After the big announcement last year at the gathering a group of us have worked for some months to finally get the All Ireland Permaculture Association (AIPA) off the ground. After much wrestling over bureaucratic hurdles to be able to get an official bank account, we went the simplest way possible by calling ourselves a club/society with a constitution. Our vision is that “Permaculture principles and ethics are widely understood, embraced and practiced on the island of Ireland” with the mission “to create a network that advances the knowledge and practice of permaculture on the island of Ireland in line with its vision“. The details of how we achieve these aims is still up for discussion.
The association will be run by our office holders, which currently are our double-Claire chair of Claire Templar and Claire Thompson-Moore (County Mayo and County Donegal), our secretary Sarah Davidson (County Tipperary) and our treasurer Anna Nolan (County Kilkenny), as well as a committee of people committed to give up time and effort to further the cause of permaculture. We aim to make decisions on a consensus basis amongst us, with changes to the constitution needing to be put in front of the membership as a whole. The full constitution will soon be published on the website. The Committee will also appoint a council of elders (although they don’t know that yet) to help with any conflict resolution.
Membership initially will be for those who attend the 2025 gathering and the AGM, as we want to start with as broad a base as possible. We haven’t decided on what benefits membership will bring, or indeed how any extra funds will be used. Part of the exercise was also to give more transparency on the funds from the annual gatherings that have been knocking about in the cloud and people’s back pockets. So the main benefit of early membership will be to be able to influence the direction of the association. All participants of this year’s gathering will have the option to become automatic members and the first AGM will take place on the Sunday morning of the next gathering on the 24th August 2025. To book tickets for the gathering please check this link. If you can’t make the next gathering, but want to be involved anyway, just drop us an e-mail at allirelandpermaculturenetwork@gmail.com. We also welcome more members to the Committee.
The initial function of the AIPA will be to continue overseeing the annual gatherings and manage the funds thereof. In the future we hope to set up an education program, support local groups throughout the island, promote local and national events, set up an approved LAND program of permaculture sites that can be visited by interested individuals or groups, lobby governments, exchange knowledge through a regular newsletter and create a strong network of permaculture practitioners in Ireland and beyond. We’re open to more suggestions by members, especially if you have time to spare to turn them into reality. Everybody involved in making this happen do this on a completely voluntary basis and the more people are actively helping, the lighter the load on the individuals and the more we can achieve to further the cause of permaculture in Ireland.
We’re looking forward to seeing you all at the next gathering at the Slieve Aughty Centre in County Galway in August and our very first AGM. More on the gathering in the next post on here.
