This proposal is a vision for what is possible when a community pulls together & finds a new way to harness the creative power of its human resources for the benefit of the entire community. It’s about creating a new paradigm for the arts & redefining the role of the artist practitioner in our society. It is also about re-awakening the opportunity for good old-fashioned community spirit. It is about bringing together seemingly unrelated economic sectors in the workplace through the arts and the community. It is about discovering new ways to create economic opportunity in areas that have simply been overlooked. It’s about discovering a new frame of reference for the role of the arts culture within the community. It is about getting into action and initiating projects that will have a tangible and positive impact on cultural life in Ireland and the society as a whole. This proposal focuses on addressing head-on the challenge of re-visioning and rebuilding our eroded economy by More...

Ireland’s outstanding cultural heritage will be permanently showcased in a dedicated exhibition that will become one of the country’s best and most popular visitor attractions. Exhibiting for sale the very best of Ireland’s arts, crafts, foods and cottage industry outputs, the Best of Irish EXPO will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year as it achieves “must-visit” status in the majority of tourist itineraries. The Best of Irish EXPO will be a fully-managed tourist attraction featuring a vast array of artisan producers from right across the island of Ireland, exhibiting and selling their wares. Supplementing the sales exhibits will be food outlets, children’s activity areas, regular, scheduled entertainment and other activity and aesthetic features derived from Ireland’s cultural heritage, both traditional and modern. The Best of Irish EXPO promotional website will also feature an online shop which will facilitate the non-stop sale of exhibitors’ p More...

Ireland’s outstanding cultural heritage will be permanently showcased in a dedicated exhibition that will become one of the country’s best and most popular visitor attractions. Exhibiting for sale the very best of Ireland’s arts, crafts, foods and cottage industry outputs, the Best of Irish EXPO will attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year as it achieves “must-visit” status in the majority of tourist itineraries. The Best of Irish EXPO will be a fully-managed tourist attraction featuring a vast array of artisan producers from right across the island of Ireland, exhibiting and selling their wares. Supplementing the sales exhibits will be food outlets, children’s activity areas, regular, scheduled entertainment and other activity and aesthetic features derived from Ireland’s cultural heritage, both traditional and modern. The Best of Irish EXPO promotional website will also feature an online shop which will facilitate the non-stop sale of exhibitors’ p More...

A non-governmental initiative to enable a million ordinary people to participate in the generation of opportunities, jobs, and prosperity while making life in Ireland more fulfilling. It aims to cure the current despondency and economic hardship by modifying some of the attitudes and actions that have caused Ireland to fare so very badly in the current global recession. Seán Citizen and Máire are good hearted people. They know that governments cannot do everything. They want to know what they can do to help the situation. They need to know that their efforts are supported by lots of other people. The idea is to give them a programme and motivate them to try it. It may succeed in a small way or a big way. Given professional implementation, it can scarcely fail.

Basically my proposal would be to utilise the existing canals that travel into the centre of Ireland and convert the pathways along them into continuous bicycle paths. The idea would be to utilise a tremendous existing natural resource, i.e. Ireland's natural beauty and the tranquil canals that could bring legions of tourists along a safe route through Ireland. The scheme would involve the purchase of strips of land alongside both the Grand Canal and Royal Canal in that modern, pleasant and safe cycle paths could be constructed. Many jobs would be created in the construction and maintenance of the cycle paths and in addition the maintenance of bicycles that would be provided in a scheme similar to that of the 'dublin bikes' scheme. Tourists would be encouraged to cycle, use barges or a combination of both as they travel at leisure through the serene countryside. Boats companies would also be able to employ extra people in order to maintain the extra barges needed. The idea would b More...

Dublin city centre could certainly use more tourist and cultural attractions, so that’s what I think we should build, and in the process bring in tourism euros and create jobs. I propose a History of Ireland museum, which would cover a vast time period, from hunter gatherers to the present day, something that we are sorely lacking at the moment. To make it appealing to families, it should be based more on the style of the Horrible History books rather than on the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with an emphasis on interactivity, humour and tour guides wearing costumes (thus providing employment for our hard hit creative community). As far as sites go, the Phoenix Park would seem a natural choice and if we build from scratch, this will create employment for the building trade. While the choice of the park may run into planning difficulties, perhaps they could be circumvented, as times are hard and new ideas need all the help they can get…

As a reaction to the forecasted oil crisis, the proposal is an advancement of the most economical method of storing renewable energies, which is pumped storage. The use of this method is constrained by geography, needing a landmass to support the upper reservoir of the system and a lower reservoir of water. The proposal is a built structure to remove this constraint allowing the method to be used anywhere with a lower body of water. A monument that provides psychological benefit to the country, symbolising empowerment through harnessing our own abundant natural resources and reversing a long held dependency. Attachment to the poolbeg towers show that the utilities that drive our economy also serve to anchor our social fabric.

International Centre for Innovative Developments [ICID] Overview - Harnessing innovation for a dynamic shared future Crossing the traditional boundaries between areas of knowledge and highlighting the importance of convergence, the International Centre for Innovative Developments (ICID) will encourage, communicate and celebrate innovation throughout the island of Ireland. It will act as a technology ‘window on the world’, for example, linking US companies through the Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh with Irish companies. This transatlantic link will then be further developed throughout the island’s technology research centres and companies thus brokering new relationships, stimulating and capitalising on opportunities. This first completely integrated approach to innovation across the island, has a far reaching potential to stimulate the Irish business and educational worlds and generate new jobs. It will commence with an Innovation Learning Division tailored to the needs of b More...

In ancient times, a handful of Slithe (routes) linked Tara (ancient capital of Ireland) with the rest of the island of Ireland. These routes led the traveller through woodlands, plains, bogs and mountains - secret places, each with a story to tell. Those of you who have read Bruce Chatwin's "Songlines" will understand how the landscape must have spoken to the ancient traveller. These days we have fast routes, built at enormous cost ,where the traveller moves to a destination as fast as possible without experiencing the reality of the journey. What we have gained in speed and time, we have lost hugely in terms of human experience and happiness. Over the next ten years, I propose that we develop a network of slow routes, echoing the ancient Slithe, where the traveller hears the sound of the blackbird, the rush of a stream and savours music and a pint at a pub along the way. This network of routes will occupy the same space as Ireland of old but will exist and prosper in our time, leav More...

This will be an iconic visitor experience where descendants of Ireland (of which there are 70 million in the world) and the ‘new Irish’ can come to one of the oldest centres of human settlement in Ireland and leave a living memory. The layers of bog at Lough Boora Parklands, a magical landscape at the heart of Ireland, have been preserving traces of human activity for 7000 years or more. The addition of a visitor centre, a state-of-the-art multimedia archive and a ‘memory garden’ to the existing attractions around the Parklands will draw visitors from far and near. The idea is that the ‘ordinary people’ of Ireland can leave their own extraordinary stories for future generations to find. They can come as a family to record their family story or as individuals to record a memory, good or bad. Visitors can tell their story or demonstrate a skill and record it on film or audio. They can scan in family documents or photos so that a copy can be held for the future. As this archi More...