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.

After The Europe Challenge

Participating in The Europe Challenge has made a significant positive difference in their local community by being able to address local needs more inclusively. In sharing social history with memory and folklore storytelling, they transformed the library from a repository of physical archives to a shared stored memory space: of the bogs and peatlands both visually (an exhibition) and through sound (a series of podcasts.) They have uncovered previously hidden cultural memories of the land that are now helping them further understand their community. 

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