ALLIHIES is set to host its inaugural Autumn School from October 11th to October 13th featuring talks by a diverse line-up of speakers on the future of rural Ireland over the next 50 years, with a special focus on the Beara Peninsula.
Topics will include the marine and fishing, farming, biodiversity and sustainable living and heritage.
Hosted by the Allihies Coastal Education Hub, which is part of the Allihies Copper Mine Museum, Tadhg O’Sullivan, chair of the museum hopes that it will be an annual event.
‘It’s long been in our plans to do something like this and now we have the resources and the people to get it up and running. We have some very good speakers, and we hope it will be interesting, thought provoking, and enlightening and that those attending will go away with some new ideas.’
Speakers who will be leading sessions include Dr Susan Steele, executive director of the European Fisheries Control Agency; Eoghan Daltun, who has promoted on the Beara peninsula and is the author of A Wild Atlantic Rainforest; Dr Brendan Dunford, co-founder of the Burren-Beo Trust; Dr Kevin Flannery, a marine biologist and director of Ocean World Dingle; Dr Patrick Meere of the school of biological, earth and environmental sciences at UCC; Denis Walsh, an environmental scientist, and Tadhg O’Sullivan of the Allihies Copper Mine Museum.
Tadhg stresses that the autumn school is pitched for a national audience and not confined to Beara. ‘We will be covering the Beara peninsula but we’re also looking further afield and not just coastal areas, we’re looking at inland areas, lots of rural areas are suffering the similar or same problems as Beara with depopulation, and lack of enterprise and jobs. The aim of this event is to focus on how we can make things better.’
Tadhg hopes that state agencies will also be in attendance to gain insights from the discussion. ‘We’re also trying to be constructive and promote ideas, and now we can make things better for people living on Beara and have a new and better future.’
There will also be live music events at the end of each day’s session, and it is hoped that by holding the event in October that it will also benefit local business at a usually quiet time of year. The cost of the weekend is €150 (accommodation and meals are extra). For further details see www.aceh.ie
