Green Foundation Ireland
OUR NEXT EVENT:
ONLINE TALK
“Managing Common Invasive Species”
Wed 19 Mar 2025 – 19:00 (Irish time)
By Zoom (log-on details will be issued nearer the time to those who register)
Our talk will take a look at what is meant by invasive species, why it is a concern for Irish biodiversity and how action can be taken on a local and national level.
OUR GUEST SPEAKER:
Orla Ní Dhúill is a writer and environmentalist from Dublin, based on Achill Island in County Mayo.
Her work focuses on biodiversity communications, public engagement with nature, in particular regarding pollinators, invasive species, and woodlands.
You can check out more details, including how to book, here
OUR MOST RECENT EVENTS:
TU DUBLIN GREEN WEEK
IN-PERSON FILM SCREENINGS and DISCUSSION
“Nature Restoration in Ireland: Meet the Storytellers”
Tues 11 Mar 2025 – 16:00 to 18:00 (Irish time)
VENUE
BST-236 Kinema, TU Dublin Bolton Street, Dublin, D01 K822.
EVENT PROGRAMME
16:00 to 16:35: SCREENING of This is Your River
16:00 to 16:35: SCREENING of The Forest Midwife
17:10 to 17:45: PANEL DISCUSSION
Speakers include:
Beta Bajgart – Film-maker, The Forest Midwife
Olive Leavy – National Co-Ordinator of Irish Forest Owners
John Gormley – Film-maker, This is Your River and GFI
Chair: Pat Brereton – Green Foundation Ireland
17:45 to 18:00: LIGHT REFRESHMENTS
You can check out more details here
TU DUBLIN GREEN WEEK
IN-PERSON TALK
“Reviving the Irish Atlantic Rainforest”
Tues 11 Mar 2025 – 13:00 to 14:00 (Irish time)
VENUE
Room BST-417, TU Dublin Bolton Street, Dublin, D01 K822.
Eoghan Daltun will talk about his work to rewild his farm on the Beara Peninsula and what can be learned from the process. This lunch-time talk will be chaired by Dave O’Connor from TU Dublin’s School of Architecture, Building and Environment.
OUR GUEST SPEAKER:
EOGHAN DALTUN came to prominence when he told his story of rewilding a 73-acre farm he bought on the Beara Peninsula. An Irish Atlantic Rainforest (Hachette Books Ireland, 2022) charts that remarkable journey. Part memoir, part environmental treatise, as a wild forest bursts into life before our eyes, we’re invited to consider the burning issues of our time: climate breakdown, ecological collapse, and why our very survival as a species requires that we urgently and radically transform our relationship with nature.
In 2023, he travelled the length and breadth of Ireland photographing areas of temperate rainforest, in a bid to illustrate their beauty and immense ecological value, and to document, in almost all cases, their state of decline.
Eoghan has recently returned from Costa Rica where he saw at first-hand how nature restoration is not only necessary, but achievable.
You can check out more details here
ONLINE TALK
“Digital photography as a non-invasive method of sampling Atlantic puffin chick diet at multiple Irish colonies”
Wed 5 Mar 2025 – 19:00 (Irish time)
By Zoom (log-on details will be issued nearer the time to those who register)
Atlantic puffins are in decline across their global range, and are one of two species of seabirds nesting in Ireland found to be in decline. Diet is thought to play a key role in the species population ecology, though little is known about the diet of Irish puffin chicks. Our talk will look at research which aims firstly to assess the feasibility of using digital photography to survey puffin chicks diet at multiple Irish colonies, and secondly to investigate inter-colony variation in puffin chick diet.
OUR GUEST SPEAKER:
After developing a keen interest in climate and biodiversity policy during as an undergraduate in International Relations in Dublin City University, James Corcoran Hodgins has been involved in the green movement since 2014. Having worked in Outdoor Education for a number of years, he recently returned to study, and completed an MSc in Applied Coastal and Marine Management in University College Cork.
You can check out more details here
ONLINE TALK
“Water, Technology, and Society: from Rogerstown to the Rhine”
Wed 19 Feb 2025 – 19:00 (Irish time)
By Zoom (log-on details will be issued nearer the time to those who register)
A journey through the interconnected worlds of water systems, from Dublin’s Rogerstown Estuary to the River Rhine, exploring how technology and community shape our understanding and management of these waterways. Our talk weaves together personal experience, scientific insight, and the crucial role of citizen science in addressing modern water challenges.
OUR GUEST SPEAKER:
Daniel O’Brien is an applied environmentalist and is currently studying International Land and Water Management at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
You can check out more details here
FILM SCREENING
“This is Your River”
Thurs 5 Dec 2024 – 19:00 (Irish time)
VENUE:
Bailieborough Library, Market House, Bailieborough, County Cavan, A82 RH73.
