Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Kate Thompson is an award-winning author of 20 books for children and adults who lives in Kinvara. The south Galway village became the first town in Ireland to boycott Israeli goods, back in 2014, after Israel had launched another largescale attack on Gaza.

The Palestinian-Kinvara Solidarity group played a major role in local businesses coming together for that boycott and, 10 years on, it’s still working tirelessly to highlight what Palestinians are enduring in an ever-worsening situation.

The group has a core of about 10-15 members with others also involved and, Kate, who is central to the organisation, says, “when we decide to get things done, we do them”.

Their latest project is a short, invaluable primer, Palestine A-Z, which offers people key information on the origins and evolution of the ongoing situation in this troubled region.

The 44-page primer offers a short definition of just about everything relating to Palestine, from the Balfour Declaration to Zionism, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, as it explains the terms behind the headlines. And under the heading Gaza, it informs readers that the gauze we use for surgical dressings is named for that once-thriving port and city which has now been destroyed.

Kate is its main author, with contributions too from her colleagues Vicky Donnelly, Dearbhla Minogue and Martin Roper.

She decided to produce Palestine A-Z because, last October she realised there was nothing available for people like her, who wanted a greater understanding of this ongoing tragedy that has affected generations of Palestinian people.

“The information isn’t out there,” she says simply. “I considered myself to be really well-informed, but then I realised there was a whole lot I didn’t know and felt there weren’t any resources out there to inform me.”

Kate immersed herself in the task for weeks, researching academic books and accessing online resources, including newspapers in Israel and the USA.

She was already subscribing to an Israeli newspaper because it’s important to get both views in any situation, she explains. While there are many books out there, including histories and first-hand accounts by Palestinian people, Kate wanted this one to be different.

“I intended it would be a reference book. The idea would be that people would get an interest and go and read further,” she says.

The most difficult part was keeping all the entries to under 200 words, something she and her collaborators felt was necessary in order to retain readers’ attention. They’ve pretty much adhered to that word count and have supplied reference material at the back for people who want to learn more.

Pictured: Kate Thompson . . .  and her primer on Palestine which will be launched this Friday night.