About

We’ve all done it. Something breaks, and we don’t know how to mend it – so we throw it away. But binning our broken things is harming our environment. Buying things over and over again means we’re ramping up carbon emissions, and by sending them to landfill when they break, we are piling up tonnes of unnecessary waste.

But we are always fixing things. Fixing, repairing and maintaining objects is essential, even vital to everyday life. Our ‘Right to Repair’ the objects should be a necessary given as it empowers us to take care of our tools and things by demanding good design and addresses issues relating to planned obsoletism. Repairing things can support local economies and crafts persons and when we mend something, we love or care for it also contributes to our wellbeing and autonomy in the world.

Celebrating and spotlighting such everyday care – REPAIR ACTS, Ireland gathers stories of how we fix everyday things. It will do this by looking at how we repaired things in the past, to how we do it now and how we will repair things in the future.

Connecting histories of repair to what we do today and tomorrow. We will be speaking to people about their memories of how we used to fix things locally. Mapping instances of repair through various archives, we will be creating new cartographies of local repair practice, exploring how people in Westmeath used to repair anything from thatching roofs, to tinsmithing, weaving and mending baskets and cloths.

To collect stories from the present, we aim to collect 1,000 stories of how people from across the county fix their everyday objects. These stories will become part of a contemporary repository of objects that will be exhibited as part of our installation.

Looking to the future, from 3-6th Nov 2022 we will be creating a site-based installation in the village of Kilbeggan that draws on all our activities and speculates on future repair narratives.

Leading conversations about the role repair can play in society and climate change, over 2022 we will also be hosting a number of storytelling events and workshops. During which we will be collecting aspirational statements for how to foster more local repair mindsets in towns, villages and neighborhoods. These statements will help us to create a generative Repair Declaration, which we will launch as part International Repair Day on 15th October 2022.

Our Story

Repair Acts, Ireland emerges from the work of Repair Acts international, which was established in 2018 by the artist, researcher and Professor of City Futures, Teresa Dillon at the University of the West of England (School of Art and Design and Digital Cultures Research Centre). Since the inception of the programme, the geographer Dr. Alma Clavin, University College Dublin has been involved in the project.

Together Professor Dillon and Dr. Clavin, with support from Westmeath County Council, Environmental and Heritage Officers and the Public Participation Network, applied to Creative Ireland, to set up the Irish branch of the project.

Repair Acts Ireland is funded by Creative Ireland, Creative Climate Action Fund with the first phase of the project running from across 2022.

Our Team

  • Teresa Dillon, Artist lead

    An artist and researcher, Teresa currently holds the post of Professor of City Futures at the School of Art and Design, UWE Bristol. Teresa’s work explores the relationship between humans, other species, technology, cities and our environments. In 2018, Teresa established Repair Acts as a practice-centred programme of artistic, cultural and academic work that explores relations between past, present and futures forms of repair, care, maintenance and healing cultures. Sharing methodologies from previous projects, Teresa will be working with Alma and the team, to establish Repair Acts, Ireland with a focus on developing new artistic works, including the online elements, video art works and site-based installation.

  • Alma Clavin, Academic lead

    Alma is a researcher in the Cities, Governance and Sustainability group at the UCD School of Geography. She has worked with a number of public, private and non-governmental organisations in Ireland and the UK on planning, energy and sustainability issues. Her academic work explores how sustainability and ecological design can enhance human well-being and quality of life. Since its inception in 2018, Alma has been part of the international Repair Acts programme. Along with Teresa, Alma will be leading on establishing the programme in Ireland with a focus on local and academic relations, as well as connecting the programme to wider sustainable and climate action work in Ireland.

  • Robin Ferguson, Researcher

    An environmental specialist with over twenty-five years of government agency and regulatory experience, Robin’s work lies in analysing proposed actions for environmental and social impacts. Robin will be supporting the production and research associated with Repair Acts, focusing on archival research and the links between the project and climate change policy.

  • Westmeath County Council, Partner

    Repair Acts, Ireland is in partnership with Westmeath County Council. The council will be supporting the development of the project through a number of county-led actions and events, which will be supported by Project Leads, John Jackson (Environmental Awareness Officer), Melanie McQuade (Heritage Officer) and Brigid Geoghegan (Westmeath People's Participation Network).

  • New Graphic, Graphic and Web Design

    New Graphic think good design combines clarity and beauty. Founded in 2007 by partners Diarmuid Slattery and David Garavin, the company work with client's to help them communicate their message. New Graphic will be working Repair Acts, Ireland to develop the programmes web and brand identity.

  • Ana Filipovic Mecke, Exhibition Design

    Ana Filipovic is an architect, spatial designer, and independent researcher. Her work focuses on spatial manifestations of power structures in society, and the collective imaginaries that emerge out of them. Ana will be working with Teresa on the designing the architecture for the site-based installation in Kilbeggan.

  • Gavin Connor, Photographer

    For the last two decades Gavin Connor has being documenting through photography, graphics and illustration, music and festival sub-cultures. With a focus on the sublime and the in-between his images look to what is left in the aftermath of a moment or event. Gavin will be contributing to the project by providing key images for our press and publicity.

  • Fionn Kidney, Collegiate advisor

    Co-founder and director of Common Knowledge - a not-for-profit enterprise that aims to empower people to create sustainable, affordable and healthy homes. Fionn has signifiant experience in momentum building for new projects, strategic development, cultural engagement and marketing across the public, private and non-profit sectors. As our collegiate advisor, we brought Fionn in to support our early stage thinking and development, with the intention that as we develop the work, we will continue the conversation on how we can collectively build more restorative futures.

