As summer winds down and we ease into autumn, ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ is back with a full schedule of events and a new wave of champions to celebrate. We’re excited to continue our mission of connecting the community and reducing waste with a special focus on one of Ireland’s most abundant autumn treasures: apples!

But before we delve in to a celebration of the land of the Ard Cairn Russet (a native Cork dessert apple) please save the date for two events we will be hosting this month in collaboration with Clonakilty Guitar Festival and Culture night. From 7:30pm on Thursday, September 19, all are invited to join us at Clonakilty Meals on Wheels (Casement Park) to celebrate the work of these community food heroes with music and dancing!  And on Friday, September 20, from 6pm-8pm, pop into the Green Dot Café to see an exhibition by local photographer and passionate food advocateThady Trá entitled ‘Waisted: The Culture of Food’.  It will be a feast for the senses!

Both events are part of a series we will be running this autumn to celebrate local food champions and grow our Waste Not, Want Not community.  Check back next month for workshops, school programmes and more. 

And now – It’s Apple Time! August and September mark the peak of apple season, bringing with it promises of warm pies, crumbles, freshly pressed juice, and more. To celebrate this harvest, ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ is helping to create the new ‘West Cork Harvest Festival’ and hosting the first annual ‘Clon Apple Fest’!  With support from the Friends of Asylum Seekers, we’ve planned a day full of free events and talks alongside the annual apple pressing – for all ages – at the Clonakilty Community Garden, from 12-6pm on September 29.   

From 2-4pm on the day join us for games and a community harvest potluck picnic then stick around for the biggest apple and apple pie judging from 4pm. Fancy yourself an apple pie pro? Bring your baked goods for judging by our expert panel anytime from 12-3pm. 

Want to help judge? We are looking for five young volunteers, aged eight to 14, to be our apple pie officials, send us an email today if you are interested – first come first served!   

Can’t make it to Clon? Our Harvest Festival partners at CECAS in Leap will also have a full schedule of events the day before, Saturday, September 28, with lots of appley events, a community smokehouse and more. The highlight? Our community apple press will be in full swing at both events, offering everyone the chance to make their own fresh juice! Just bring along your apples and some empty bottles.   

Rediscovering Ireland’s Apple Heritage

Did you know that Ireland is home to no less than 68 varieties of apples Despite this rich heritage, most supermarkets offer only a handful of varieties, many of which are imported. This season, we’re on a mission to celebrate our local apple varieties and prevent any fruit from rotting away in forgotten gardens. That is why the ‘West Cork Harvest Festival’ will welcome Cillian Boyd, a passionate expert and author that knows all about Irish apples and can identify all 68! He’ll be giving us a presentation and will be on hand both days to help identify what type of apples you bring. 

This year, make the Most of Your Apple Harvest. We’re encouraging everyone to get involved in apple-sharing throughout the season. If you have an apple tree, make the most of your harvest! Gather your family and friends, pick those apples, and share the bounty with your neighbours. If you don’t have a tree but love apples, don’t hesitate to ask

 around or connect with local community groups. Many older residents in our community have apple trees that could use a helping hand for the harvest. 

You might be surprised to learn that a single tree can produce up to 840 pounds of apples! That’s enough to keep everyone stocked up on homemade pies, chutneys, and juice for months. Apple sharing is a great way to build connections while ensuring that no apple goes to waste. 

Whether you’re picking, sharing, or pressing, there’s a role for everyone in making sure not a single apple goes to waste. Let’s come together and celebrate the abundance of our local orchards! 

For more information, updates, and other events, visit www.voiceireland.org/wastenotwantnot, or if you want to be one of our five young Apple judges at the Clon Apple Fest email allison@voiceireland.org.  

Happy harvesting! 

Clon Apple Fest! 
Sunday 29th September 2024 – Clonakilty Community Garden, Dunmore Road. 12 – 6pm,
ALL WELCOME

All day

– Turn your harvest into delicious Apple Juice, ALL Day Pressing 

-Have your apple’s variety identified & tree mapping with Apple Expert Cillian Boyd 

-Bring your baked goods & biggest apples for judging 

1pm An Introduction to Irish Apples Talk

2 – 4pm Games and BYO Community Picnic 

4pm Winners announced for Apple Pie & Largest Apple Competition & Apple Variety Presentation

Late April, the ‘Waste Not Want Not’ project held a farm-to-fork community gathering where people from each of our focus groups (food businesses, householders and community groups) got together to plan and prioritise initiatives that we will work on over the next twelve months. Once again, the enthusiasm and ideas were flowing! We had great discussions about the need to create connections in the community to build confidence and initiate cultural change. Overall, it seems clear that we would all benefit from more collective initiatives that focus on skill and food sharing, such as batch cooking and gleaning, to share good times as well as good food! We spoke about projects in schools, building connections between businesses and community groups, as well as ideas to engage householders.

