Ireland community action
The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism for climate, environment and many other sustainability topics across Ireland.
News
The environmental campaigners fighting against data centres, BBC News (Nov 04, 2024) - ‘Because secondhand is feckin’ grand’: how clothes swapping became huge in Ireland, theguardian.com (Oct 03, 2024)
- Ireland could give nature constitutional rights, BBC News (Dec 16, 2023)
- Riding the rail revival: how holidays by train are drawing the discerning traveller, positive.news (Mar 07, 2025)
- Carbon capture in Mediterranean soil: how farmland can trap greenhouse gases, theconversation.com (Jan 30, 2025)
- Despite 2024’s ‘greenlash’, the fight against climate breakdown can still be won. Here’s how. Björn Bremer, Jane Gingrich and Hanna Schwander, theguardian.com (Dec 06, 2024)
- ‘Global weirding’: climate whiplash hitting world’s biggest cities, study reveals, theguardian.com (Mar 12, 2025)
- Only seven countries worldwide meet WHO dirty air guidelines, study shows, theguardian.com (Mar 11, 2025) — Governments could clean their air with policies such as funding renewable energy projects and public transport; building infrastructure to encourage walking and cycling; and banning people from burning farm waste.
- Many cities are banning ads for airlines, SUVs and fossil fuels – and yours could be next, theconversation.com (Mar 10, 2025)
Video
Networks and sustainability initiatives
- Transition Town Kinsale on facebook.com, added 14:43, 17 October 2022 (UTC)
- Future Proof Kilkenny
- Sustainable Ireland
- Transition Galway
- local transition initiatives can be found via the transitioninitiative.org
Each week 3 different short videos from across the world.
Spain community action, Sweden community action, Canada community action / ...This week's UK videos
Ecovillages
Cloughjordan Ecovillage is an ecovillage of 114 homes and 16 live/work units integrated into the town of Cloughjordan in Ireland.
It consists of:
- 67-acres of land,
- Allotments, farming, woodland, community buildings, and more.
- A solar and wood-powered community heating system,
- The headquarters of the new Cloughjordan Enterprise Centre, managed by the North Tipperary Green Enterprise Park Ltd (NTGEP). Its aim is to provide workspace and services for eco entrepreneurs in North Tipperary.
It is north of the town centre and the entrance forms a new intersection on the Main Street.
The first residents moved into their homes in December 2009.
Vinay Gupta works with the community on matters of design and appropriate technology and the site includes a number of Hexayurts (affordable but effective shelters).
Video 2
Community involvement
- Neighbourhood Network, Building Communities across Ireland, added 15:01, 11 March 2022 (UTC)
- see also: Past events (Street Feast)
- People's Energy Charter
Bioregionalism
- Burrenbeo Trust, landscape charity founded in 2008, dedicated to connecting all of us to our places and our role in caring for them. News: burrenbeo.com, added 08:34, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
- Bioregional Weaving Lab - South East Ireland, added 13:05, 15 February 2025 (UTC)
Food activism
see separate article: Food activism Ireland
Housing
The Passive House Association of Ireland or PHAI is "a catalyst for the increased awareness of the opportunities and benefits of low energy design based on the Passive House Principles."[1] PHAI's mission is to "promote, educate, and facilitate, so as to develop a strong identity, understanding and demand for the passive house concept."[1] PHAI is an affiliated associate with the International Passive House Association and is a non-profit.[1] PHAI collects membership fees, but these fees go towards promotion of the Passive House Principle.
Towards sustainable economies
Basic Income Ireland - Feasta, foundation for the economics of sustainability
Arts, sport and culture
Irish culture has had a significant influence on other cultures, especially in the field of literature. Alongside mainstream Western culture, a strong indigenous culture exists, as expressed through Gaelic games, Irish music, Irish language and Irish dance. The island's culture shares many features with that of Great Britain, including the English language, and sports such as association football, rugby, horse racing, golf, and boxing.
Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle
Recycle IT, the only Community Electronic Recycling Social Enterprise in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow - Repair Cafe Ireland
Sharing
Ireland (whole country) is part of the sharing cities network
Meitheal (IPA: [ˈmʲɛhəlˠ]) is the Irish word for a work team, gang, or party and denotes the co-operative labour system in Ireland where groups of neighbours help each other in turn with farming work such as harvesting crops.
The term is used in various writings of Irish language authors. It can convey the idea of community spirit in which neighbours respond to each other's needs. In modern use for example, a meitheal could be a party of neighbours and friends invited to help decorate a house in exchange for food and drink, or in scouting, where volunteer campsite wardens maintain campsites around Ireland.
Maps: google.com/maps
Other resources
Citizens data initiative
Infographics
Sustainable Community Highlights, Feb 29, 2016
Climate action
- Climate change: Irish Youth Assembly demands action, Nov 16, 2019...BBC News
One meeting on climate change was planned, for the weekends starting 30 September and 4 November 2017; the second was added to the schedule on 17 July. Speakers included the chair of the advisory group for a promised "National Dialogue on Climate Change".
Recommendations, all passed by at least 80% of members, included: empowering an independent body to address climate change; Greenhouse gas (GHG) tax, including carbon tax and agricultural GHG tax; encouragement of climate change mitigation, electric vehicles, public transport, forests, organic farming, and natural peat bogs; reduction of food waste; microgeneration of electricity; ending subsidy of peat extraction; increasing bus lanes, cycle lanes and park and ride facilities.
The Oireachtas responded to the report by establishing a Joint Committee on Climate Action, which published its own report on 29 March 2019. On 9 May 2019 the Dáil endorsed the committee's report and symbolically declared a "climate and biodiversity emergency",. The motion also requested a Citizen's Assembly to study the biodiversity loss emergency and how the state can improve its response. A "government action plan on climate change" followed on 17 June 2019.
Ethical consumerism
Urban sustainability
Biodiversity
- All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, added 15:39, 12 February 2021 (UTC)
- Biology.ie Biodiversity Watch
- Green Sod Ireland
- Ulster Wildlife Trust
see also: Northern Ireland, Biodiversity
About Ireland
Past events
Jun 26, 2022 (Sun) — Street Feast (Ireland), streetfeast.ie
- Oct 20 - 28, 2016, Galway Sustainable Living Festival
- November 28, 2015 - Launch of 'A Vision for Galway 2030' Transition Galway
Ireland ( , IRE-lənd; Irish: Éire [ˈeːɾʲə] ; Ulster-Scots: Airlann [ˈɑːrlən]) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest in the world. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), a sovereign state covering five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. As of 2022, the population of the entire island is just over 7 million, with 5.1 million in the Republic of Ireland and 1.9 million in Northern Ireland, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain.
The geography of Ireland comprises relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. Its lush vegetation is a product of its mild but changeable climate which is free of extremes in temperature. Much of Ireland was woodland until the end of the Middle Ages. Today, woodland makes up about 10% of the island, compared with a European average of over 33%, with most of it being non-native conifer plantations. The Irish climate is influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and thus very moderate, and winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area, although summers are cooler than those in continental Europe. Rainfall and cloud cover are abundant.