This week marks my fourth year of a weekly Friday blog. To celebrate, I decided to republish my first blog. It was my first try at promoting local heritage and I suppose it also gives a sense of my curiosity and determination to discover more about the features that...
My grandmother had a phrase “the longer you live in a place, the longer you live”. I found it a curious phrase, one that tended to be used on the death of a friend or neighbour I remember. Like many of my grandmothers utterances, I never stopped the...
From Wendell Berry [The concept of "Mendo Island" is not to be isolationist or provincial, but rather to focus our attention and efforts locally, transitioning to more community-sufficiency, and in that process we also help those in far away places who are being...
Some responses to the key areas for the community plan Rather than design a survey, I have used the mind mapping format to generate ideas for myself. I am listing them here, and also some further notes on the survey idea. Ray will also send on a...
Some notes on areas for an action plan Possibility of using an electronic survey - survey monkey to do some initial information gathering via current email addresses of mine, the community alliance group and via the village facebook page. Need to explore the potential...
“We see people and things not as they are, but as we are” Anthony De Mello These last few weeks of revisiting previous musings and re writing them in a reflective way has helped to refine some thoughts, but also to stimulate new ideas and directions. A colleague...
“Community work is concerned . or should be concerned – with empowerment. By empowerment I mean empowerment through consciousness raising to active analysis rather than keeping the people happy where they are, or finding ways to keep them happy where they are. I...
Equality is seen as a fundamental right in a liberal economy such as Irelands. Equality of opportunity allows that all may have equal access to the opportunities to get on in life whatever their station, to get on and achieve. A term synonymous with equality of...
How do we begin to move a community towards sustainability? What role can locals play in shaping their own futures? Surely the lead role. Surely the vast majority of control. Surely their voice, words and actions are preeminent. Local solutions to locally defined...
What can weeds tell us about community? My Nan was a wonderful gardener. She would spend her days bent over picking, thinning, admiring and chatting away to her flowers, shrubs and veg. She would curse the weeds. Ripping them out of the ground or...
Would you like to be part of the ever growing Tides and Tales Community? If you would like to join our regular monthly email list, please complete the form below and hit subscribe.