What’s next for ‘Waste Not, Want Not’? We’re now in the action phase and excited to see all these wonderful projects come to life!

On Saturday, May 18 we worked with the Clonakilty Bicycle Festival and local chef Gillian Hegarty to host a curry re-cycle with food donated by local retailers that was no longer suitable for sale, but still perfectly good to eat!  We were given onions, garlic, turmeric, ginger, potatoes, courgettes, carrots, broccoli and tomatoes!  Gillian then took all these ingredients and prepared a feast for 40, which we all enjoyed after a big lap of the town ringing our bicycle bells. 

Celebrating two food waste champions 

One theme that has come up throughout our ‘listening phase’ is the need to grow an awareness of food waste, at a community level.  To help do this, we have decided to celebrate businesses that are taking serious action to minimise their food waste. These businesses will be recognisable by the ‘Waste Not Want Not Champions’ logo, which you will soon see displayed on windows, menus and websites.  

Going forward with this series, each month we will present one or two, Clonakilty-based ‘Food Waste Champions’; and this month we have two who have already applied great measures to reduce food waste – and so deserve the title of honour right away! 

The Olive Branch: If you know this shop, you know that it is one of Clonakilty’s original food waste champions. Owner Olive Finn sums up their ethos by saying “We avoid food waste because we value food – and all the work that goes into growing and making it. We offer refills so that you can buy only as much as you need, our customers know to have a look in the discount box to see if there’s any short-dated stock they can make use of, and any veg that’s past best is offered to staff and customers.” By building a retail space that puts food first they are continually reassessing and adjusting the products they stock, the amounts the buy in and are able to stock the products of small and seasonal producers. The Olive Branch is a great place to start in celebrating the work of food waste champions!  

Our second champion is the Pike Deli. Owners Annmarie and Ryan are passionate food lovers and waste reducers – and their bakery definitely deserves the champions’ logo. Here again so much work and thought has been put into ensuring the reduction of “waste down to the last scrap of bi-product”.  Annmarie explains, “Our dream has always been to have a business that sits comfortably with our passion for the environment and our love of home grown food. When I read about the collaboration with VOICE Ireland, I was really excited for an opportunity to push our ideals further and learn more about food waste and the impact this has on our environment. Ryan and I have both worked in the food industry for most of our adult lives and feel really strongly about food waste. We have been able to reduce waste easily in the kitchen by implementing strict composting systems and by coming up with innovative ideas for using excess egg whites or raw pastry scraps. The results here were mainly down to the collective kitchen experience of our wonderful team of chefs and bakers.”

One system that Pike Deli uses to reduce food waste is ‘Too Good To Go’ – an app you can download on your phone that allows you to purchase discounted ‘surprise bags’ from local retailers made up of unsold goods at the close of the business day. Though it is hard to predict whether or not they will have anything to offer in terms of ‘leftovers’ at the end of the day, the Pike Deli have continued to use the App. “Too Good To Go has been a comfort to us on days that have been a wash-out or days where we’ve just overestimated production.” Though they have had some teething problems, as they are currently the only independent shop to be offering this service in town and so do a lot of the consumer education around how it works, they have stuck with it because “it offers us a way to avoid any waste and get the cost of ingredients back.” Annmarie concluded her experience with ‘Too Good To Go’ by saying “I would recommend it wholeheartedly to other businesses for this reason. I also love to see our regular customers availing of it so they get a nice surprise bag.”

Food waste reduction will always be a work-in-progress, and we are all food waste champions in the making. That’s why, with the help of our community partners Clonakilty Tidy Towns and the Community Resource Centre, we will be running as many pilots and projects as we can in the next 12 months.  We hope to encourage everyone to get involved and learn, share and volunteer. Keep an eye out for our announcement of a new Clonakilty Apple Harvest Festival late September, events co-hosted with Meals on Wheels and the Guitar Festival, more workshops with chefs and projects with local schools, all alongside larger initiatives like ‘Stop The Sachets’ which we will be working on over the coming months. Find out more and sign up for our mailing list at www.voiceireland.org/wastenotwantnot

‘Get to School on Your Own Fuel’ is a national initiative led by mothers and grandmothers from across the country, encouraging students and their families to cycle to school and campaigning for safer school routes.

