Again, the few who were here were being deeply affected and were holding back tears.

As I was winding the talk down, in came two more guys who had been watching the football. They were laughing and joking at the match. It then ended up that this was our problem, the football final on TV between Chelsea and Liverpool. They were and hour late but as we talked they were interested in the problem of cluster bombs. Oh well, as they came and have shown the interest then find out they will. I launched into the whole discussion again.

At the end we sat and chatted as we packed up our gear. Our audience may have been small but is was quality. The late guy was the mayor of Kilkenny and his friend another counsellor. They were really inspired to get involved and were going to take the issue to council and try and have Kilkenny declared a cluster bomb free area. Another woman who came was ex army and she wanted to really push the issue through the ex service personnel associations. Our night in Kilkenny may have been small but it was definitely a quality crowd.

We drove back to Dublin the flowing day and completed the preparations for when The Ban Bus hit the road on a more permanent basis.

The following day Mette went to the company that was doing the printing of signage for the Bus. The designs were ok and she was leaving the Bus with them to fit the magnetic panels to the sides. The design was good and approved and the printer was heading for the car with the printing.

“Hey, you are going to put them onto magnetic sheets?” said Mette.
“What” said the printer?
“Because that’s what I ordered and without it being on magnetic sheet it will destroy the paint job and as it’s a hire vehicle I want my bond back!” said Mette.

The printer had blown it and was going to cover the vehicle with stickers. It was back to the drawing board for them and another delay.

A strange thing in Ireland is that this place is a cash economy. Its amazing how many big businesses do not except a credit card. This isn’t just corner store stuff but big things like the printing for the Bus. It has to be cash. When I bought a data projector the other day the business would only accept cash. This seemed crazy to me and it seemed it would lose them money but a taxi driver explained to me that it’s all a tax dodge. Ireland runs on cash so as to keep the tax man away. Everyone seems to be on quite a large fiddle with this from hotels to taxis to big businesses. This makes it harder for us as we are dealing with large amounts of euros and I’d much rather not be carrying all this cash with me.

Rae had now arrived in Dublin the morning we drove to Kilkenny and was working hard at getting more presentations lined up for us to do. He was also hitting the press hard and this was starting to pay off. Although our Kilkenny night was small, we got four key radio programs to do features on us. The message was now starting to get out to the wider audience.

On the road

Our new flat was a perfect base and we had our first presentations coming up. We were offered a forum of the Irish Anti War movement and a shared stage with some of the Raytheon 9. The Raytheon 9 are nine activists who raided an arms manufacturer for eight hours and basically wrecked the place. More power to them. One of the leaders who will go on trial in a few weeks is Eamonn McCann who is an old Irish radical and campaigner. He has a reputation as a fiery speaker and he didn’t disappoint.

It was a full house in an expensive hotel and the audience was quite ultra left and passionate about disarmament.

I was the warm up act and was given minimal time to get a lot of people excited about cluster bombs. I felt like a boxer as my time started,,,,, now. I do this kind of job quite well and launched into a very high speed and aggressive presentation about the field problems of cluster bombs and the Irish governments role in working towards a ban. I knew I was getting across to them as I had people beginning to cry in the audience. This I always find encouraging and it fires me up to sting them out of their mediocrity and get involved to do something. They got told nothing but the reality of what it’s like in a cluster bomb affected place and I definitely spared them the most graphic of my pictures.

I finished and was followed by Susan telling them what they can do to get involved and about some events coming up which we invited them to. After her came Andy Story. He was from Afri, a local NGO and was an excellent speaker and spoke about the Lisbon treaty. This treaty is another EU equaliser that aims to commit European governments to spending a more equal amount on defence and other things. Of course this was the kind of thing that the audience would really oppose. He was very articulate and measured and knew his subject well and could argue the points. This is refreshing as I find many activists just babble with no real aim or understanding of the issues they claim to represent but are full of fire and venom with very little substance.

