Book launch and panel conversation with Making Neighbourhoods contributors, Caroline Crowley, Rosie Lynch, Heather Griffin, and Thom Stewart.
Making Neighbourhood charts a story of creative placemaking and neighbourhood making in Ireland, structured through four chapters: care for the future, making as care, care for place, and tools for care. Concluding with a reflection from a Scottish perspective, the book focuses on the stories and experiences of Reimagining Elderhood, Nimble Spaces, Galway Community Cafe, Cork Community Land Trust, Test Site, Cork Women’s Traveller Network, Town Ecologies, Robert Emmett CPD and initiatives in Cloughjordan Ecovillage and Callan. The book aims to provide a concise, accessible guide to making neighbourhoods in Ireland, while signposting broader practices and ideas. Who is it for? It’s for anyone who wants to understand what creative placemaking means in Ireland, and how it can help tackle problems that sometimes seem difficult to solve. It’s for people interested in processes that resource communities, strengthen connections, and build resilience.
Published in 2026 by Workhouse Union Press and co-edited with SOA (Self-Organised Architecture) and Cloughjordan Co-Housing, with funding support from the Arts Council and Kilkenny Leader Partnership.
Event Organiser: Workhouse Union
Bios of the individual/s participating in the event.
Dr. Caroline Crowley is an independent researcher with a background in natural and social sciences. Her work is dedicated to supporting care-centred systems that promote the well-being of families, communities, and nature.
Heather Griffin collaborates with Patrick Mulvihill through Living Rhythms, a participatory arts practice that has emerged through community-led work. Through creative placemaking, they collaborate with communities to speculate and envision an alternative, just, and regenerative future in response to the crisis of imagination.
Rosie Lynch is Creative Director of Workhouse Union, a creative placemaking and community co-design organisation based in Callan, Co. Kilkenny. Rosie has extensive experience leading national and local engagement programmes with a strong emphasis on care, access, and place-based storytelling.
Thom Stewart is a peer practitioner, co-designer, and conscientious objector to the concept of ‘mental health’. Thom advocates for ground-clearing the underlying assumptions about power, ownership, capability, and control that disables our entire society.