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It’s nice sometimes to come back a good while later to somewhere you have done a good bit of work.

Borrisokane is a small town in the north of the north of Tipperary.  It’s one of those places that makes you think – if you could do it there, surely you could do it anywhere !

It all started with a few women talking in the school playground about why more wasn’t happening in their town …

With help from North Tipperary Leader Partnership, they got me in and I helped them with a survey of local community groups and businesses, an amazing 120 people turned up at a public meeting to hear the results and following a mix of cafe and open space working, the vast majority got involved in moving things forward.  A year later there are a flourishing range of initiatives ranging from a market to a new after school club, a community radio training scheme to collaborative wood chip production to heat a local nursing home (and lots lots more).

For more details ;

borrisokane-needs-analysis-report-final-version-2013

For a long time, I have liked the line ‘human beings can’t be sustainable on their own’.  Also, the Meg Wheatley quote : “Whatever the problem the answer is community”.  Working in Borrisokane was a great experience of helping a community to see that it was the answer to many of its own questions.