The Brilliant Ballybunion Team wish to thank everyone who attended the North Kerry Sustainability Day on Sunday 23rd February 2025. We were delighted to have such a great response and positive feedback. Over two hundred people attended on the day.
So great to see all the interest in nature, food, energy, creativity and climate action. We appreciate all the contributions by local first responders, farmers, ecologists, artists, professionals, business owners, children and everyone who attended on the day. We were delighted to welcome so many people from The Maharees Conservation Association and Neart na Machairí creative climate action project.
Thank you to all the people who shared their knowledge in the stalls and to Rituals of Plate for the delicious homemade organic food. Special thanks to the volunteers who helped on the day and the team at the Tintean Theatre.
At this point we would really appreciate your feedback and we invite you to get involved in future projects or events.
Come join us for a day filled with educational chat, and inspiring speakers all focused on promoting sustainability in North Kerry. Learn about environmental conservation, renewable energy, and community initiatives aimed at creating a more eco-friendly future for our region. There will be many exhibitors there to give lots of inspiration and help.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and take part in the movement towards a greener, more sustainable world. See you there!
Schedule for the day:
10.30-11.00 am: Welcome
11.00-11.45 am: Energy & Sustainability – Building a sustainable energy community as well as being warm and saving money
12.00-12.45 pm: Wild & Wonderful – What’s wild and wonderful in our biosphere? Exploring our local biodiversity and the challenges they face
12.45-1.30 pm: Lunch Break
1.30-2.15 pm: Adapting To Climate Challenges – First responses and community co-ordinating
2.30-3.15 pm: Food Health & WellBeing – Are you what you eat? Find out through this discussion with local growers and food producers
3.30-4.15 pm: Drawing Into Life – Being creative and imagining the future we want to be
We had another fantastic Friday on the Farm this week.
Lots of delicious food harvested at @thebarnaway and prepared by Stephanie from Rituals of Plate, who also preserved a lot of food for our upcoming Winter events.
We had a film screening of the films created so far in the project (coming soon!) with our embedded artist Lisa Fingleton.
We learned about seed saving and saving seeds from tomatoes, beans, celery and flowers. Rena Blake talked us through preparing a garden for Winter.
We also went for a walk in the woods and into the meadows to see the spectacular Devil’s Bit Scabious which was buzzing with bees, hover flies and butterflies
We were delighted to have Clare Watson with us for the day.
Thanks to Anne Maher and all the team at The Urban Co-Op in Limerick city for a fantastic visit. We just stopped off for delicious homemade scones (local flour, butter and jam) with organic teas and coffees.
So inspiring to hear about the journey of the co-op and their commitment to providing clean, local and organic food. We talked about the importance of food for our health and the myth of ‘cheap food’ (that is so costly for the planet, labourers and animals).
Anne had a basket of the top brands of food purchased in Ireland. How has our diet changed so much in the last 20 years?
We could have stayed all day and there are plans among the collaborators to make regular visits to purchase from the Co-op and deliver in Ballybunion.
Thanks to the brilliant Ian McGregor for the wonderful visit to Gortbrack Farm. Great to see how fields can be transformed into multiple habitats with forests, ponds, bog and vegetable gardens.
Ian showed us how much water is stored in sphagnum moss and we even got to see sundews in flowers… did you know they are carnivorous plants?
Ian talked us through the issues with our current food systems and how we can work together to create more sustainable systems in harmony with nature.
We had a delicious lunch at The Little Cheese Shop in Tralee, tasting delicious Irish and international fresh cheeses, vegan salads & soups and gorgeous desserts.
After lunch, we made our way to Ion Organics in Ballyduff, a family run artisan creator of natural skincare products. They make a range of products that incorporate organic, skin-enhancing flowers, medicinal herbs and seaweed harvested from the Atlantic ocean nearby. Liz showed us around her flower gardens and little shop and John showed us in small buildings and seaweed bath house built by himself using the ancient wattle and daub technique.
An amazing and inspirational day for all of us teaching us about what can be harvested and achieved locally in North Kerry
Another brilliant day filming for the Homegrown series for RTE in Ballybunion at The Barna Way, the Beach Hive and at the sea with ecologist and B Team member Dr Joanne O’Brien.
Thanks to Mark, Raj, Tony and Colm from RTE for being so well organised and interested in all the great things happening in Ballybunion in terms of creativity, food production and biodiversity. Great to have Ballybunion Tidy Towns work featured too.
Grainne Toomey gave an overview of the Creative Climate Action Fund and the project. Dr Joanne O Brien talked about the special area of conservation here for birds and dolphins and the importance of protecting water quality.
Rena Blake talked about the importance of growing local food and how the project is showing people how to grow their own food. Embedded artist Lisa Fingleton talked about the power of creative responses to climate change and biodiversity loss and how we need to imagine the future we want to B. Danny Houlihan played a lament for the elm trees on the bagpipes and we spent some time drawing the beautiful artichokes inspired by our Rituals of Plate contemplate workshop where we learned to meditate, draw and eat eat food slowly in order to really appreciate it. Stephanie cooked a delicious vegan feast all picked from the garden.
Thanks to our collaborators Antoinette, Danny, George and Mona for taking part in all the filming