Eamonn McCann had now arrived and I was curious to see what this guy was really like. I googled him before I came and he has a long and colourful list of activism. He is a campaigner from Northern Ireland and has been at most of the violent past events from Bloody Sunday to the Battle of Bogside and numerous other scraps along the way. Small and wiry with a shaved head and in his 60’s he looked like an angry whippet who would go after any other dog no matter the size. He’s noted for oratory style and passion and I was keen to see a really good and articulate speaker take the floor.

He began slowly and thoughtfully and seemed preoccupied with other thoughts but after a few minutes he warmed up and the whole scene changed. A veritable torrent of words and gestures pounded the audience as his mind wove from point to point and a definite spark was in his eyes as his blood rose. Here was a man who relished the fight and would give no quarter to any government or arms manufacturer. He also seems a man who could take it as well as give it as if he is to be jailed for the activities at Raytheon then so be it.

The really interesting part of what he had to say was how they were to base their defence for the Raytheon trashing. They had no intention to fight the charges or plead not guilty, on the contrary, yes to all facts. What they were going to do was base their defence on the fact that it’s their legal obligation as civilians to step in and protect if life is threatened. As they were trashing a company who made arms and in particular, arms that killed many civilians in Lebanon then they were doing their civil and legal duty to wreck that company as they killed internationally. It’s a great argument and I hope he gets away with it. I do admire someone who will knowingly take on the state or big business in full knowledge that some serious consequences are before them.

The floor was opened for questions and it was all interesting, one man stood up and launched a fairly barbed attack at me. He took the greatest exception to me saying anything positive about the Irish government in relation to a treaty to ban cluster bombs. As far as he was concerned, all in government are two faced bastards and I was a bastard too for saying they could do any good. Fair enough, your point was made. I didn’t get the right of reply but Andy Story took up the point and answered it as well as it possibly could have been answered. Difficult partnerships are sometimes essential to gain our goals and if you don’t have these then you risk throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Eamonn answered a few more questions and made a few more pointed statements then the meeting broke up. The guy who had the attack on me came over as nice as you like and apologised as he said in a rather meek manner that the Irish government are no good. I said I heard him the first time and that we all have our own governments to fight.

If people are so paranoid and that they hate the government so much then they are more likely to fall into the hands of government than be a voice against them for then they are marginalised and then their words might be of no value. Pick your battles, work out how to win them then get some work done. Another thing is if you criticise the government for being bad and want them to change, then the moment that they do change and do move on one issue in a positive direction you can only complain more, wake up to your self!

On the walk back along the river we talked about the upcoming weeks and dodged the local drunks, not so easy something’s, and found out the thing we saw floating down the river the day before was a body in a bag. Interesting this place Dublin.

Friday morning brought our first meeting with Irish Foreign Affairs. Many Irish NGOs and the CMC coordinator Thomas Nash were all there to have a round table with the government representatives. Simon Conway who will be the NGO conference event coordinator was also there and he laid out what had been planed so far and what still needed to be done. I gave an overview on the Ban Bus idea and preparation. The Irish government representative, Alison Kelly, openly discussed the plans of Ireland as the host nation.

When this whole process began it was the Norwegians who led the way. In doing this they formed a coalition of core group countries who seriously wanted to see a strong ban happen. Ireland is one of these strong core countries and her brief was open and had one point, to get the strongest treaty possible. It’s impressive to see a government operate like this. They don’t talk about exceptions and reservations or keeping a few loopholes, they just talk plain and straight. There is a lesson Australia could learn a lot from.

Our little “studio apartment” was starting to wear a little thin as it was so small and so far out, at least a 45 minute bike ride from the centre each way. Nice on a good day but one thing to remember about Ireland is it rains. In fact it rains and rains and rains some more and pedalling out each night in the cold, dark and wet was by no means fun. Thomas said to us after the Foreign Ministry meeting that he would need a flat in a week and if we found one then we could use it till he came. There was some motivation and by the end of that day we had another place to stay with some space to work and centrally located. We moved in.

We were now on the edge of town and the river flowed past the front door. A magnificent aroma wafted across the water as I realised we were across the river from the Guinness brewery! I was in heaven!!!!