Locally, at the Cycle Sense workshop in Skibbereen and The Bike Circus in Clonakilty, children were invited to bring their bicycles for a free tune up and safety check before they headed back to class. The Skibbereen Cycle Bus is up and running again too. The cycle bus serves children from St Patricks, Gaelscoil Dr. Ui Shuilleabhain and Abbeystrewry who join the bus at eight stops in town before arriving bright and eager to school. 

In Clonakilty a ‘Kidical Mass Cycle’, part of an international movement to help highlight the need for safer cycling for kids, took place on August 27 with the support of Clonakilty Gardaí, also on their bikes! The next Kidical Mass Cycle will take place on September 18 at 3pm as part of National Bike Week.

“2021 is a great year to start cycling to school! The new school year will see the beginning of the Government’s Safe Routes to School programme,” said Allison Roberts of the Clonakilty Bicycle Festival. “170 schools supported by Green Schools Ireland, the NTA and their Local Authority will receive funding to support new walking and cycling infrastructure. Following on from the government’s lead, we as local residents can help accelerate the introduction of new measures to make cycling to school as easy and as safe as possible. Even if our children cycle once or twice a week it will make a difference on our roads, in our local communities and to the perception of local authorities. Safety in numbers really does apply here, if we can get small groups together cycling to school it will be easier, safer and more enjoyable for all”. 

National Cycling Co-ordinator with Cyclist.ie, Dr. Damien Ó Tuama expressed the hope that following two years of pandemic disruption, the 2021/2022 School Year would be a smooth running and happy experience for all. “We in Cyclist.ie also hope that the new school year will see an explosion of interest in getting to school on your own fuel. We are only too happy to support families to do this in any way we can. We urge everyone to register for the Get to School on your Own Fuel promotion and to contact their local advocacy group.”  

In Galway and Limerick, where cycle buses have been running successfully for years, students, parents and teachers alike have commented on how cycling to school helps them start the day feeling bright and alert.  And with the rising traffic congestion at school gates, cycling to school is a win-win for all involved.

At other times, change may come upon us slowly, creeping in, but we can sense it, then we hear about it in the news. This principal invites us to choose to adapt early, with positivity and creativity, instead of being forced to change later, perhaps when we find ourselves in a situation where our business or system become outdated or obsolete. 

In a crisis like the one we have faced this year everything feels like it’s tilted, so much has changed, we have all had to get creative on some level, from businesses holding meetings online to creatively changing your eating habits to suit the frequency you can visit the shops. We have thought creatively about how we can support each other, how we can reach out to each other without touching, and how we can entertain our kids without them having their pals over. Though we all look forward to the day we can pop into each other’s homes again and for that lovely casual pint with friends down at the pub, perhaps some of these creative adaptations will stick – the non-essential travel for business, the long-distance video chats with old friends, the stay-cation, bike rides to the beach, rediscovering old hobbies, not to mention the generally slower, smaller-scaled pace of life. 

This principal is not saying that change is easy, or without anxiety, sadness or even anger. Knowing that climate change will cause crops to fail, or that losing a job might mean not being able to cover your rent, or that a pandemic can affect every part of your life, these are terrible things, but this principal and all of Permaculture design centres on the vision that we, as human beings, are very resilient and that we can change, we can bend and create new possibilities in the face of change and that once we accept inevitable change, we can be a positive force working towards a new, exciting future.

To look at this from a ‘Cool Clon’ perspective I will visit one of my passions – transport systems – as an example. We all know, collectively, that the way we move around, the speed and frequency of our travel, is something that can’t last, that the planet can’t sustain it, so this principal would ask us (and our government representatives) to think creatively and positively now to embrace future inevitable change. Investing in better public transport, with more frequent and reliable service could be one solution, as would be better access to our beaches by foot or by bike or reducing travel by incentivising working from home. We could also look at how we are using our resources, our land, public space, waste, food systems, energy, in what ways can we better acknowledge and prepare creatively for upcoming change; climate change, population growth, changes in technology, impacts of globalisation? Another local example is the 10,000 tree project, an initiative that is responding creatively to change, we know that Ireland currently has the lowest tree coverage in all of Europe (now around 11 per cent cover down from it’s native 80 per cent), and instead of accepting this continuous decrease volunteers are responding with positivity, envisioning an new future and taking it into their own hands. 

