Activist and peace campaigner Caoimhe Butterly will speak in a public meeting in Galway's Town Hall Studio Theatre on Friday 7 December at 7.30pm.

Ms Butterly will be speaking as part of a nationwide tour that seeks to raise awareness of the critical situation in Lebanon and the Middle East. In the talk, titled 'Eye witness from Lebanon', she will speak on the current situation in Lebanon for Palestinian refugees and the people of South Lebanon where she is currently working.

Ms Butterly was awarded a Time magazine 'hero of the year' honour in 2003. She was brought up in a culture of liberation theology, which, she says, "deeply inspired" her to spend her life campaigning for human rights. At a very young age, she says, she developed a deep sense of duty. "I've always felt to almost a painful degree the need to stand up against injustices in whatever contexts they lie." She left school at 18, wanting to travel, and headed to New York, where she spent time working in homeless soup kitchens. She went on to Guatemala and from there to Chiapas in Mexico, where she worked for two years among the Zapatista communities.

In recent years, she has been a witness to war in Iraq, Lebanon and in Palestine. In Palestine she was shot by an Israeli soldier, while she was helping children escape an assault on a refugee camp. She later spent 16 days inside the compound where Yasser Arafat was besieged in Ramallah. She again came to international prominence when she protested at Tony Blair's post war press conference in Lebanon. People of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to come and hear her speak. Admission is free but donations to cover Caoimhe's expenses are welcome.

This event will be complemented by a display by Galway multi media artist and activist Niamh Moloughney. Ms Moloughney's Palestinian Wall youth project 'Upstart' is being held in the Galway City Museum. This exhibition is currently running and will finish on Sunday, 8 December. The Wall was made for The National Youth Council of Ireland's project 'The writing's on the wall' as a way to send messages of solidarity to the young people in Palestine, Lebanon and Israel.

'The World Wall' will trace Caoimhe Butterly's journey as an activist on a map project, which uses film, art and media, charting her work from Mexico to Palestine.

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