At the end of September local organisers invited me to speak at the Food Festival in my home town of Macroom in County Cork, Ireland.
I was delighted to be back in the Town Hall in Macroom. I played table tennis here with the Macroom Table Tennis Club on Friday and Saturday nights for many years from the late 90s, but like many minority sports clubs in Ireland it has been dormant in recent years… anyway back to the good vibes!
The Good vibes forum was part of the Macroom Food Festival and hosted stalls and talks from local sustainability and health practitioners in our local town hall. Majella O’Riordan from Dandelion Health had a stall next door so could catch up and compare notes during the day. I took several pointers from her amazing stall that I will try out next time.
The speakers each only had 15 minutes to present and take questions so I decided to stick to a few images from the Ansa Permaculture Design Demo Site (AKA my home and garden) and tell stories illustrating a few permaculture principles. Of course I ended up doing a deep dive into what permaculture is and why it’s so great which was not the plan but it seems the crowd enjoyed it anyway so I think it was OK.
International Good Vibes
After the talks I headed out to the International Flavours marquee set up in the square just outside the hall. From about midday it was open to all to sample traditional international dishes cooked and served up by our newly and not so newly arrived friends from around the world who have settled in Macroom.
It is a fantastic event where everyone can integrate over a shared love of good food. It has been such a success since its introduction to Macroom many years ago that the concept is now being rolled out in other towns in Ireland. Thank you Aurora for bringing such a wonderful idea to Macroom!
It was a cool weekend and lovely to have Macroom town square busy with people enjoying themselves.
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Thank you Paul for your lovely article and for mentioning in it the international food event.
You are very welcome Aurora, thanks for bringing such a great idea to Macroom!