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ENACT's Community Events
Whitegate and Aghada Two Day Community Engagement Events 21st and 22nd May 25
Community Interviews
On 21st May some of the ENACT team headed down to Aghada and Whitegate Co. Cork for the first kick off programme events in the area. The postdoctoral fellow lead Josie Taylor conducted interviews at Aghada Community Centre. ENACT is focused upon community responses to energy production in their area and feelings and emotions around the prospect of energy transition, of what it might mean for their community. Whitegate is home to Ireland’s only oil refinery, and Aghada electricity generating station owned by ESB a short walk away. As a hub of energy production, fossil fuel infrastructure has held a certain role in the Whitegate and Aghada community for many years. Ireland’s national plans to commit to renewable energy projects may have implications and uncertainties for the area. The interviews had a range of differing perspectives on collective and individual feeling around energy production in their area and what energy transition might mean for them.
ESB Plant Tour and Walkshop
On Thursday 22nd May, 17 community members and some of the ENACT team were hosted by ESB’s site manager at Aghada Power Station and ESB’s community liaison officer Sean Moroney. The community residents and ENACT members had a great opportunity to learn the history of the electricity generating station, its commitment of employing local residents, the introduction of renewables, as well as further planned developments of offshore wind in the region. There was a tour of plant’s facilities and a drive over to further different areas of the plant. Discussions were had of ambitions to continue the plant’s role in the community with talk of more transparency and opportunities for the local community to learn of their plans and progress. Following the tour and some lunch overlooking the harbour and the Whitegate refinery, the walkshop began. Community members split off with a different member of the ENACT team to walk, reflect and discuss what the energy infrastructure we were overlooking meant to them, their connections and attachment to landscape and the water, and finally what energy transition might mean for their community.
Moneypoint Tour and Kilrush Community Event 26th - 27th Sept 2024
As part of the Irish Energy Narratives in Transition research project, combined with ENACT, we hosted a community workshop in Kilrush and a site visit of ESB owned coal plant Moneypoint. The Moneypoint site visit was led by ESB site manager Stephen O’Mahoney. There was a discussion of a wind-down of fossil fuels, introducing new technologies such as batteries and wind energy. There were also conversations centring on the relationship between Kilrush and Moneypoint, exploring uncertainties about the present and future for the plant for the area.
The following day the community workshop further expanded on the relationship between Moneypoint and Kilrush. There was a set-up of four tables and placed on each table there was a large printed Ordnance Survey map of West Clare, and participants were invited to add their thoughts and concerns onto the maps themselves as the discussions progressed. Each table had a central theme: ‘just transition’, ‘culture and heritage’, ‘energy’ and an open table for further thoughts and discussion. Participants were invited to visit each table discussing their thoughts and using Post-it notes to map the areas. We hope to continue the conversations we had in this workshop over the duration of the next three years through the ENACT project. We are especially interested in how people feel about energy history in their area and what emotions come to the fore when considering the oncoming energy transition.
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