ABOUT THE FILM:
This is Your River is a film commissioned by Dodder Action about the history and biodiversity of the River Dodder. It is directed by Green Foundation Ireland’s Communications Manager JOHN GORMLEY, and features broadcaster and environmentalist DUNCAN STEWART who is Patron of GFI. After the film screening, we hope that a member of Dodder Action will join us to talk about their work.
ABOUT DODDER ACTION:
Dodder Action is an umbrella group of volunteers who want to maximise the potential of the River Dodder as an amenity for the people of Dublin. You can find out more about Dodder Action here.
You can check out more details here
FILM SHOW
“Wilding”
Mon 4 Nov 2024 – 19:30 (Irish time)
Venue: Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, County Meath
Based on Isabella Tree’s best-selling book by the same title, Wilding tells the story of a young couple that bets on nature for the future of their failing, four-hundred-year-old estate. The young couple battles entrenched tradition and dares to place the fate of their farm in the hands of nature. Ripping down the fences, they set the land back to the wild and entrust its recovery to a motley mix of animals both tame and wild. It is the beginning of a grand experiment that will become one of the most significant rewilding experiments in Europe.
English | UK | 75mins | 2023 | Cert: G | Dir: David Allen
You can check out more details here
UPDATES:
CLIMATE CHANGE PODCAST SERIES
Code Red
Code Red is a climate change podcast from the Centre for Climate and Society at Dublin City University. The Code Red series looks at how the worlds of policy, politics, the media, the arts, and other sectors have responded to climate breakdown and biodiversity loss. Code Red features an interesting and diverse mix of guests from academia, policy, the cultural industries and civil society.
HONORARY FREEDOM OF THE CITY OF DUBLIN
Awarded to: Duncan Stewart and Greta Thunberg
On 21 June 2023, two environmental activists – DUNCAN STEWART and GRETA THUNBERG – were awarded the Honorary Freedom of the City of Dublin, the highest honour that can be bestowed by Dublin City.
Duncan, Patron of Green Foundation Ireland, has been a leading Irish advocate for environmental issues for over 40 years. A champion for environmental issues, sustainable energy and architectural conservation since his student days, for the past two decades Duncan has also been a popular television personality in Ireland. Duncan’s Eco Eye series was driven by his interests in the protection of Ireland’s environment and enhancement of biodiversity. It was Ireland’s longest running environmental series and one of the most popular shows on Irish television – there were twenty-one series in total and all available episodes can be found on our website, courtesy of Duncan.
Greta, from Sweden, is the world’s most prominent global climate campaigner of our time. She has worked to address the problem of climate change and, at the age of 15 in 2018, founded the movement known as Fridays for Future (also called School Strike for Climate), which gained worldwide attention and inspired school students across the globe to participate.
You can view our video here
CITIZENS’ ASSEMBLY ON BIODIVERSITY LOSS
Submission by Green Foundation Ireland
In September 2022 Green Foundation Ireland made a submission to the Citizens’ Assembly on the topic “How the State can improve its response to the issue of biodiversity loss”.
The Citizens’ Assembly is a body comprising the Chairperson and 99 citizens, randomly selected to be broadly representative of the Irish electorate, established to consider some of the most important issues facing Ireland’s future.
We would like to thank COLIN STAFFORD-JOHNSON and FIONN KEELEY for allowing us to use their videos as part of our submission.
You can read our submission here
WHAT WE DO
Green Foundation Ireland hosts seminars, workshops and conferences to demonstrate how practical action can create systems change in both education for sustainability, and work towards a green economy and society.
We work on local and Island of Ireland projects and with partners in Scotland, England and Wales, and the European mainland.
RESOURCES FOR ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION
In association with Green European Foundation, GFI publishes eco literature, both online and hardcopy, and circulates the European Green Journal. All available episodes of the Eco Eye programmes, hosted by GFI’s Patron Duncan Stewart, are available courtesy of Duncan.
All of the above can be found in the Resources Section of our website.
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VALUES AND VISION
GFI has a vision of ecology that values the life of all creatures on our planetary home and is embodied in practical action for a sustainable life for all.
We encourage participation by people and communities in finding practical local responses to intractable problems.
We tell stories of resilience and change in the face of adversity, based on good science and community action.
MEMBERSHIPS and AFFILIATIONS
GFI is a member of the Irish Environmental Network – www.ien.ie
GFI is a member of the Environmental Pillar – www.environmentalpillar.ie
GFI is affiliated to the Green European Foundation – www.gef.eu
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
GFI thanks the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications for the funding it receives through the Irish Environmental Network.
GFI also acknowledges the support of the European Parliament through funding for projects agreed with Green European Foundation.