So that is the invitation this month, and going forward, let’s use and respond to change creatively. May we not turn away when faced with inevitable change but accept and embrace and create anew. I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas season and happy 2021, thank you for your feedback and comments, as I’ve revisited these principals again this year, they are endlessly applicable to all of life and I really encourage anyone interested to keep discovering and delving into them deeper, there are so many books and online resources available. Stay well!

This month as we near the end of our yearlong exploration into what Permaculture can offer to our conversation around ‘Cool Clon’ and the future of our communities in West Cork, we are looking at the two principals, which go hand-in-hand. ‘Use and Value Diversity’ and ‘Use Edges and Value the Marginal’ are two principals that ask us to design in order to create more opportunity for inclusivity to the benefit of all.

During the past ten months of delving into these principals one theme that has run throughout is the need for proper high-level planning that includes observation of how our shared spaces are currently used. We are communities rich with a wide range of residents, from those with restricted mobility, to cyclists, to kids running amok, we all pass through the same spaces. “Just as ecosystems work best when filled with a greater variety of different plants and animals, so human society functions best when a variety of different people are represented.”(ethical.net) This is crucial when it comes to planning for the future of a town. At the design stage, and during the consultation process it is imperative that local authorities and project leaders engage with all stakeholders, from pedestrians to bus drivers to schoolteachers to local business owners. To design with thoughts only to the fittest (young and able-bodied) or the fastest (motor vehicles) would be akin to discrimination.

By encouraging diversity on our streets we will achieve more ‘livable’ towns, where all feel welcome, small businesses thrive and motor traffic is calmed, creating quieter shared spaces that are safer and more attractive. In Ireland, the Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County council is leading the way by embracing this international vision of the ‘livable city’; they are reinventing mobility plans, access to amenities and shared spaces, more trees, public seating and an invitation to slow down and enjoy their communities.

This brings us to the eleventh Permaculture principal – ‘use edges and value the marginal – which tells us that sustainability is about making use of all the resources that we have at our disposal. We must again look at what we have and see how we can make use of it. In Skibbereen the river was made into a ‘Blue Way’, an attraction and resource for the town to celebrate. In Bandon, quieter roads are being used for family cycles every weekend, and in Clonakilty we have recently seen the main street transformed through widening the footpaths. These principals ask us to look again, to seek out what is there already, waiting in the margins and on the edges. In West Cork, we have so many empty properties, it would be great to have these spaces – be it land, retail space or empty garages – used to allow for more diversity in what our town has to offer. If, say, community groups and business start-ups had opportunity to access empty spaces at affordable rents we would see a wide diversity of new amenities for the town, from pop-up shops to restaurants, to creative spaces and community gathering spaces. All new life that is brought to the town centre will benefit all existing shops. Take the Bike Circus (community bike workshop) in Clonakilty for example; through the generosity of a local landlord, a previously unoccupied yard has been brought life, a community group has found a home, the community bike fleet can be repaired at no cost to the town, and new opportunities are being offered to residents to learn new skills and make new friends. Any new life in our town centres, new amenities that can draw diverse groups of people, are ‘a rising tide lifts that will lift all boats’ – this is not an old adage for no reason! 

If there was ever a year to get creative it’s this one, and going forward we know that we will need to be able to do more in our communities with less, budgets will be tight for years to come as a result of the pandemic but permaculture reminds us that so much of what we want and need can be found in our midst already. We are blessed to live in a part of the world alive with community spirit, volunteerism and passion so, as we plan for the future of our communities, let’s embrace diversity, use the edges, and be open to new opportunities that might be waiting in the margins.

As we continue to explore how the Permaculture design system can contribute to the ‘Cool Clon’ conversation, it seems fitting to me that this month we’re delving into principal number nine ‘Use Small and Slow Solutions’.

In 2011, Clonakilty won a prestigious international award and was named a ‘Cittaslow’ destination. This slow-city award and the values it encompasses celebrate this Permaculture principle exactly. Small businesses, quality fresh food, and the enhanced quality of life that residents and visitors enjoy through a slower pace and celebration of tradition, are sometimes taken for granted in Clon. This feeling of slowing-down when you get to West Cork is why so many of us have come to visit, and is also why so many choose to stay and live here. Our market, our festivals, so many of our shops, pubs and restaurants emanate this palpable quality of slow-ness and the small-ness is why we love our high streets, we can easily walk them from end-to-end, we know shop keepers by name, can pop in to grab meat from the butcher in less than three minutes and are happy to stop and chat in the street with friends and strangers alike. So how should this appreciation of the smaller and slower things in life translate into how we continue to design our lives and towns?

