Ardnaculla Summer School is a community and ecology festival promoting learning, connection, and regeneration. The third edition of Ardnaculla Summer School took place from Friday 31st May to Sunday 2nd June 2024.

Looking around Ardnaculla Summer School 2024 as attendees flowed in and out of talks and workshops, collectively wove rope out of grasses cut on site, chatted easily together in the warm sun, and soaked in experiences such as some impromptu fiddle playing at a ring fort in the woods, it was clear that the weekend achieved its goal of fostering learning, connection, creativity and regeneration. The programme was packed with high quality events and speakers, but the real sign of success is the lingering sense of inspiration, curiosity, and connection among those who attended.

For repeat visitors, 2024 will also be memorable for the weather. There was hardly a need for a welly or a jacket all weekend. Building upgrades, landscaping works, expanded operations, and the abundant spring growth were shown off perfectly by the summer sun and were a testament to the hard work of the talented and dedicated staff, volunteers and contractors in the run up to the weekend.

Another small change woven (quite literally) through the weekend was an expanded emphasis on creativity. This refocusing was brought about by our 2024 funding, which came through the ongoing Dinnseanchas project and is made possible by Creative Ireland as part of their Creative Climate Action Programme. Dinnseanchas has offered bursaries to a group of artists to work in various communities in Ireland’s western uplands to support them in envisioning a future for themselves and their landscapes through the many environmental challenges they are facing.

Indoors, workshops focussed on visioning, writing, connecting, and on crafting songs. Outdoors, participants sketched in nature, wove the meadows, played in the forest school, and joined field trips that combined expert knowledge with storytelling and music. Attendees were also treated to snippets of music and song during the 'bothán sessions' each evening in the sunshine and from Hometree neighbour, Mick Conlon, long-time friend Susan O'Neill, and the Dinnseanchas composer-in-residence Colm Mac Con Iomaire. The importance of connection, of bringing people together and bridging gaps was highlighted during a panel discussion on the role of creativity and behavioural change . Tania Banotti, the Director of Creative Ireland, conceded that at a fundamental level, their work is funding connection by bringing artists, ecologists, farmers, and all sorts of communities together.

In another panel on our connections to land, Manchán Magan, Dáithi de Mordha and Róísín de Buitlear surfed between English and Gaeilge. This sparked numerous conversations about the role of language in our understanding of and connection to nature and land, which links to the work of the local eco-poet Grace Wells. There is certainly an appetite for more Irish-language programming in the future and the potential to include other languages and cultures. The ethos of Ardnaculla is to bring people together over shared themes and concerns around nature restoration, community building, rural futures and shared connections. Some attendees noted that the 2024 summer school was perhaps less successful at crossing social boundaries than other years, and this is something that we will work harder on in 2025.

*Ardnaculla Summer School attendees outside Classroom*

Alongside the focus on creativity, we didn’t forget our roots in ecology. There were talks on landscape design, managing seed banks for locally-sourced wildflower meadows, biodiversity in agriculture, and talks from zoologists, conservationists, and staff from the National Parks and Wildlife Service. One attendee noted that the input of the extremely well-informed audience members was often as enlightening as the speakers themselves. This atmosphere of knowledge sharing, participation and community building is what sets the summer school apart from a more formal conference setting.

After three days of warm sunshine, intense learning and sharing, and so many new connections, the summer school closed with a brief but beautiful ceremony where Hometree's Sarah Broderick invited participants to join together around a flourishing oak sapling, connect to each other by holding a rope that had been woven collectively over the weekend from grasses harvested by hand on the site. We were led in a few verses of 'Samhradh Samhradh' and encouraged to carry the summer with us. It was such a full and fruitful weekend that has left the Hometree team brimming with inspiration and, judging by the feedback from our attendees, the weekend filled many cups. Let’s carry this feeling of connection, curiosity and community with us until we meet again next year, or maybe sooner.

A Weekend of Connection, Curiosity and Community

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