Ireland: 50 Attend Falun Dafa Class in Cork

A recently held Falun Dafa exercise teaching session in Cork city attracted nearly 50 students, including a few from Dublin and Clonmel.

The class was initiated by Gerald Banks, a personal trainer who has been practising Falun Dafa since he learned the exercises in Auckland, New Zealand a few years ago.

Nearly 50 people attended a Falun Dafa exercise teaching session in Cork city

Mr. Banks came across some practitioners at a Falun Gong event in Cork a few weeks ago and invited them to hold a Falun Dafa teaching session in Cork.

He posted the free class schedule on his own Facebook page and on the Facebook page of a local health club, including links to the Falun Dafa website (www.falundafa.org) and videos introducing the practice.

Five practitioners from Dublin and Tipperary came to Cork to teach the exercises.

Alex, a student in the class, had practised Taichi before. After the class, he said that Falun Dafa had a strong energy field and he felt very relaxed while doing the exercises.

Alex had a life-long interest in cultivation practices and planned to keep learning Falun Dafa. He talked to practitioners for a long time after the class ended.

Paul (right) had practised Falun Dafa for one month and had read Zhuan Falun three times already

One young man took a 2-hour train ride to attend the class. He had been searching for some direction in life for years, but had found nothing.

He stayed and many others stayed after the class to ask questions. The Q&A and discussion after the class lasted about three hours. In the end, he decided he would read Zhuan Falun.

The Q&A also extended to the persecution of Falun Dafa in China and many people wondered why the Chinese regime persecuted such a good exercise.

To answer this question, practitioners talked about the series of political campaigns the Communist regime launched in the past half century that destroyed the traditional culture of China, and the ideological conflict between the party's violence and Falun Dafa's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Practitioners also brought up the recently exposed state-sanctioned organ harvesting crime against living Falun Dafa practitioners.

Nearly 1,200 people had commented on the social media post for the Falun Dafa class expressing their wish to attend. Some comments were inviting practitioners to hold a session in their cities.