The principle ‘Use Small and Slow Solutions’ asks us to apply this same slow ethic to our work, home, garden and equally to how we develop our towns and cities. The permaculture design system asks that we choose solutions that are often the smaller, less news-worthy, and celebrates simple design as well as adaptability, taking one small step at a time ensures you can change course at any moment. Another advantage of working slowly is that you often can save money and other resources by using what is available, perhaps even taking the time to source free or second hand materials. Small and slow solutions tend to also to save resources by eliminating the need to replace inappropriate or inadequate solutions installed without sufficient thought or consultation.

The 10,000 tree project in Clonakilty seems to be one that started small, growing from a group of friends wanting to plant more trees around Clonakilty seven years ago, and is slowly and continuously growing with more plantings and ambitious plans each year. With such projects starting small and slowly gives community and council stakeholders time to fully understand and come on board, increasing the chances of longevity and success. The trees will also grow slowly and continue to benefit their communities for years to come.

This principal also makes me think about the national ‘Love 30’ campaign which focuses on asking for a simple, inexpensive solution to make roads safer for all road users, with all ages and abilities in mind, by lowering speed limits built up areas to 30km/hr. It also makes me think of the signposted cycle routes we were promised in Clonakilty at the end of 2019 but were never delivered, simple, inexpensive signs to help cyclists navigate the boreens from our town to the nearby beaches. 

To continue on a transport theme, this July, a new Active Travel Stimulus Package was announced by the government to fund projects that would encourage more walking and cycling in our towns and cities – slow and small solutions to major environmental and transport problems. Unfortunately they also gave a deadline that the projects must be completed within a few months, by the end of November. This was hardly enough time to do all the consultations required to ensure the best spend of 88 million in public funds. Though some of the projects should indeed be celebrated, much of the stimulus is being spent with no overarching plan nor design standard, such as ‘greyways’ a new term used to describe what sounds like repurposing hard shoulders into bike lanes simply by painting lines; something that has been shown to be both dangerous and unattractive for cyclists. This kind of major spend with insufficient planning, strategy, consultation and testing is exactly what this principle aims to avoid. 

We are in a time of reconnecting with the slow. Everything that has happened in the six months, from lockdown to present, has left us knowing that we must now accept that small and slow steps forward are the only options in the reopening of our town centres and favourite haunts. Up until March many of us were living much faster paced lives, moving in much larger circles, seeking quick fixes and the fastest possible ways to achieve everything we could each day, but this is no longer possible. We have all been asked to slow down and stay local, and this not only benefits the health of those around us and our environment, but has the potential to transform the way we navigate the world in future, offering new depths and rewards. 

So this month I invite you to be inspired by the tortoise, not the hare, slow and steady is something to celebrate.

This month’s theme has been coming up everywhere I go. Permaculture’s seventh principal asks designers to steer away from monocultures – be it plants or demographics. In a garden or forest we know that by planting mixed species to create biodiversity we can naturally avoid many problems with pest and diseases, build resilience in case one species doesn’t thrive and also provide a much more aesthetically pleasing end result. By adding animals to that mix you have fertilisation, pest control and extra yields of meat and eggs eliminating the need for harsh chemicals or hard labour. Numerous studies have been done the world over to show the increased productivity of integrated planning on farms, and farmer/educator Joel Salatin in Virginia, USA is a prime example. Joel has committed his farming practice to this principal, and by rotating animals and crops and seeking out co-workers with different backgrounds and complementary skill sets to help his farm grow, he has grown from a being a conventional farmer to managing his 2000 acre farm organically, using integration, and the farm now grosses $2 million a year and employs 20 staff.

We human beings often cluster together, in groups of like socio-economic classes, backgrounds and stages of life, but we see the magic when all those clusters mix. When we moved to Clonakilty twelve years ago I noticed that in this town there is a lot more integration then I was used to seeing in other countries I lived in (namely Australia and Canada); here you can find residents of all ages and interests mixing at our community garden, stopping to chat in the street or at a gig in DeBarras – something we now all dearly miss. There is a richness gained from chatting to people who have different life experiences, and of course it will only serve us better to encourage even more integration. If there is one thing the Covid-19 restrictions are teaching us, it is that we are a social species; we miss our daily interactions dearly. Though we are reconnecting with close friends and family, our unplanned interactions have been curtailed and so we have been turning to technology like Zoom and Skype to connect with old friends and gather community.

