Mulranny Community Futures with Seán Carolan

HIGHLIGHT:

The Mulranny story demonstrates that transformative climate and community action is possible through a structured model of deep community engagement, respectful collaboration, and strategic coordination. It proves that when citizens are genuinely empowered to design their own future, they generate innovative, locally-suited solutions that also contribute to global sustainability goals. The resources and templates are available through the climateconnected.ie site HERE, offering a powerful and replicable blueprint for other communities across Ireland and beyond.

Summary (700 words – a 3-minute read):

Seán Carolan, the Community Climate Action Officer for Mulranny Community Futures in County Mayo, Ireland talks to Maeve Halpin in our Climate Connected Podcast Series. The discussion centres on the innovative, community-led model that has made Mulranny an exemplar of local climate action, sustainable development, and participative democracy.

The Foundation: The Community Futures Model

The core of Mulranny’s success is the ‘Community Futures’ model, originally brought from Scotland over 20 years ago. This model is described as a system of participative democracy. Unlike traditional consultation, it actively engages every single household to design their own community’s future from the outset of the process rather than to comment on what’s already been designed by ‘experts’.

The process fosters a powerful sense of ownership. The community then prioritises projects and identifies relevant volunteer groups to help implement them. The result is an agreed-upon strategy that is “everybody’s plan, not just somebody’s plan.”

Mayo County Council has played a crucial supporting role by funding community coordinators and independently compiling survey results, which gave the process credibility and fairness.

A critical driver of the Community Futures process was the establishment of a cooperative coordinating group. This group does not replace or manage existing community groups (e.g., Tidy Towns). Instead, it finds its niche role in strategic planning and coordination, respecting the “sovereignty” of other groups. The coordinating group specialises in strategy, finance (supporting grant applications), and insurance (for example a shared insurance policy between groups), while the operational groups focus on their specific tasks.

A founding principle was to treat everyone, especially public agencies and politicians, with respect. This built vital trust and opened doors for collaboration and resource-sharing.

The Community Futures co-ordinating group has helped set up Mulranny’s role in numerous innovative projects that blend community development with sustainability.

• The Clew Bay Tourism Network: This Fáilte Ireland initiative uses a similar participatory approach, bringing agencies and community groups together to design sustainable tourism.
• The Dark Sky Park: Capitalising on low light pollution to create tourism focused on stargazing, while also protecting nocturnal wildlife through “dark sky friendly” lighting.
• The Old Irish Goat Project: A novel conservation project to protect a unique heritage breed. This has grown into a visitor centre and a project with national reach, demonstrating how local passion can yield significant conservation outcomes.
• Mayo Decarbonising Zone. Selected as a resilient, vibrant, and sustainable community on a pathway to zero carbon emissions, Mulranny will now become an exemplar site for the rest of the county, leading the way for other Mayo communities seeking to decarbonise.
• Farming for Uplands Restoration: (Farm-Up) A European Innovation Partnership project exploring how to manage common mountain land sustainably among multiple farmers.

A recurring theme in Seán’s experience is the necessity of transparency and continuous review.

• Traffic Light System: The community conducted a honest review of their plan, scoring progress with a traffic light system (Green/Amber/Red). This allowed them to acknowledge failures openly.
• Learning from Failure: Seán emphasises that openly acknowledging what hasn’t worked is essential for learning, improving, and effectively seeking help from supporting agencies. He advocates for this honest assessment at all levels, including local and national government.

Seán attributes Mulranny’s success to breaking down silos and building ‘collaborative social networks’. Partnerships with universities (e.g., University of Galway’s Climate Connected project) are highlighted as hugely beneficial. They provide access to expertise, students, best practices, and tools (like a community carbon footprint tool), while offering students real-world learning opportunities.

Using the ‘Whole-Society’ approach embodies the United Nations’ “whole society” and “whole of government” principle. It involves citizens, local agencies, national bodies, and academics all working together. Seán describes it as a “bottom-up approach that is supported by a top-down approach,” creating reinforcing networks of trust.

Advice for Other Communities & Looking Forward:

1. Start with Local Government: Engage with the local County Council’s Climate Action Officer, Biodiversity Officer, or similar roles.
2. Establish a Coordinating Group: Focus on building a team with skills in strategy, finance, human resources, and communications to complement existing operational groups.
3. Learn from Others: Examine existing plans (like Mulranny’s on their website) to see they are eminently doable.
4. Embrace Best Practice: Look beyond community development stereotypes and explore advanced organisational methodologies like ‘Sociocracy’ (decision-making by consent) and ‘Japanese Operational Excellence (Kaizen)’ (continuous evaluation of progress to make improvements) to help grow your group’s effectiveness.
5. Value Volunteers: Run events to motivate volunteers.

Key Resources Mentioned:

Mulranny Community Futures:

Climate Connected: Resources for Committee dialogue

E-Townz

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