Neart Na Machairí
The aim of Neart Na Machairí has been to build upon the existing Strength of the Maharees through a creative exploration of how the community can prepare for the future in order to be resilient, engaged and equipped to adapt to climate change.
Three crucial elements underlay this work:
Learning Journey
To understand the future impacts of climate change on our tombolo while also deepening our
knowledge and celebrating the beauty and unique biodiversity of our home
Creativity
Working as the glue of the project, we have used creativity to explore Maharees as a place, build
relationships, tell stories of what is important and open up new possibilities for the future
Community-led
Bringing together diverse perspectives from within the Maharees community has been central to
this project, both in its governance structures (Steering Group), community partners and creative
practice of our artists
The project ran from January 2024 to January 2026, bringing three embedded artists, Emer Fallon, Silke Michels and Zoë Uí Fhaoláin Green and Project Designer, Zoë Rush, to work alongside Maharees Conservation members and members of the community, who signed up as 'Community Partners’. The project team explored climate predictions for the area of Maharees, its unique heritage, biodiversity and ecology, alongside creative methods to engage the whole community in considering the future they want to prepare for.
Neart na Machairí was created as an Embedded Artist Project, a creative, process- oriented approach which mixes the skills of artistic and non-arts partners to address complex topics, such as climate change, together. The purpose was to bring the creative process and skills of artists - called ‘creative logic’ - to support the communities of Maharees to reflect on, discuss, and co-create ways to adapt to the twin pressures of climate change and biodiversity loss. It was funded by the Creative Ireland programme for climate action, fund II. More information about this type of approach can be found here and to Creative Ireland's climate action projects here.
Over two years, the project organised local walks and talks for the community, fieldtrips for the project team and creative workshops. A multitude of creative and practical responses to the learnings from these events emerged, from a 'seedbank' of ideas of community actions to mitigate and prepare for climate change; the gathering of local stories and soundscapes of Maharees (Will It Stay Fine? Podcast); to the community-led adaptation planning process developed by Maharees Conservation and more.
Below is a 20-minute documentary, Neart na Machairí, which explores our process and learning over the two years.
We have also created the following links to share this journey and our learning with other communities interested in developing their own climate adaptation responses:
Creative Coastal Resilience is a recipient of the Creative Climate Action Fund, an initiative from the Creative Ireland Programme. It is funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media in collaboration with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. Further information on the Climate Action Fund is available at the following link: www.creativeireland.gov.ie