The Europe Challenge

The Local Challenge

This is a rural area of the Irish Midlands, with economic activities primarily focusing on farming, forestry, quarrying and peat. The transition from peat extraction is a key topic with social and environmental implications and there is a strong need for community dialogue with industry and policymakers. Abbeyleix Library and other Laois libraries are facilitating this dialogue in supportive ways with RE-PEAT, which has expertise with peatlands and designing community events that highlight the importance of ecological and social justice.  

 The Initiative  

Their approach is to capture and address the complexities of facilitating a just transition to ensure the preservation of cultural heritage, and to strengthen ties between community members and stakeholders. Grounded in storytelling and literature, with libraries as pillars of culture and healthy communities, their activities cover producing personal stories for exhibitions and online display, showcasing Irish literature relating to peatlands and dissemination through storytelling events at libraries.

What’s Next?

Through their participation in the Europe Challenge, they are interested to see how other communities are dealing with the challenges presented by realising just transitions, both on a social and environmental level. Specifically, they would like to learn from other places that are mobilising community venues to open up spaces for challenging and much-needed discussions and how they are demonstrating the value of libraries for vibrant communities and democracies.   

Contact theeuropechallenge@culturalfoundation.eu if you have any questions or want to be connected with the team behind the project.