Mayo flood action group hosts workshop

Floods unfortunately have a history in Crossmolina. The North Mayo town has experienced several floods originating from the River Deel in the past and locals and authorities are still seeking solutions for better protection. 

Crossmolina participants have now hosted guests for an informative walk around their town along the Deel highlighting the impact of flooding, and existing and planned adaptation measures. Participants exchanged stories about challenges and achievements along their communities’ journeys to build resilience to flooding and climate change.

The meeting was part of the Creative Ireland BluePrint project, which held an All-Island Learning and Exchange Workshop at the Enterprise Centre in Crossmolina, Co. Mayo on Friday, July 5th 2024.

The event successfully built connections and fostered exchange between flood-affected community representatives in Mayo (Crossmolina), Derry (Eglinton) and Tyrone (Newtownstewart), as well as scientific partners, creative practitioners, and government representatives.

Community participants involved the BluePrint project highlighted the value of the ongoing creative engagement process for sharing lived-experiences and the potential power of the resulting output to support wider climate risk communication with communities and decision-makers.

The workshop shared lessons on creative engagement processes in other Creative Ireland funded projects including Ripple and Immersion, while community participants had the opportunity to directly engage in a creative activity, facilitated by Wilderland’s project artist.

The discussions emphasised the important role of the locally led groups, such as the Crossmolina Flood Action Group, local fire service, and the Eglinton Flood Resilience Group, for disseminating warnings and supporting early action, such as installing flood gates, distributing sandbags, and helping vulnerable community members.

Participants reflected on how the event helped to demonstrate the value of building connections, integrating local knowledge, and supporting diverse and transdisciplinary engagement to address flooding and climate challenges, as well as the importance of remaining hopeful and positive towards finding solutions that build community resilience.

Councillor Michael Loftus said: “This experience helped me to realise the value of the arts and creative sector for meaningfully engaging with communities affected by flooding. This is something Crossmolina could benefit from, and I would welcome in the future.”

The BluePrint project team looks forward to facilitating further exchange between Crossmolina, Newtownstewart and Eglinton through the showcase event in Derry-Londonderry later this year and will continue engagement with participants to support the development of the BluePrint Creative Co-creation Toolkit.

The event was facilitated by MaREI, the SFI Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine at University College Cork as the lead partner of the BluePrint project in collaboration with project partners Mayo County Council, Derry City and Strabane District Council (DCSDC) and the Playhouse Derry. Local collaborators for the event included the Crossmolina Community Services Programme (CSP) for Crossmolina Community Council CLG and the Atlantic Seaboard North Climate Action Regional Office (CARO).

The BluePrint project 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.