Music, tears, laughter and anger: Tairseach holds a succesful 6th AGM on 12 April 2024

Above photo (l. to r.): some of Tairseach Management Committee, Joëlle Gartner, Publicity Officer, Bronagh McClean, Student Representative, Deirdre McKibbin, CPD Officer, Cordula Bellin, Secretary, Róisín Ní Chéileachair, former Chair, Ian O'Dwyer, Treasurer, Qiaoyi Li, Membership Secretary. Not on the photo: Bríd Keenan, National Organiser ISE, Daizan Kaarlenkaski, Student Representative.

The event, the sixth since the establishment of the association in October 2017, started musically. Some members of Tairseach commissioned a piece of music to celebrate 10+ years of SE training in Ireland, and thank our sister organisation Ireland SE and its co-director Bríd Keenan for embedding Somatic Expriencing as a practice in the island of Ireland. The first cohort of trainees started in 2013, and today the fifth cohort are in their Intermediate Year, while a sixth will begin in 2025.  In attendance at the AGM and this celebration, were SEPs from the first 4 completed cohorts and SE students from the 5th, two of whom sit on Tairseach Management Committee as Student Representatives.

The musical piece was titled Fréamhú: in Irish, rooting; the process of putting forth roots and beginning to grow. And indeed Somatic Experiencing (TM) has taken root in Ireland thanks to the tireless work of the training organisation Ireland SE and its Director Bríd Keenan. The music was played for the first time on Friday 12 April 2024, at Tairseach's 6th AGM. Tairseach members commissioned this piece of music to celebrate 10 years of Somatic Experiencing training in Ireland, by its sister organisation Ireland SE, and its Director Bríd Keenan. The music was composed by Patrick Davey, who had originally been commissioned by the first graduating group of SEPs under ISE to create a special piece of music as a unique way of marking and celebrating the end of the first ever training in Ireland (2013-2015).

After more than seven years of helping develop Tairseach as a solid, community-oriented and supportive organisation, Tairseach's Chair Róisín Ní Chéileachair had decided to step down before the AGM. There were tears, hugs and gifts for Róisín, who has made her mark on Tairseach (including the choice of its name!). Her kind, imaginative and consensus-buliding chairing will be greatly missed! 

As for the business of the AGM, two minor constitutional changes were approved unanimously, and after a wide discussion, the participants voted an emergency motion in support of Gaza. The text of the motion is as follows:

"Tairseach notes with extreme concern the continuing abuses of fundamental Human Rights in Gaza and other Palestinian areas. In conjunction with our colleagues in the Family Therapy Association of Ireland, we wholeheartedly condemn the actions of all those parties responsible for bringing about the genocide now occurring in Gaza.

As trauma specialists we understand the wide-ranging impact of trauma on individuals, families, and societies, which research shows continues epigenetically for generations. As the weaponisation of famine and starvation is becoming a reality, we are compelled to protest at the disproportionate effects of the military onslaught on innocent Palestinians. We understand how the dominant prejudicial narratives from those in power, can lead to the dehumanisation of, and justification for, indiscriminate killing, which has been called genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Mental health workers, as well as other medical professionals, bravely continue to work in Gaza, in the face of fear for their lives and their families’ safety.  We wish to express unreservedly our solidarity with our colleagues in Gaza and other Palestinian communities, and insist that they are given the freedom to perform their vital social role.

As an organisation we add our name to all our colleagues in the mental health field in Ireland and throughout the world who have already called for an immediate ceasefire, urgent humanitarian aid and an end to occupation and apartheid.

Finally, to those courageous individuals in Israel who do not support this attack on Gaza, Tairseach stands in solidarity with you and adds its voice to the national and international calls for an immediate permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and all sides committing to a negotiated sustained settlement.”

As instructed by the AGM, this text was communicated to the newspapers, and will be put forward as a motion to the General Assembly of EASE, the European Association for Somatic Experiencing in Budapest, in June 2024.