A one-day conference exploring how Dublin’s water bodies and urban food growing can support biodiversity and build resilience.
Featuring walks, talks, conversations and commensality, the conference brings together a diverse group of participants: researchers, academics, city officials, artists, practitioners, activists, and community groups. Our aim is to foster dialogue and creative exchange in an intimate, welcoming setting through panels, presentations, and guided neighborhood walks.
Programme
The “Fatima Poetry Vigilantes” will recite a spoken word pieces from the audience at the beginning of every talk or presentation
9.45-10.00 Introduction - Sophie von Maltzan
10.00- 10.25 “Riverlines: How Water Shaped Dublin’s Landscape” Professor Finola O’ Kane (UCD School of Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy) on water’s historic imprint on Dublin’s landscape
10.25- 10.50 “Blue Threads” Les Moore (Head of Parks, Biodiversity and Landscape Services at Dublin City Council) talks about how Dublin’s waterways serve nature and the community
10.50- 11.15 “Ireland’s Hidden Blue Wealth” Professor Mary Kelly-Quinn (Freshwater Ecologist, School of Biology & Environmental Science UCD) explores Ireland’s abundant freshwater riches and the vibrant life they sustain. This lecture reveals how healthy rivers can deliver clean water, thriving wildlife, and cultural vitality—and invites you to meet some of these remarkable river creatures up close.
11.15 - 11.45 Coffee break and viewing river life through microscopes with Professor Mary Kelly- Quinn
11.45- 12.00 “Flowing Forward” Professor Finola O’Kane, Les Moore and Professor Mary Kelly‑Quinn on the Future of Dublin’s freshwaters - in conversation with Sophia Meeres
12.00- 13.00 Guided walks to different sites in Dublin 8
13.00- 14.00 Lunch by Luncheonette, served in Flanagan’s Field, a community garden adjacent to the F2 Centre
14.00- 14.35 “Water & Wildness” Eoghan Daltun (rewilding activist, farmer and author of An Irish Atlantic Rainforest)speaks about reconnecting people with nature
14.35- 15.00 “City Harvests” Maeve Foreman (Mud Island Community Garden and Community Gardens Ireland) shares her thoughts on food growing in the City
15.00- 15.30 “Cultivating the Commons” Maeve Foreman and Peadar Rice (owner of Small Changes Whole Foods Store) in conversation with Sophie von Maltzan on the potential of growing food on “underused” public land with local community- and educational- organisations
15.30- 16.00 Coffee break and introduction to the Fatima United Art Group exhibition. For the conference artists from the group have created repeat pattern artworks inspired by the rich plant life found along the local waterways with artist Mirjam Keune
16.00- 16.30 Artist Jennie Moran on “Midnight Marsh”, telling the story of how the reclaimed marshland which surrounds the Belgian city of Ghent is creeping back and teaching us about resilience, coexistence and hospitality.
16.30- 17.00 Artist Rosie O’Reilly “Dublin’s rivers: Hydro-storytellers of hope and renewal”
17.00- 17.10 Concluding comments
General Info