The climate cat is out of the bag and there's no stopping the rise of community leadership across Laois and beyond - its no longer a cross-roads county, but a beating heart of inspirational leaders and leadership. The inaugural Community Climate Cocktail Club launched under the bold mobilising force of the inaugural Laois Climate Action Festival and radical sponsorship of Laois County Council. Gathering over 120 community changemakers, activists, farmers, artists, business leaders, educators, residents and more, the event debunked the myth that action on the nature and climate crises is only a plaything for the metropolitan elite. The magic of Ballintubbert House was mixed with live music, mocktails, cocktails, canapes and lashings of chat.
“The Climate Cocktail Club is both an art and a science. It models in such a fun way how we need to engage the whole person in the climate debate - starting with nature, with community, and with our own actions - before we reach for the toolbox and the wallet to make transformative change happen." Joe McKenna, Peatlands & People Foundation, Climate House
Hosted in the magical surroundings of Ballintubbert House, home to artistic greats including John Hurt, Sebastian Shaw (yes Darth Vader) and Cecil Day-Lewis, the event provided heart and soul, alongside science and solutions. Curated by Tom Popple, with expert contributions from Sarah Prosser, Mary Mulvey, Charles Preston and Bruce Thompson, alongside enchanting spoken word by local poet and grower Jeremy Haworth.
"In supporting this event as part of the Laois Climate Action festival our goal is to bring people together and spark meaningful conversation about how we can build a fairer and more resilient future together." Karen Moore, Laois County Council
Following the successful relaunch of the Climate Cocktail Club to its home at The Sugar Club in Dublin this June, this first Community-based event delivered the cocktail jazz hands and excited (if not partially inebriated) conversations that have become the hallmark of its events. Huge thanks to the event sponsor Laois County Council and knowledge partners BE IMPACTFUL and ERINN Innovation (Peatlands & People Foundation, Climate House). Watch out for Community based event in your region soon enough!
The Climate Cocktail Club operates on a voluntary basis and needs the support of partners to ensure the events are a success - please support our future events and become a sponsor.
"Bioregions un-loised? A new framing for climate mindsets filled with inspiration, nature, society and economics that work for the common good." Sarah Prosser
From the Blackwater to the Barrow taking a watershed perspective to landscape restoration breaks down the traditional silos that have become a feature and barrier to meaningful action since the Land Acts. How do we overcome fragmented policies, funding, perspectives and priorities to create thriving and resilient landscapes and communities? What are the opportunities for Laois and how do we move forwards?
Reimagining our shared landscape through geology, geography, hydrology and biology, and combining heritage, culture, economics and shared values, our keynote speaker Sarah Prosser explored the concept of "bioregions" and what that means to Laois, but all communities across Ireland. Detailing the Bioregional Weaving Lab SE Ireland's four-returns frameworks pioneered by Commonland, Sarah underlined the challenge of dominate land-use dogma and policies, where narrow economic priorities undermine the value of nature and community. Inviting the audience to imagine weaving together the hidden networks of community life and their contribution to shared values provided powerful concepts for the expert panel to explore.
A chat with Charis Garden founder and author of Four Season Farm revealed the journey Jeremy has taken from a city life in Dublin, to the heart of Ballyadams (less than 5 mins from venue), and now his expression of growing through haibun. The highs, lows, rain and sun, sweat and tears of four seasons on an organic local farm are expressed in his enchanting work that was shared with the audience (though the farmers were not as enthralled about the buzzards as the townsfolk.
"take time to research the personal and working impacts you have on climate and nature, in your garden, on your farm, in your workplace, in your community. Consider what you can do to reduce and substitute negative actions, from using eco-firelighters to eco-washing up liquid, from eco-holidays to eco-weed killer (stop using Roundup 😀), to volunteering to help save a wetland." Mary Mulvey
Over 30 years experience came to bear when Mary shared her insights into what it really takes to build a meaningful and scalable sustainable tourism sector across the midlands. The role of private business leads to faster and more resilient funding models versus relying on ad-hoc and inconsistent government grands. A lack of foresight, effective planning and ability to clearly identify opportunities and scale them up are serious obstacles when policy makers, planners and public bodies seek to meaningfully engage with rural Ireland, encapsulated in the limited at best, sheer failure at worst, Just Transition roll out.
"We started farming people instead of farming food." Charles Preston
Charles provided some glitter to the night, both as the owner of Ballintubbert House, but also leading role in enabling the Electric Picnic festival (ala Salty Dog amongst others). His storytelling was magical, taking us through his own family farm's transition from farming food to farming people in the UK. Recognising the diminishing returns extracting food value from degraded land in Kent, to farming people instead, creating a venue, space and place for people to visit and immerse themselves in the countryside. Ballintubbert House is now an exemplar for sustainability within Ireland, owning Ireland's first certified organic ornamental gardens and hosting exclusive private and corporate events. It provides an immersive nature-led experience reconnecting heart with mind through a portfolio of curated activities.
"A farm produces two things, food and ecology, but we're only paid for food." Bruce Thompson
As an 8th generation farmer the pressure is on Bruce Thompson, in his own words "I better not mess this up", not that you would notice though. Hailing from Ballyfin (the parish, not the Kardashian haunt), Bruce has a roster of accolades from combining productivity with ecology across his farm. A Farming for Nature Ambassador, Nuffield Scholar, Dung Beetles for Farmers lead, and well frankly a mighty fine nice man. Critically, Bruce outlined that the systems, models and importantly incentives are not effective, accessible or meaningful enough to drive systemic changes across our farming communities. New value, one that puts ecology on an equal footing as food, is required.
Thanks to all for making this inaugural event so special. Roll on the next Community Climate Cocktail Club. Get in touch to explore more.
See you next time.
Tom
Climate Cocktail Club
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