Community Stories | CONNECTED

Farming Rathcroghan Scheme – Sustainable Farming in the Rathcroghan Archaeological Landscape

Biodiversity, Environmental and Sustainability Initiatives, Project Management, Roscommon

The Farming Rathcroghan EIP project gives advice and support to farmers in the local area on how to farm in an historically important landscape, to look after and improve the landscape, while protecting bio-diversity, carbon sequestration and improving water quality. This is important because farmers need to work with forms and rules while at the same time make a living. As a farmer in the project says: ‘Being a member of Farming Rathcroghan has meant that I have the support that I need to farm on a heritage site. it’s made my farming more sustainable and meaningful. ‘

Taplin’s Fields (Bridgefoot Street Park Community Garden) – from wasteland to garden

Biodiversity, Dublin City, Food, Personal Activism

Named in honour of a local community activist Richard Talpin, Taplin’s Fields is a community garden in Bridgefoot Street Park in the heart of Dublin in The Liberties. It changed what was once a run-down, overgrown site into a shared green space where local people grow vegetables, fruit, wildflowers, and where they can also experiment in biodiversity.

Pocket Forests – bringing nature into towns

Biodiversity, Dublin City, Engagement and Communication, Environmental and Sustainability Initiatives, Social Entrepreneurship

Pocket Forests works on restoring biodiversity, soil health, and community connection by making small, dense plantings of native trees and shrubs in built up areas. They use the ideas from the Miyawaki or “Tiny Forest” approach. They also use permaculture to make richer and healthier soil that has become poor by being neglected. Since 2020, more than 100 pocket forests have been planted around Ireland. More than 1,500 people of all ages have taken part in workshops planting and other actions.

Burrenbeo Trust

Best Practices, Biodiversity, Clare, Engagement and Communication, Environmental and Sustainability Initiatives, Governance and Leadership

Set up as a charity in 2008, Burrenbeo Trust is a non-profit organisation that connects all of us to our places and our role in caring for them. Based in the Burren, Burrenbeo Trust works to raise awareness of the importance of the Burren, and to encourage local communities to act as carers of its priceless heritage. Building on lessons learned over the past twenty years, Burrenbeo also supports ‘place-based learning’ across Ireland as a way that communities can learn more about their place and their role in actively caring for it.

An Mheitheal Rothar – Galway’s Community Bike Workshop

Community Stories, Galway, In Ireland Travel, Recycling, Social Entrepreneurship

An Meitheal Rothar is a not for profit Co-operative and Sustainable Business run by a team that creates positive change. It was born from the idea that people could come together in a group or a cooperative, to help each other as part of a community. An Meitheal Rothar fixes bikes, sells bikes, and teaches people how to repair bikes. It gives bikes for people in need, it asks for more walking and cycling in Galway City, helps us re-use and recycling things more – what is called the ‘circular economy’. It also fights climate change, and thinks up new ideas about how we run our economy.

Sligo Children’s Community Garden

Biodiversity, Community Stories, Sligo

Born from a shared idea, SCCG was created to give a welcoming outdoor space where children and families can connect with nature. They can learn about sustainability, and bring about a sense of community. The garden is in the heart of Sligo, and it is a place where biodiversity does really well. The main idea of “grow your own” is taken on by everyone, and where people can improve their awareness of their environment.

A NetZeroCities Project: Warm Home Hub

Community Stories, Engagement and Communication, Home Energy

The Warm Home Hub, in the Westside Community of Galway City, gave a free-of-charge advice service that helps local residents by sustainably upgrading and retrofitting their homes, to make them into energy-efficient, sustainable, more comfortable and healthier homes. This included advice about the grants to home owners. They gave solutions that are available and suitable for each home, and how they could pay back the works through savings.

From Small Wins to a Community Energy Pipeline: GreenPlan Mulranny (Case Study)

Building Energy Use, Case Studies, Committee Tools, Community Energy, Engagement and Communication, Home Energy, Mayo

GreenPlan Mulranny turned a volunteer-run tourist office into a public “green hub” for the whole village—swapping bulbs, cutting bills, refilling water bottles, charging e-bikes from solar, and showing live energy on a screen. Those visible, low-cost actions grew into a community energy pipeline (Sustainable Energy Community → Energy Master Plan → Building Energy Ratings → Retrofits) and helped set the stage for Mulranny’s Decarbonising Zone.

Mulranny 2030: From Climate Action Hub to UNESCO Biosphere (Case Study)

Biodiversity, Case Studies, Engagement and Communication, Mayo

Once a pass-through village on the Wild Atlantic Way, Mulranny has reinvented itself as a hub for climate action and participatory governance. Building on its Decarbonising Zone plan and a decade of community-led innovation, the village is now aiming for its boldest move yet: joining UNESCO’s global network of Biosphere Reserves.

Mulranny Community Futures & Promenade (Case Study)

Case Studies, Committee Tools, Engagement and Communication, Environmental and Sustainability Initiatives, In Ireland Travel, Mayo

A Scottish-style, household-led consultation gave Mulranny a clear, shared brief: footpaths, safer crossings, and a seafront civic space. With a Village Design Statement (2012) to turn that mandate into drawings, the community and council delivered continuous footpaths, traffic calming, and the Mulranny Promenade—even during austerity—shifting the N59 corridor from car-dominated to people-first and setting the stage for later climate actions.