Cork climate action advocate: ‘Teach a woman to fish...she’ll feed the village’

The voices of women will be to the fore at a special event on climate action in Cork this weekend.

Coinciding with Imbolc, which symbolises the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, a panel discussion featuring female podcasters talking about climate action will take place at Shandon Studios on February 1, St Brigid’s Day.

The event, the Cork launch of Voices for Climate Action, will be moderated by podcaster and Toastmaster Moira O’Brien.

The panel discussion will feature Dr Shirley Gallagher who has made a podcast on the sounds of the sea.

She reveals how to bring sustainability into day-to-day life in meaningful and practical ways by exploring the sounds from the ocean. She also addresses whether there can be such a thing as sustainable marketing.

UCC Phd student, Conach Gibson-Feinblum’s podcast is about St Gobnait and bees, exploring what we can learn from nature and ancestral wisdom. Tara O’Donoghue has made a podcast on the theme of The Impact of Youth and Non Human Frequencies. (Tara can’t attend the event but her 14-year-old climate activist son, Fiach O’Donoghue, will represent her.)

While it’s all too easy to adopt a pessimistic view of the challenges arising from climate change, Shirley believes that communication is the way forward.

“That’s why I joined Toastmasters. I wanted to improve my skills in leadership and communications.”

Shirley and Tara availed of VOCA (Voices for Climate Action), a podcast training programme created by and for women entrepreneurs involved in climate action across the European Union. Conach and Tara were guided by Sinead Moynihan of UCC, who trained in a programme amplifying female voices.

“Climate hope has a sound. And it’s time for the world to hear it,” says the programme material for the Cork event. Under the VOCA umbrella, there are over 40 podcast episodes from women across Europe sharing stories of climate policy, regenerative business, personal transformation, and ancestral wisdom.

Shirley, a Cork-based islander originally from Aranmore, was going to make a podcast on recycling batteries (one of the sustainable start-up projects she is involved in) as part of the circular economy. But the first night she was in Greece for VOCA training, she was inspired to make a podcast on the sounds of the sea.

“We were on the shores of the Corinthian gulf walking along a pebble beach. There was no tide but the waves were lapping against the shore making a sound on the shingle. It made me think I’d like to talk about the sea in a podcast. I’m a sea swimmer; I get a lot of grounding from the sea. The podcast I made also looks at sustainability in terms of our habitats and our environment and how the sea impacts our lives.”

Shirley has fears for the sea. “It’s our toilet. It’s where everything ultimately goes. I have huge concerns about it most of the time.

“I used to eat fish a lot but now, with all the microplastics, I’ve been put off. I made Sounds of the Sea with Nathalie Aubourg from Vienna. She gave me a really interesting interview about her first sight of the sea when she was a wee girl.”

Shirley tries to have hope about the future. “There’s no point in having no hope. But at the same time, I feel a bit frustrated that we’re not moving on.”

Shirley is an EU Climate Pact Ambassador who gives talks about the impacts of climate change and what we can do about it. She feels that women are more active in sustainability than men.

“If you teach a man to fish, he’ll feed himself. If you teach a woman, she’ll feed the village.”

Conach, an American who has been living in Cork for over 13 years, says her podcast about St Gobnait, patron saint of bees and beekeepers in Ireland, is “slightly outside my area of research.” Her doctorate is on borders. She is part of an interdisciplinary European research initiative called Euro Border Walks.

Making a podcast was “a fantastic learning experience, seeing what goes into recording a podcast episode from start to finish.

“The first episode is about the folklore of bees, specifically the story of St Gobnait (who lived in the sixth century.) Her story is full of elements that are especially relevant to the VOCA project and climate action. What I love about St Gobnait’s legacy is the connection she had with bees. They were more than just companions. They were her protectors.”

St Gobnait, whose shrine is in Ballyvourney, was also known for her human gifts.

With her feast day on February 11, St Gobnait is credited with using honey for its medicinal properties to treat the sick and heal wounds. According to folklore, she saved her community from the plague through her spiritual intercession and use of honey.

Conach says the saint became a symbol of spiritual healing.

“There’s that special connection to Harry Clarke’s stained glass window in the Honan Chapel with St Gobnait depicted in it.”

The story of St Gobnait is something that Conach uses to explore folklore and how we can incorporate it into our everyday lives through climate action.

“For me, her story shows the importance of building communities. She brought bees into the fabric of her community. Climate action is about protecting bees.”

Conach quotes the American scholar and feminist, Donna Haraway, who says we should “make Kin.”

In times of ecological crisis, the academic says we should make kin, not babies, to reduce population growth. We should value relationships that are not limited to reproduction.

• The Cork launch of Voices for Climate Action takes place on February 1 at Shandon Studios at 2pm-5pm.