Dinnseanchas Tour with Creative Places West Cork Islands.
More information soon on the island day, which will take place on July 31st.
Dinnseanchas is cultural project initiated by the landscape-restoration charity Hometree, rooted in rural upland communities in the west of Ireland and inspired by the word ‘dinnseanchas’ meaning the stories a place is telling.
Through art and participatory creative practice, Dinnseanchas created space to explore future possibilities for places by holding difficult conversations about climate change, biodiversity loss, and the social and economic pressures currently shaping rural life. While artists and art works have played a central role in Dinnseanchas, it has been first and foremost an example of art working; working to enable conversations, encounters and the ideation of other possible futures to emerge.
Dinnseanchas engaged a diverse cohort of visual artists and musicians, a composer, a writer and a storyteller, whose process was followed by a documentary team of photographer, film-maker and narrative researcher. Working alongside ecologists, artists were embedded within upland communities across 2024–2025, harnessing creative practice to build trust, celebrate local knowledge and heritage, and open meaningful dialogue about Ireland’s urgent environmental challenges.
A core element of the Dinnseanchas project has been the delivering of art in radically different contexts—from farmhouses and community halls to fields and bogs—moving creative process and practice beyond formal and familiar presentation spaces. Each engagement or output has been shaped by relationship: to the unique places the project has engaged with and to the different communities involved. The project’s approach has been flexible and generative, always keeping public engagement at its centre.
Dinnseanchas on Tour will be visiting four location on the Western Seaboard; Skibbereen, Co Cork; Iveragh, Co Kerry; Ennis, Co Clare; Inisboffin, Co Galway. The Dinnseanchas touring offering will be a 2-4 day event that radiates out from a central exhibition hub—an anchor space from which the varied programme of creative and environment-related events can take place.
Each part of the tour will be place-specific, responding directly to the landscapes, communities and environmental realities of each touring location. In each community local knowledge will be embraced through engaging with local artists, local restoration initiatives and environmental voices, consistently engaging the public through artist-led workshops and participatory creative encounters. The art will both be in the exhibition hub, screenings and performance, and in the interactions and intersections between people where we create the space to explore and envision shared futures.
Alongside the deeply important but intangible creative outcomes from participatory workshops, artist-led nature engagements and community debate, Dinnseanchas generated a substantial body of artistic work in response to the project’s environmental themes: films, music, a sound walk, visual installations, a photographic exhibition, poetry and a book of essays. Together, these works form a cohesive creative programme which has already been well-received at Ardnaculla Summer School (May 2025) and IMMA’s Earth Rising Festival (September 2025).
Some of the work presented by Dinnseanchas on tour will be from the collective of artists that were part of the residency programme. Other work by local artists that responds to the Dinnseanchas theme will also be integrated into the programme where possible.
Artists Embedded in Upland Communities: Zoë Rush; William Bock; Peadar-Tom Mercier; Róisín de Buitléar; Síomha Brock & Jennifer Ahern; Heather Griffin & Patrick Mulvihill. Wider Creative Team: Colm Mac Con Iomaire (composer-in-residence); Grace Wells (writer-in-residence); Jennifer Ahern (researcher-in-residence); Joao Tudella (documentary filmmaker); Myriam Riand (photographer); Aindrias de Staic (storyteller); David Teevan (creative consultant); Ray Ó Foghlú (creative environmental Lead).