In terms of town planning and ‘Cool Clon’, this Permaculture principal encourages us to design our towns with houses to suit all household sizes, from bachelor pads to five-bedroom detached homes, and to layout the houses so that the sizes are mixed together, affordable houses and luxury homes side by side to encourage socio-economic mixing. This ensures all residents are provided for, and no residents are ‘shoved aside’. The same can be said about transport integration. We need our pedestrians and cyclist infrastructure integrated into the design, so no road user is left out, and all are considered equally. 

By designing our systems and structures with the mindset of ‘access for all’ we can create towns where all residents can mix and discuss ideas and create projects, drawing on the rich combined experience and perspectives. 

Until next time!

When looking at a town like Clonakilty, Bandon or Skibbereen, you can see the rivers that run through the centre of town can be used to guide the general flow. The towns are developed in zones, with shops and services at the centre and then residential areas surrounding. When thinking about sustainable design, or the ‘Cool Clon’ initiative we could look at the way the roads and shops are laid out, and determine the best use of public space. A main street is a beautiful thing, and of course something that needs to be the focal point in sustainable town design. The upcoming pedestrianisation of main streets is a great example of how looking at the big picture, ie. the reality that there is too much traffic on our main streets to be able to enjoy them properly, especially with social distancing, led to the detail – the plan to pedestrianise and all the details that go with it. 

The layout of a town, house or garden dictates the flow of people through that space. If we look at Lady’s Cross and The Miles estates (including the 300 houses about to be built in that South-West corner of Clonakilty), we could use permaculture to best design a pattern for traffic to flow, and bike and pedestrian paths so that those estates are well connected to the centre of town. Then, by using landscaping, lighting, traffic calming and so on, the details can make walking or cycling to town an attractive prospect for the people that live there. Another example of designing from pattern to detail is the new roundabout next to the distillery in Clon. Traffic can now much more easily flow around the curves of a roundabout with less congestion from cars backing up when entering the junction from the Inchydoney road. However, looking at it from a sustainable design perspective, both cyclists and pedestrians were left out of the design, resulting in a new Primary Healthcare Centre, retail complex and parking with no safe pedestrian access connecting it to town. The pattern drove the design, but the detail will determine how we interact with the space.

In Ireland we already have the Design Manual for Urban and Rural Space or ‘DMURS’. These are a comprehensive set of guidelines that recommend how to layout our streets from ‘Pattern to Detail’. DMURS asks town designers planners and engineers to be “influenced by the type of place in which the street is located, and balance the needs of all users.” It goes into great detail on how things like road junctions should be laid out to maximise safety and comfort of all road users, always including pedestrians and bicycles. It also suggests simple ways to slow traffic on main streets, as well as how to best integrate car parking into design. Design can make all the difference when it comes to whether or not we feel comfortable walking somewhere at night, whether or not we ‘need’ to get in the car to access local shops, or whether or not we worry about the safety of our children walking to school or the beach. This month, when you’re out and about, consider the elements in your town that make you feel comfortable, the elements that dictate how you interact with public spaces and those elements that, with a small change, could be made more people- and earth-friendly.

Culture Night 2020 is set to go ahead on Friday September 18^th and they are inviting organisations to take part either by holding an event in their local area, or by doing a virtual online event which can be promoted by Culture Night at local and national level.  

It will come as no surprise that, as a consequence of COVID -19, this year’s Culture Night will be quite unlike any other.   Propelled by the enthusiasm of artists and cultural organizations, the initiative has captured the public imagination, with some 400,000 people visiting museums, galleries, historic houses, artists’ studios and cultural centres across Ireland since 2006. The COVID pandemic has had enormous social, cultural and economic impact and has severely affected the entire arts and cultural sector.  We are also seeing how, in this crisis, the arts sector has been able to react positively and to connect with people in new ways and formats.  

It is in this context that Culture Night Cork County are asking artists cultural organisations to think about how Culture Night 2020 can be re-imagined, to continue to celebrate those great qualities of imagination, passion, creativity and energy in the radically changed environment in which we now find ourselves.

Culture Night’s success relies on the part played by artists and arts groups. The objective of Culture Night is to showcase and celebrate culture and creativity in all its forms, and every event programmed forms part of this fantastic evening of activity. 

All events must be free of charge. And this year additional requirements regarding public safety must be taken into account when planning your event and organizers must ensure that any activities involving members of the public must comply with COVID 19 social distancing protocols.  Alternatively, you may wish to create an online event for Culture Night.  This can be done as an actual live event or may be prerecorded and issued as a live event over the course of the evening.