National Strategy Board

  • Claire Downey, Rediscovery Centre

    Claire Downey is the Policy and Research Director at the Rediscovery Centre, National Centre for the Circular Economy. In this role she is responsible for leading policy and research activity at the centre to support the development of the circular economy within Ireland and internationally. Claire has over 18 years of experience in the resources sector, is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Wastes Management and a board member with the Green Foundation Ireland. She helped to coordinate Repair Cafe Ireland and is involved in the Right to Repair campaign at EU level.

  • Prof. Frances Fahy, NUIG

    Frances Fahy is an environmental geographer and Professor of Geography at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG). Frances' sustainability centred work has been published widely and she currently leads on a number of EU funded projects that explore environmentally friendly lifestyles across Europe and young people's relationship with climate change. Previously, Frances served as Head of Geography at NUI Galway (2014-2017) and she is a founding member of SCOARI - EU, (Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative) an international knowledge network of researchers and practitioners committed to building a flourishing and ecologically-sound society by changing the way we consume.

  • Helen Maguire, St. Angela’s College, Sligo (NUIG)

    Helen is Head of School (Home Economics) at St. Angela’s College Sligo. She was previously Lecturer in Home Economics in the School since 2005. Her professional and research interests lie in the fields of Home Economics; Sustainable Consumption; Practice Theories; Education for Sustainable and Responsible Living and Teacher Education. Helen is involved in a range of collaborative research and innovation projects nationally and internationally. She is currently completing PhD studies in Sustainable Consumption Practices, specifically Clothing Practices at the National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway.

  • Catherine Cleary , Pocket Forests

    Catherine is is an award-winning writer, journalist, author and broadcaster. Since the mid-1990s she has been writing for the Irish Times and Sunday Tribune, with a focus on food, climate and social issues. Currently Catherine writes 'Spend It Better' for the Irish Times magazine as well as contributes to the papers 'Life and Style' column. Catherine is the author and co-author of four books. In 2020 she co-found Pocket Forests with Ashe Conrad-Jones - a social enterprise to plant native forests in small spaces.

  • Jude Sherry, anois

    Designer, maker, repairer, researcher, critic, activist and speaker, Jude co-founded the global multi-award winning agency, anois, to co-design sustainable, responsible, equal and just product and urban systems. With sustainability embedded in everything she does, Jude has consulted governments, intra-government, educational institutes and industry on policy, business practice and curriculum. Anois latest immersion in Cork City has led to a national movement called #DerelictIreland focused on turning dereliction into an opportunity to co-create liveable, healthy & productive urban environments where everyone can RestPlayWork. In 2021 Jude was awarded Art & Design Woman of the Year for her international work and thought leadership.

Community Partners

  • Bealtaine Fire Celebration, Hill of Uisneach

    The Bealtaine Fire Celebration takes place on the Hill of Uisneach, which is an ancient ceremonial site and protected national monument in Westmeath. Symbolically considered as Ireland's sacred centre, the site contains a number of ancient (5,000 year old) monuments and earthworks that have played a key role in Irish Celtic mythology. Considered an assembly point for druids and others, who tended the "great fire”, which became the catalyst for the Bealtaine festival (Celtic May Day Festival) - an annual gathering and fair at Uisneach that continues today. As part of this years Bealtine Festival we will be working with the sites care-takers and protectors to run our first major repair-centred, storytelling event on the 7th May, 2022.

  • St James Hall, Kilbeggan

    Built in 1944, during 'The 'Emergency', St James Hall Kilbeggan is a fine example of twentieth-century Modernism and representative of a period when little was being built in rural Ireland. Currently a community asset managed by the Kilbeggan Preservation and Development Association the halls rich history spans its multiple uses as a cinema, dance hall, play house and community amenity. The hall plays a key role in hosting elements of the Repair Acts, site-based installation and exhibition on 3-6th November, 2022.

  • Mercy Secondary School, Kilbeggan

    Established in 1964, Mercy Secondary School Kilbeggan is a Catholic co-educational school committed to the holistic education of all students, to ensure that individually, they each realise their full potential in a social and physical environment that is caring, supportive and joyful. Under the wing of Mr. Farrell (Principal) and Ms. Gallen (Deputy Principal), over the last two decades the school has become known for its innovative approach to learning and academic achievements. As a key institution within the town of Kilbeggan, where we will be hosting our four day installation, we will be working closely with the school to coordinate on timelines, as well as working with Transition Year students.

  • Kilbeggan Grand Canal Company

    The Kilbeggan Grand Canal Company (Ltd) is a private real estate company that re-developed the former canal warehouses and stores in the town of Kilbeggan. Built c.1833-34 (open to traffic 1835), the warehouses were originally used to store agricultural produce and manufactured goods (mainly from the distilling, brewing and the tobacco processing industries, which were important to Kilbeggan's and south Co. Westmeath's industries during the early-to-mid nineteenth-century. The first phase was the restoration of the Harbour Building and basin was completed in 2000 with the aid of a Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS). The second phase as part of Renew Kilbeggan lead to the creation of the green way linking the Dublin-Galway cycle track at Streamstown to the main line of the Grand Canal of Ballycommon (completed in 2020). The third phase, which has recently been approved under the Just Transition Fund 2020 will look to upgrade and retrofitting the buildings. As part of our events programme for our November exhibition and installation, we will be activating these historic and repaired buildings. As part of our November programme we will be working with Kilbeggan Grand Canal Company, using the former canal buildings to host a series of workshops and family friendly events.

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