Is there a new kind of space that might help to unlock the dominant mindsets that no longer serve the complex challenges we face? Bioregioning looks to nature at the large landscape scale encompassing river catchment clusters – from mountain to sea – grounded in a sense of place and collective community action for change. But what does this mean in practice? This talk will explore an emerging example from the South East of Ireland, where efforts are underway to build the infrastructures – human and financial – needed to support interventions that can collectively steer us towards a more sustainable future for generations to come. Bioregioning is an emerging practice in many areas of the world – what might it bring to the Corrib Catchment?

Speaker:
Sarah Prosser works as a ‘weaver’ of social and ecological change and leads Bioregioning South East Ireland from their base in Dunhill, Co. Waterford. Here she can combine her passions for dealing with complexity, learning by doing, the wide outdoors, listening, and solidarity economics for big scale, systemic change. Rooted in her upbringing in Scotland and career as a geologist, Sarah moved to Norway nearly 30 years ago. Here she has worked with cultural relations, human rights film, social innovation, and urban regeneration – including founding a national network of local incubators designed for inclusive and collective changemaking.

This is the final event in the 2025 Corrib Beo Lunchtime Talks Series, hosted by Galway City Museum. The popular series has explored Lough Corrib’s natural, cultural, and built heritage, alongside examples of heritage protection and regeneration elsewhere, with the aim of informing, stimulating debate, and inspiring action towards greater public awareness and preservation of the lake and its cultural treasures.