Midleton Transition Town

The Midleton Transition Group grew out of contacts made at a meeting about Eco Congregation Ireland hosted by the Cork Quaker Eco group. In summer 2008 a group of six began to meet, studied Rob Hopkins’ “Transition Handbook”* and planned a winter program. The name Transition refers to the lifestyle changes we have to make to become more sustainable.

So far the Group has manned a ‘Grow Your Own’ and a ‘Composting’ stand at two Midleton Food Festivals, shown the Cuba and Curitiba films** and hosted meetings on coping with Peak Oil.

In December 2008 climate change leaflets were handed out and the bells rang to ring in the changes in both the Catholic and Church of Ireland churches. There have been evenings on beginning and improving your vegetable garden, insulating your house and sustainable building.

Midleton followed the Transition Town pattern of starting with an initial core group that learns how Transition Towns function, sets up a programme and gets things started. Following this two interest groups have got to work, one on preparing an energy descent plan for Midleton, and the second a community gardening group.

The energy descent plan will suggest actions that can be taken to reduce the town’s reliance on fossil fuels and still have a community which functions. The very sociable gardening group is transforming some neglected plots in the town centre into attractive herb and vegetable gardens. They are also operating a garden meitheal where the group visits each other’s gardens to help with big jobs.

Allotments are being campaigned for and for those for whom a small garden at home is of interest a member will come and make up a 3 or 4 by 5 ‘Square Foot’ raised bed garden, and help get it started.

For now, the challenge for the core group is to attract more people, who can work on other interest groups like transport, sustainable building, low impact housing, strengthening the local economy and other sustainable community activities
Transition Towns are not the only format people can follow. For example, in West Cork there are several groups with similar aims, but calling themselves something else, like the Bandon Sustainability Project, Sustainable Clonakilty, and Sustainable West Cork, all of which are doing similar work in their own communities, and fully deserving of support.

One way that Eco Congregations can make good contacts and connections with the local community is by encouraging, supporting and co-operating with everyone who is working towards caring for our environment. Faith groups can encourage their members to reach out to local initiatives, make available their church halls for meetings and publicise environmental events in their newsletters.

Lay environmental groups can provide energy, enthusiasm and information. Church people can add their quiet conviction that caring for our surroundings and for the well-being of its inhabitants is a good, proper and moral thing to do.

Creating a sustainable lifestyle and sustainable communities is a huge and urgent challenge. It will need all of our skills and abilities and all of our different visions, deliberately working together, for the common good.

~ Natasha Harty, Midleton Transition Group (www.midleton-transitiontown.com)

*’The Transition Handbook’ by Rob Hopkins, Pub. by Green Books, ISBN 978 1 900322 18 8
** Cuba: “The Power of Community” and Curitiba: “A Convenient Truth” are available from www.green-shopping.co.uk.