The venue that the treaty meeting will take place in is called Croke Park and its Irelands biggest football stadium. It’s also the countries largest conference space so it’s the government’s only option. The interesting thing about it is it’s in the roughest neighbourhood in Dublin. I have visions of deliberations breaking up each day and the diplomats getting mugged by the local drug dealers as the leave each evening. Mette and me rode our bikes through the middle of it last week and were conscious that we were trespassing on someone’s “turf”.

There is a wonderful phenomenon there, the pyjama boozer. It’s really quite the female fashion statement. Never in my life have I seen women at the pub in their pyjamas in the early afternoon. In fact, I’ve never seen women in their pyjamas in a pub ever and I’d include supermarkets and sporting events as well in that. That being said it is a statement worth making and a style unique to Summer Hill. The area of Summer Hill sits between Croke Park and the city and is an area divided between rivalled gangs. The violence there is not imagined but very real and as we get to know the city more, we hear tales of some of the thuggish crime as well as serious underworld goings on. All irrelevant to me but worth knowing about as no interest in treading on any of these jokers toes. Just stay clear of the rough stuff and get on with our job.

In Wellington we spoke with many about doing an Irish Ban Bus and many were keen to see it happen. As usual, the problem is to fund, then execute it. Our old mate Rae McGrath put his hand up to track down a budget and we then got busy. The clock was ticking and time was certainly of the essence. With only a few weeks to go we have flown to Dublin and want to get the word to the masses as fast and far as possible. When it comes to NGO’s trying to organise something like this it’s a case of the few doing the impossible with very little except a huge amount of commitment. We had two friends already in Dublin operating out of a tiny room in the back of a church trying to pull logistics together. No power dressing or flash offices here but a great deal more productivity is what separates us from governments.

Susan and Tony were flat out working late into every night doing what ever it took to get civil society a good presence at the upcoming conference. One look told us not to try and lump more work on their shoulders. The first thing we did need was a set of wheels and a place to stay. Mette trawled the web and found a “Cosy studio apartment” a little way out of town. It had the perfect credentials as it was dirt cheap. We took it.

The taxi finally found the address and we met the old lady landlord. It was a nice suburban house in a quiet neighbourhood and the gable looked like the location of our new abode. This was not to be as our eyes were cast to the garage and the door was opened. It was a converted single car garage that was transformed to a granny flat. Well, it’s definitely cosy. Beggars can’t be choosers so that was going to be it for now. We moved in. To be able to move we packed everything vertically so as to get around the bed. There were two really oversized arm chairs at the foot of the bed which basically took up the rest of the space except for the TV that didn’t seem to work. Going out the back past the bed was a tiny shower um, toilet then kitchenish kind of thing. None of this mattered as it’s off the street and a place to sleep.

The next morning we began walking towards Dublin centre. Not really knowing where that was we got a few directions, found the docks, turned right and kept on going. When we finally got nearer the town we grabbed a cab and crossed the river to see Susan and Tony. With the money we did have we needed to set up. Transport and communications were next on the list so we door knocked all the bike shops we could find to get a pair of second hand bikes then a pair of cheap Irish mobile phones and some internet access. We were now fit to take on the world. Rae was working hard to finalise funding so I backed all costs on my credit card. This was a very scary prospect for me but you have to trust people in this world and I trusted Rae to come through with a budget and get everything sorted out. Our main concern now was not to lose time waiting. We had to spend and set up as fast as possible.

It’s magic what can be achieved with a mobile and a bit of the web. Piece by piece we started locking down and ticking off all we would need to do a good Ban Bus. Rent a van, get signage, design brochures, design T-shirts, find printers and start to line up places to talk to. The bikes were great and we sped from one side of Dublin to the next amongst some of Europe’s worst traffic jams with a massive road toll on cyclists and pedestrians. The logistics were almost complete and Rae would also be over in a few days. The money problem was being solved and we could now look for a second flat as more people would be rolling in and we would have no trouble finding bodies for beds.