Artists who immersed themselves in the South Kerry Gaeltacht to get to know aspiring home-owners, housing activists, community workers and staff in statutory agencies, have proposed novel actions to tackle housing scarcity.

The artists – Síomha Brock, Susan Leen, Emily Fitzell, James Rogers, and Zoë Uí Fhaoláin – lived and worked for three weeks in the Uíbh Ráthaigh (Iveragh) Gaeltacht.  Some spoke English, while others were fluent in Irish, and after running short projects with people locally, they proposed the following:

  • A South Kerry Gaeltacht housing festival.
  • A stronger emphasis on sustainable community-building rather than just on house-building.
  • The use of local materials, products and labour in construction.

“Local organisations have been highlighting the shortage of housing in the locality for many years,” said Róisín Greaney, climate justice researcher with the Think-tank for Action on Social Change (TASC).

“This shortage is threatening the long-term viability of the Gaeltacht. The housing crisis is a nationwide phenomenon, but there are localised complexities,” she said.

It is difficult for the community in Iveragh to grow and be resilient, due to a lack of affordable housing to rent or buy, holiday homes and second homes – many of which are vacant for long periods – and challenges securing planning permission.

A community vision emerged from the artist residencies which operated during the winter under the project title of Tochail (meaning ‘excavate’).

Róisín said, “The residencies succeeded in reframing the rural housing debate through using arts-based methodologies and by creating spaces that were imaginative, inspiring, and future-focused.”

As a result, it is now clear that local people want to see a housing model that supports local and community development.

“Core to this vision of the future is the widespread use of the Irish language and ecological sustainability,” said Róisín.

The research findings will directly inform TASC’s People’s Transition project in the Gaeltacht, which explores the development of social and economic interventions to contribute to a more egalitarian climate transition journey for the people of Iveragh. According to Róisín:

“The residencies explored how socially engaged art can create an enabling environment for place-based and community-led approaches to rural housing within the context of a just transition. At this critical moment of social and ecological change, arts-based interventions help us set aside the constraints of the present and envision a diversity of new and previously unimagined possibilities for the future.”

The launch of the Uíbh Ráthaigh People’s Transition report was set to take place in April.

For more information:

– Cumas Ceantar: uibhrathach.ie

–  TASC: tasc.ie

 

Here’s why one artist focused on forestry

Susan Leen’s artistic endeavours focused on the inland community of An Dromaid. Her work highlighted the challenges of land use, particularly commercial afforestation.

Sitka Spruce plantations have come to dominate many of the hills and valleys in South Kerry away from the Ring of Kerry tourist route. These plantations have contributed to biodiversity and habitat loss, and they have taken up land that had been farmed for generations. Susan’s drawings depicted the impacts of these plantations, but she also drew birch trees, branches and leaves, as this pioneer species symbolises new beginnings and new growth.

Her engagements with local farmers, members of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association and schoolchildren, among others, converged on the triple objectives of employment, services and culture.

 

Participants founds solutions via meditation, feedback loops, postcards from the future, and clay modelling

Artist Síomha Brock (pictured right) used a mixed-methods approach that included meditation, collages, postcards from the future, clay modelling and feedback loops. This enabled participants in workshops held in Cahersiveen to envisage a viable community housing project.

Participants emphasised community-building, rather than just house-building, and they placed a high value on the Irish concept of Meitheal (neighbourliness/mutual help).

Workshop participants also wanted a new approach to housing that would incorporate social, recreational and food-production spaces, local energy supplies and the circular economy.

They emphasised the revitalisation of the Irish language and Irish cultural expression, and were optimism that, with the development of community housing, the language would thrive.