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Time for reflection? I found the poem below, written while we were twinkles in our parent's eyes, when looking for words to express living in these times. We thought they captured something of the feelings of lockdown for us.
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Extract from Poetry Foundation Collection https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/101581/poems-of-protest-resistance-and-empowerment
Most mornings I would be more or less insane,
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories,
The news would pour out of various devices
Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen.
I would call my friends on other devices;
They would be more or less mad for similar reasons.
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
In the day I would be reminded of those men and women,
Brave, setting up signals across vast distances,
Considering a nameless way of living, of almost unimagined values.
As the lights darkened, as the lights of night brightened,
We would try to imagine them, try to find each other,
To construct peace, to make love, to reconcile
Waking with sleeping, ourselves with each other,
Ourselves with ourselves. We would try by any means
To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves,
To let go the means, to wake.
Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars) from The Speed of Darkness. 1968 Muriel Rukeyser.
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One open day only this year!
Socially distanced outdoor Apple pressing
Bring your own or help with ours and taste the juice.
This Saturday 26th September from 1.30-4.30 p.m.
As part of a week of activity for the European Day for Sustainable Communities (EDSC) another event takes place this Friday 25th (It is also World Climate Action Day) from 12-2pm. A Community climate conversation online organised along with others from the Transition movement in Ireland, Suzie is co-hosting. Register here. Suzie is the country contact for ECOLISE for the EDSC You can read more about her hopes for us in Ireland in the EDSC website blog here
Permaculture Design Certificate course (PDC)
In response to the challenges of Covid-19, we applied the Permaculture principle Creatively Responding to Change.
We had already planned to do some online PDC network weaving, so we managed to convene tutors, past PDCers and people who signed up for this year's PDC, in a series of Zoom sessions. This helped us prepare and make agreements with the group and finally meet for a redesigned, fully outdoor, practical PDC in mid-August.
Working with Hannah, (Earthcare permaculture) our PDC coordinator, we all learned a lot about this kind of blended delivery and hope to incorporate it into a new delivery model for 2021. There was certainly a surge of interest, as people spent time in lockdown connecting with nature, their gardens and perhaps reflecting on actions they could take in a multiple crisis world. We had a very long waiting list for the course this year, and are thinking of offering two PDCs in 2021. For us to get an idea of interest, please email us. We hope to open bookings soon.
If you are new to our newsletter here is a little about what do we do at Carraig Dulra?
The Carraig Dulra project is made up of two related streams of activity. The first is our research and demonstration site, which we consider a kind of 5th child of the Cahn clan, raised alongside our other children with family, friends and volunteers in community.
The second is Carriag Dulra the social enterprise, focused on activities that support a just transition movement to a new system. Its values are in alignment with those of the Indigenous Principles of Just Transition
We see ourselves as facilitators, space openers and network weavers. We try to work in ways that support regeneration of lost connections in ecosystems and communities. We work with awareness that these disconnections are created by a deliberately fragmenting oppressive system where everything is extracted for profit in the hands of the few.
Suzie working with Indigenous people in Belize
Suzie was funded to go to Belize in early 2020 by the grant-giving wing of Lush, which funds "small grassroots organizations for projects in environment, animal protection, and human rights." Invited there by her permaculture mentor Albert Bates, she taught Permaculture at the 30 year old Mayan Mountain Research Farm. The PDC course had a focus on supporting people from local indigenous groups to create their own permaculture and indigenous wisdom edge, via collaborative transformative community education.
Mike's story was holding things together during lockdown, which started while Suzie was still in Belize. As family returned to live on the land during Covid, he worked on building and maintaining the farm site, including a new shower system, additional water catchment and a new sheltered area. His retirement from web development and serving as a school caretaker the past couple of years has increased his awareness of the need for regular maintenance of physical things alongside maintenance of relationships and community networks.
Volunteers at Carraig Dulra
We had much reduced volunteer numbers, but some local ones returned and we were lucky to find a long-term intern from New Zealand who had come to Ireland before all travel was restricted.
Jon and his Irish partner Nikki have been completely engaged in creative collaborations in the barn, temporarily renamed the "Locked Inn", and got all the gardens planted and a new demonstration small garden site designed.
Transition Towns
There is a fantastic all new TINI newsletter the result of hard work by new members who are rekindling Transition network and collaborative actions over the last few months.
Permaculture on the Island of Ireland
Two years on from our big collaborative event, the 2018 European Permaculture Convergence, the Permaculture network has a new organisation structure emerging. Keep an eye on permaculture.ie for more news
Active Hope
Last summer we hosted a group for facilitator training in Active Hope work. The Active Hope network in Ireland is in fact now very very active. There are regular spaces online created by its members using the Work That Reconnects framework for processing emotions in safe spaces.
The work is described as being a "response to the crisis of sustainability unfolding in our world. It offers tools that help us face these crises, as well as find and play our role in the collective transition to a life-sustaining society."
As a participant in this weekend, Suzie particularly loved the way the facilitators Anne and Terry addressed inclusion and the privilege of their race and social standing. We have adapted their welcome for use in our own programmes. You can find their original here.
Slí Eile
Another group which includes one of our past PDCers, came together to work on radical ideas for new climate alliances and activism have a new name Slí Eile. They have an intersectional ethos have been busy streaming talks and discussions. while face to face gatherings are not possible.
Another poem excerpt -full poem here
I'm pushing up the earth with all you try to censor
All the iconoclasm & bravado you scorn
All the taunts against your banner & salute
I'm coming up from Hell with all you ever suppressed
All the dark fantasies, all the dregs are coming back
I'm leading them back up now
They're going to bark & scoff & rage & bite
I'm opening the box
boo!
Anne Waldman, "To the Censorious Ones" from In the Room of Never Grieve: New and Selected Poems, 1985-2003.
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The Carraig Dúlra Team is a Cahn family collaboration along with a loose collective made up of local and regional tutors, networks, volunteers, and some special collaboration partners:
Hannah Mole of Earth Care Permaculture Design is the coordinator of our Permaculture Design Certificate Course.
Our children and family events are now supported or run by
Marc Barker and his network of forest school colleagues.
Check out his website Nature Connect Ireland
Box Scheme Succession
Please support our Carraig mountain neighbours from the amazing Nairn family and the next generation of ecological young farmers, Davi and Hazel, who have set up a fantastic community supported agriculture project on the family's homestead nature reserve in Ashford.
Please give them your support and enjoy their top notch produce.
Other family members and friends are working on this beautiful project regenerating an ancient alder woods, wildflower meadows and a new native woodland. If you are looking to set up a woodland project check out their other initiative Natura Trees
Our long time friend Orlaith Murphy has continued to develop her skills and knowledge in all things Edimental- Ornamental and Edible she is just starting her new website WOW Edimentals so bookmark it for updates on her latest projects.
Groups from aligned movements make use of Carraig Dúlra to camp and learn together outdoors or in the cob barn. Get in touch if you want to organise an event for 2021
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