Category: Uncategorised

The 23rd Annual Maura Shaffrey Memorial Lecture was held on Thursday, 18th October 2021 at 6:30pm.

The lecture, Cultural Heritage: A Missing Link in Climate Action: Post COP26 – Has the Gap been filled? was delivered by Andrew Potts, with a response from Senator Alice-Mary Higgins. 

A recording of this lecture can be found here.

The lecture was followed by a workshop with Andrew Potts, Will Megarry, and others. The workshop was organised as part of an ongoing series of Climate Conversation Workshops. The Workshop explored the relevant action and application of cultural heritage in supporting national and international objectives for net-zero carbon, just transition, and circular concepts.

Themes addressed in the workshop included:

• Intelligent strategies for reuse and adaptation;
• resilient cities/towns/villages;
• vernacular and intangible cultural heritage

Recordings of all workshops held as part of this series can be viewed here. 

Both events were generously supported by the Heritage Council.

Andrew Potts
Andrew Potts coordinates the Secretariat of the Climate Heritage Network on behalf of ICOMOS, which hosts the Secretariat. The Climate Heritage Networks links organisations around the world that share a commitment to the role arts, culture and heritage can play in tackling the climate emergency. 

Andrew formerly coordinated the ICOMOS Climate Change and Heritage Working Group (CCHWG). In 2019 the CCHWG released its report The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Cultural Heritage in Climate Action. The Future of Our Pasts Report scoped hundreds of ways in which cultural heritage can drive transformative climate action and catalogued the myriad impacts climate change is having on every type of heritage.

Andrew holds a legal degree from Indiana University in the United States. He previously served as Associate General Counsel of the US National Trust for Historic Preservation and received its National Trust’s John H. Chafee Trustees Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Policy. He also previously served as ICOMOS Focal Point for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Senator Alice-Mary Higgins
Alice-Mary Higgins is a progressive, independent Senator. Elected to Seanad Éireann on the NUI Panel, she leads the Civil Engagement Group. As a member of the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment and Climate Action, she played a leading role in the parliamentary scrutiny of Ireland’s Climate Act. She also sits on the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and Public Expenditure and the Oireachtas Committee on Disability. She is a member of the Irish delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and one of four Irish parliamentary representatives at the Conference on the Future of Europe. 

She has participated in a number of the UN COP meetings on Climate Change. Senator Higgins is chair of the Oireachtas All-Party Group on the Sustainable Development Goals, a founding member of the Parliamentarians for the Global Goals network and part of the Parliamentarians for Peace initiative.  

HERITAGE WEEK LAUNCH

19 August 2021 | 1800 hrs | Online

“Time is much shorter than we think. Failure means disaster. The changes required are enormous and we must all contribute in every part of our daily life. Especially us in the rich countries where no nation is doing nearly enough.”

Greta Thunberg

 

“Many individuals are doing what they can. But real success can only come if there is a change in our societies and in our economics and in our politics.”

Sir David Attenborough

 

The planet is at a crossroads where business as usual is no longer an option. In December 2020, the ICOMOS General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to declare a Climate and Ecological Emergency. The declaration also recognises the immense potential of cultural heritage to enable inclusive, transformative and just climate action.

 

Climate change is the most pressing issue of our time, and will affect every aspect of our lives. The solution will require action at every level of society. This Heritage Week, in advance of COP26, which takes place from 31 October to 12 November 2021, ICOMOS Ireland invites you to join our Climate Change Conversation, aimed at identifying ways and means to expand knowledge and define good practice for supporting heritage responses to climate change.

 

The event will consist of three short introductory talks, followed by a 40 minute discussion with participation from the audience. What can ICOMOS Ireland do to focus on Climate Change?

Please join us for this vital conversation, and share your thoughts and inputs with us.

 

Introduction – Deirdre McDermott

Deirdre is a ICOMOS Ireland member, Advisory Committee Officer and Irish representative to the ICOMOS Climate Change and Cultural Heritage Working Group.

 

Built Heritage Sectoral Adaptation Plan and the Climate Heritage Network – Jacqui Donnelly BArch MA FRIAI

Jacqui is a Senior Architect in the Built Heritage Policy section of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Grade 1 Accredited Conservation Architect with the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. She represents Built Heritage Policy on the steering committee for the National Adaptation Framework on climate change and is engaged on the implementation of the Climate Change Sectoral Adaptation Plan for Built and Archaeological Heritage. She chairs an inter-departmental committee overseeing the preparation of new guidance on enhancing the energy efficiency of traditional buildings under the Climate Action Plan 2019. She is a steering committee member of the international Climate Heritage Network and an ICOMOS member.

 

Climate Change: a Monumental Challenge – Professor John Sweeney

John Sweeney has taught at Maynooth and a number of universities in North America and Africa for over 40 years. He has published over 125 scientific papers on various aspects of Irish climate and has served as President of the Irish Meteorological Society, the Geographical Society of Ireland and An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland as well as being the Irish representative on a number of European academic bodies and a contributor to IPCC Assessment Reports.

 

Book your place here:

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/icomos-ireland-climate-conversations-heritage-week-launch-event-tickets-164374603865

 

This Conversation is the first in a series of ICOMOS Ireland events relating to Climate Change and Cultural Heritage which are scheduled for 2021. Follow our social media for updates.