The Happy Pear Podcast

This week’s guest is one of the founders of Irelands first eco-villages, Cloughjordan Ecovillage.

Davie is a community catalyst and facilitator at Cultivate.ie, the sustainability cooperative based in Cloughjordan Ecovillage, and a network weaver with ECOLISE.eu, the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability. He is the coordinator to the Open Food Hub at Cloughjordan Community Farm and the chair of Open Food Network Ireland.  

Episode 8 – Davie Philip

Davie brings us through his fascinating narrative from his early eco-warrior, revolutionist days of being arrested, and as he describes “we were more interested in being proactive than reactive”, to the foundations of which he and a few others began the Cloughjordan eco-village.

“Getting involved in an eco-village or a community project at this scale is the longest self-development course you’ve ever taken. Because you are constantly learning about yourself. And I think that shift that you just mentioned, Steve – that ego to eco, I think that’s a world view that we need if we are going to survive on a hospitable planet by the end of the century. We need to move from that individualistic just consumerist culture that reduces everything into its parts, to where we actually start to see relationships and connection, and the value and health and wellbeing of the whole is good for me as a part of that whole.”

Davie is seriously inspirational and does not sugar coat a thing, we dive deep into the successes and difficulties of creating a sustainable community, from our political setbacks to the health and mental benefits of co-living and amenities sharing community.

“Community living and land trust show that there are different approaches to living. It’s mad because in Ireland our only two ways to secure a home is a mortgage (a massive dept) ‘mort-gage’ literally translates to “the grip of death”, or rental with no secure tenure. That’s our options, whereas in Europe there are multiple options, the diversity of ways to secure your home and your home being more than just an asset you speculate on.”

A great conversation and a brilliant addition to our community series. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did – and listen out for the 4 simple steps we as individuals can start right now to build on our own communities for a healthier and happier future.

Big love,

Dave & Steve

References

thevillage.ie

openfoodnetwork.ie