Roots of Solidarity & Festival of Traditional Crafts

Celt were delighted to welcome everyone to our Sustainable Living Festival & Palestinian Solidarity Event over the weekend of Sept 26 & 27th, which was funded with the assistance of the Small Festivals Scheme under the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport

Everyone was invited to come and join us and enjoy a feast of culture and creativity with a wonderful line up of events over the 2 days including music by Ciara O'Donnell of Bog Bodies fame, Irish and Palestinian traditional dance, crafts, film, music, art, poetry, storytelling, workshops, apple pressing, nature trail activities and a variety of family entertainment and lots more. Our 'Roots of Solidarity' Festival aimed to offer an inspiring weekend featuring local to global solidarity initiatives that promises a vibrant fusion of live music, arts, crafts and multicultural delights for all ages, with something of interest for everyone!

The festive weekend aimed to inspire, connect, and co-create visions and possibilities for our future well being. -

Line up and Schedule Day 1 - Saturday September 27th 

10:00am – 10:30am – Festival Opening

‘Community - Tine’ Community Fire Lighting Ceremony, Aoife De Dannan with welcome address from special guests

10:30am – 11:30am – Film Screening: Loch Gréine: A Bright Vision

Director: Marina Levitina - Music: Martin Hayes

A documentary film (57 mins) - Funded by the Heritage Council of Ireland

'A love letter to East Clare’s Graney Valley, celebrating land, community, and the brighter future we can create together.'

11:30am – 12:30pm – Nourishing Landscapes 

Post Film Discussion with:

Chair - Gillian Westbrook - Irish Organic Association

Panelists; Film maker Marina Levitina, CEO Lough Grainey Nature Sanctuary; Ray McGrath – Bioregioning SE Ireland; Pam Mncube-Zokli - Direct Provision Community Food Project - Shining Light Galway; Brendan Sanders – Flagmount Wild Gardens / Slieve Aughty Local Landscape Partnership; Sean O’Farrell – Organic Grower & Talamh Beo member

All day Community Craft Workshops included:

10.30 - 12.30 & 2:00 - 4.30 - Crafting Willow Crowns with Kate Burrows & Needle Felting with Belinda Reid

10:30 - 11:30 & 2:00 - 4.30 - Creative Family Nature based Activities – Jill Little, Forest School Teacher 

11:30 - 12:30 - Storytelling for All the Family -'Living Legends & Enchanting Tales' with Scealta Beo's Anette Corkery

11:30 - 12:30 - Reem El Rayes – Palestinian Tatreeze Workshop & Traditional Crafts Stall 

3:30 - 4:30 - Autumn Hedgerow Walk with Sean O’Farrell, Organic Grower & Educator

4:00 - 5:00 – Storytelling for All – Exploring our rich Heritage of Myths and Legends - Ruth Marshall, Storyteller & Author

12:30pm – 1:30pm – Poetry: Kerri ní Dochartaigh

12.30pm – 1:30pm – Lunch

1:30pm – 2:00pm – Keynote Address: Dr. Peter Doran "The Rights of Nature are the Rights of Ireland: Invoking a constitutional imaginary for a Second Republic through culture, the arts and literature"

2:00pm – 3:30pm – Panel Discussion

Chair: Marina Levitina -Film maker & CEO Lough Grainey Nature Sanctuary

Panelists: Dr. Peter Doran; Film maker & Ecological Storytelling Facilitator Dónal O’Ceilleachair; poet - Kerri ní Dochartaigh; Sarah Prosser - Bioregioning SE Ireland; Author - Mark Boyle

4:00pm – 5:00pm – Film: The Rights of Nature – The Movement

Evening:

7:30pm – 9.30pm – Music – Ciara O’Donnell from the Bog Bodies Band

7:30pm – 8:30pm – Céilí Dancing with Aoife De Dannan + Dabke Dance guests, Ali, Anwar & Friends

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Schedule Day 2 - Sunday September 28th 

All Day Workshops included;

10:30am – 12:15pm & 2.00am – 5:00pm –

All-Day Apple Pressing with Alice Cade

Bring your own apples & bottles to bring home your own apple juice!!

Creative Family Nature based Activities – Jill Little, Forest School Teacher 

Drop in weaving Willow Crowns with Kate Burrows

10:30am – 11:30am – Co-Shaping Earth in the Story of Echtge - Goddess of Sliabh Aughty – Valériane BrígBláth

12:30am – 1:30pm – Adult & Children’s Storytelling - 'Living Legends' with Scealta Beo’s Annette Corkery

1:00pm – 2:00pm – Off-Grid Living Workshop – Jacintha & Tomas, Abhainn na Ollfhia

1:30pm – 2:00pm – Lunch

1:45pm – 2:00pm – Short Film: Seeding the Future – Director Dónal O’Ceilleachair - 'Adapting Active Hope & Ecological Storytelling in a 10min proof-of-concept for a new feature length project in the making. 

2:00pm – 3:30pm – Post Film discussion 

Chair: Panelists: Dónal O’Ceilleachair award winning Filmmaker & Ecological Storytelling Facilitator, EcoSocial Artists Aoife Desmond, Joe Nix & Sheila Flanagan: Kevin Dudley, formerly Irish Seed Savers Association & Cloughjordan Community Farm  

3:50am – 5:00pm – Palestinian Film - The Foragers with thanks to Portumna Palestine Support Group

A Palestinian community's love of collecting wild plants becomes a gesture of resistance - a cinematic investigation into the practice of foraging za'atar ( a thyme-like herb) and 'akkoub ( a wild artichoke-like plant) and the perils under Israeli law.

5:00pm - Singing for Change with Jacintha, Thomas & Friends 

Closing Ceremony – Aoife De Dannan

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For full festival details and bios please visit our Website - https://www.celtnet.org/events/roots-of-solidarity-eco-arts-festival-at-weekend-in-the-hills

CELT’s Weekend in the Hills Festival of Traditional Crafts & Sustainable Living Skills workshops were also being held over the two days where you could choose one from over amazing 12 different traditional crafts and skills on offer... and go home with new skills and the item(s) you made! Please visit the Weekend in the Hills page to book one of these courses in the future! https://www.celtnet.org/weekend-in-the-hills

We are grateful to funding from the Small Festival Scheme under the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and the Irish Environmental Network and the Community Foundation Ireland under the Department of the Environment, Climate & Communications who enable these events to take place. We are also grateful to Naomh Brendan Credit Union Loughrea who offered to partner with us in raising awareness of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Week 2025

Our Palestinian Solidarity event aimed to support the work of Loughrea for Palestine and the Palestinian Union of Agriculture Workers Committees and Permaculture for Palestine Refugees Educational Programme.

The Palestinian Union of Agriculture Workers Committees ( UAWC) is a progressive civil society organisation, responding to the current crisis by contributing to the agricultural sector’s development, with the aims of empowering farmers' steadfastness and sovereignty of their resources within a sustainable community-based liberational developmental framework. 

For more info and to donate directly please visit their website - https://uawc-pal.org/