Steering Group Members

Facilitator, Trainer and Coach
“Co-creating positive change at a personal, community and organisational level, nested within our precious ecosystems in a rapidly changing world” – www.emergentsynergies.ie

Mary has worked in community development, training and facilitation for over 40 years in Ireland and overseas. She is a founding member of Transition Kerry, a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects and an active member of the Irish Doughnut Economics Network.

Consultant:  As a consultant Mary has had the privilege of facilitating, training and coaching, in diverse settings, with Community and Business Leaders, Travellers, CEOs, School Managements and Staff, Indigenous Communities, Government officials, Corporate groups, Women in Enterprise, Community, Voluntary and Statutory sector, Environmental organizations, Health services, Youth Organisations and more.

Mícheál Ó Coileáin formerly an Environmental Awareness Officer with Kerry County Council for 18 years and was one of the founding members of Transition Kerry. He currently runs his own archaeological tour service on the Dingle peninsula.

Noreen White worked in the Health Services as a community development worker in Kerry and Cork from the mid 1970’s until her retirement in 2010. She has experience also of working abroad with Concern in the 1980’s. She has continued her interest in development work since her retirement and has worked as a volunteer with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Ethiopia for 3 months every year since 2013. Community participation and empowerment has been a fundamental guiding principle of her work. Noreen has been a member of Transition Kerry since 2010.

Originally from County Limerick,  I moved to  Kerry in ’94. I have lived, worked and/ or studied in England, Ireland, Canada, the US and Peru. I have been involved in peace and justice issues since my school days and became more involved in green issues while living in Belfast and from ’89 these became integrated into my faith life too.  After moving to live in Kerry I found a happy home with fellow travellers at the Transition meetings which lead to my  membership of the steering group of Transition Kerry and the founding member of Kerry Sustainable Energy Co-Operative. I’m actively involved in trying to ensure the message of Caring for Our Common Home: Laudato Si’ becomes a real part of diocesan and parish life and now the call to all parishes to begin to set aside 30% of parish grounds as a haven for pollinators. I try to encourage this as a member of the Diocese of Kerry Justice, Peace and integrity of Creation Committee which promotes and supports the annual Season of Creation. I’m involved with different groups and activities including the Tralee international Resource Centre where I’m a volunteer English teacher and a board member.

My name is Thomas O’ Connor, I am a farmer, business owner and community representative. I am involved with Transition Kerry for the last 10 years, because I know we need to transition away from the industrialised profit driven society and culture we now live in.  To a society based on the laws of nature, rather than economics. I am a human, I am not an economic unit. 

I believe we need to create a positive vision for the world we want to live in and work towards creating it.
 We need to ensure that community and the natural world are at the foundation of all decisions taken by our community and our public representative’s.

We need to take back the ability to feed ourselves and our communities directly.  “Who’s food you eat their slave you are”. I’ve learned who owns and profits from our food system and it has scared me into action.

We need to acknowledge that we are at a crossroad’s not just for humanity but for all life that shares this planet with us.
We are facing a convergence of Crisis’ (Energy, Climate, Economic, Social, Environmental, etc.).
We need to move away from the life degenerating industrialised practices of the last 100 years that have created many more problems then  benefits.

We have come to this point with the majority of our communities, not realising what was really happening until it affected them directly.Now that we do know, or feel there is something wrong. We all have a choice to make.
To engage and create an alternative.
Or put our heads down accepting the future created for us by greed and the interests of a few, at the cost of all earths living creature’s. Not just Humans. Waiting, head in the sand for the on coming train of climate change, social unrest, ecological collapse and injustice.

We need to Transition now, In small and big steps. 
But we all need to do it. If we do it alone it is a challenge that will consume us.  
But if we do it together we can unleash the creatively of our community, building a world we want to live in. We can correct some of the mistakes of the past, while creating a better future for the coming generations. Transition Kerry and the people involved have inspired me to put my shoulder to the wheel of Transition. Please do join us and do what you can to transition to the future you and your children would like to live in. 

Slán
 Thomas

Niamh Ní Dhúill is self-employed and has a small business called Natural Wild Gardens. She is a Heritage Specialist with the Heritage in Schools Scheme and also works with Learning About Ecosystems and Forests .

Niamh is a nature educator, with a keen interest in getting to know the nature that is on our doorsteps, espsically the urban biodiversity in our concrete jungles! She shares skills to protect and create natural habitats and to grow perennial food and native wild plants. Tá grá mór aici don gaeilge, logainm and dinnseanachas and feels that Gaeilge has a strong connection with the natural world and the land, and is one of the ways that can help us to reconnect with and protect nature. Ar scáth a chéile agus an nádúr a mhaireann muid! She helped establish Tranition Kerry and has been a member of the steering group since 2007.