Once you decide on the format for your event, complete the online event information form. The deadline for the submission of an application is 5pm, Monday July 20^th.  While outline information needs to be submitted by that date, you do not need to have all details finalized. For more information, advice and support please contact:

Cork County Council Arts office on: 021 4346210 ext 6971 or via email: culturenightcorkcounty@gmail.com         

Personally as a result of the lock-down, especially during the months of April and May, we learned a lot more about our personal consumer habits, what our real needs were and what we could do without. Carefully planning shopping, eating what was in the cupboard, reusing and fixing things around the house and sharing between neighbours is all part of a lifestyle that produces less waste. During the lock-down we had the gift of a glimpse back in time, when life moved at a slower pace and mending and being creative with resources was inherant to life. We mended our fence with recycled wood, borrowed half cans of paint and stitched holes in socks and mended broken toys. 

In 2003, the village of Kamikatsu in Japan took on a mission to create zero-waste and carbon neutrality, now 81 per cent of what is disposed of can be recycled completely, up from a nation average of 20 per cent. New recycling facilities created jobs and saved the town on a former cost of waste disposal. Though there was much opposition in the beginning, the town now not only benefits from increased media coverage (and therefore eco-tourism), but many locals have also become unlikely environmental activists, starting new businesses to use recycled materials. The town also developed a means of rewarding residents points whenever they refused single use, something we could do locally perhaps? Last year, our family also visited the lovely town of Corella Spain on an erasmus+ exchange and were shown that students sort, clean and recycle their household plastic, give it to a local garden furniture manufacturer and are rewarded with benches, picnic tables, bike stands and a bird watching hut. These creative solutions to waste propel towns and cities around the world into the future; a promising future that includes thriving local economy, cleaner air, cleaner streets and plenty of community pride. 

Reducing waste is now going world wide with 23 cities having pledged to C40 cities ‘Advancing Towards Zero Waste Declaration.’ Iconic cities like Auckland, Catalonia, Copenhagen, Dubai, London, Milan, Montreal, Navarra, Paris, Portland, Rotterdam, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Monica, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington DC are all striving for major improvements in recycling solutions and a 70 per cent increase in waste diversion – so it doesn’t get to the landfill at all.  According to the EPA, “in 2016, each person living in Ireland produced, on average, 580 kg of municipal waste. This is well above the European average of 487 kg, and this type of waste is particularly difficult to recycle.” And although we also have targets to reduce waste and improve recycling, wouldn’t it be great to be part of a town or community that decided to be ahead of the trend by creating solid plans and systems for a ‘zero-waste’ region? 

This month spare some time to imagine new industries we could have if we made use of our recyclables locally, and new opportunities if we became ‘zero-waste’ early adapters. Like the recent movements towards slow food, eco-tourism, shopping-local and buying ethically, zero-waste is not only essential for mother earth but will also be something to celebrate, enjoy and prosper with.

I think we all know that the #blacklivesmatter movement must extend beyond the USA. We are not outside, but inside this paradigm of white power, privilege, poverty and abuse, it may be less overt here in Ireland but our direct provision centres show how much work there is to be done. And of course #Blacklivesmatter in West Africa too where there are currently over 30,000 slaves and two million children working on cocoa farms; where extreme poverty in farming communities is the norm. Commodity farmers the world over are living proof that black lives still do not matter enough, in fact they do not seem to matter more than industry profit, fat pay cheques for executives and buying cheap goods at the grocery store.

If we truly agree that Black lives do matter, we have to start at home and though Ireland has made good progress in recent years there are still miles to go. The chocolate industry in Ireland is worth 61 million and less than 25 per cent of that is Fairtrade or ethically sourced. It’s the big chocolate brands that do not have any certification on their labels that are the main perpetrators of this injustice – and we become complicit every time we purchase. Last month Nestlé announced that after a decade of working with Fairtrade they would now stop. No more Fairtrade sugar or cocoa for their bars, resulting in a two million annual loss to farmers in the poorest regions of the world, and this at a time when they are already in the midst of massive struggle with the pandemic and climate change challenges. Nestlé may still buy from the same cooperatives but will no longer pay the Fairtrade premium.  Please reach out to Nestlé and spread this terrible news.  

In West Africa, where 70 per cent of the world’s cocoa is now grown as a result of European colonisation, non-fairtrade farmers live in abject poverty, on less than €1 a day. No running water, no sanitation, no access to healthcare. Only seven per cent of West African cocoa is sold on Fairtrade terms and the news is even worse for bananas. The gold mining industry there is a disgrace to humanity with miners extracting gold using toxic chemicals such as mercury and cyanide. The use of these chemicals can cause birth defects, brain and kidney damage, and can contaminate water supplies, entering the food chain through poisoned fish. 

Although no certification system is absolutely perfect, Fairtrade guarantees autonomy, a minimum price, a community premium, safety training and transparency. It is an independent system, free from corporate control. By aiming to work with the biggest companies they aspire to make the biggest change. Visit fairtrade.ie where you can read the Fairtrade cocoa report to dig deeper. 

Please shop responsibly and demand more from your favourite shops. We may not get it perfect, but we can surely try our best, and if we work together we can shift this mountain of injustice.

By Allison Roberts, Clonakilty Fairtrade

Principal #5: Use and Value Renewable Resources

Allison Roberts looks at the permaculture principal ‘Use and Value Renewable Resources and explains how from simply line-drying our laundry to using renewable energy to power our homes and businesses, we can all seek out more natural, less-resource intense solutions to satisfy our needs and solve our problems

Summer is here. It’s amazing how quickly we forget the rain and the early nights! This is a year like no other, and a great time to have a look at what the Permaculture principals can offer us. With it’s founding principals of ‘Earth-care, people-care, fair share’ the fifth principal ‘Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services’ highlights the importance of creating systems that work with nature, and requires us to seek out more natural, less-resource intense solutions to satisfy our needs and solve our problems. 

With all this sunshine, simply line-drying our laundry is a perfect example of using renewables to get the job done. Rainwater collection, solar water/pv systems, growing veg – thus converting all that solar energy into food, and eating in season, are some obvious ways to demonstrate this principal. When we look at the ‘Cool Clon’ project something as simple as creating more infrastructure to encourage and support easier pedestrian and cycle movement around town would be a good place to start. In Clonakilty we have five schools that would have been an easy walk for students in the years before the heavily-resource-reliant automobile took centre stage. What would happen if we create the support kids need to cycle or walk to school safely, giving them the room they need away from traffic? I must bring the beautiful bicycle to the forefront – surely one of man’s most resource-friendly inventions and with the Clonakilty Bicycle Festival starting June 3, a great time to celebrate it Permaculture-style. Included this year is a ‘Cycle-bus’ forum, an online panel with national experts discussing how to organise and mobilise a network of parents and volunteers taking turns getting kids to school on bikes safely – if you are in Skibbereen or Clonakilty and want to get involved look up the festival schedule or get in touch with me directly, the event is Saturday, June 6 but we would love to hear from any parents interested. The bicycle makes great use of a renewable resource – our food supply and so our own energy – by being the most energy efficient mode of transport on the planet – much more efficient than walking and definitely more efficient than any car. In fact taking your bike can be up to five times more efficient than walking– and whereas 100 calories can power a cyclist for 5km, the same energy would only power a car 280 feet! 

This year, being the ninth Clonakilty Bicycle Festival, and with the year that is in it, the organisers have kept the festival on the ‘road’ planning the biggest festival yet, making all events ‘socially distanced’ with global participation. From fun cycle competitions in small groups to online forums and a global scavenger hunt the festival is making use of the new technologies we can all grab a hold of. One ‘bonus’ event will be the creation of a ‘Clonakilty 10,000 trees cycle’, mapping where our trees have been planted with accompanying GPS and podcast. Trees are of course a perfect example of this prinicipal, cleaning our air better than any non-renewable filter system, giving us shade from the heat, food, fuel and mental health benefits they are a renewable resource to be used and valued.

Central to this principal is the need to use renewable energy to power our homes and businesses. In West Cork solar, wind and wave energy are all at our doorstep but 45 per cent of our power is still powered by non-renewable natural gas as well as a good proportion of coal. With great plans developed by Sustainable Clonakilty, all the base information needed to move forward with renewable energy here in West Cork has been mapped out – we just need those in positions of power to really give it the attention it deserves. In the meantime we can simply start observing (first principal) our behaviours and looking for renewable alternatives to get jobs done, from doing away with non-renewable cling-film and aluminium foil, or reusing packaging to ship parcels – something I do in my own business, customers ‘opt-in’ for a €1 discount on their order, letting them be the champions of their own waste habits. Let’s put old habits aside and embrace all the beautiful renewable solutions available – from bamboo keep-cups to stainless steel lunch boxes to making your own back yard compost, there are a million small steps we can take on this journey – the most important thing is to keep moving!

Next month we’ll go deeper with Permaculture principal 6 – produce no waste! Can you think of any examples on how we could implement some of these permaculture principals in our town? Get in touch!