Our Team

Zoë lives in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht and is a visual and performance artist with a multidisciplinary and collaborative practice. She creates site-responsive performances and artworks and facilitates many creative and environmental projects with communities and young people. 

"I am excited and honoured to be sharing the role of embedded artist in the Maharees as I have long admired the work of the MCA and I very much look forward to working with the whole Maharees community to creatively explore solutions and support them as their precious place faces challenges and change." 

Emer Fallon lives in the West Kerry Gaeltacht. She is an active member of Corca Dhuibhne Community Forum and Cúinne an Ghiorria environmental collective and has been delivering creative environmental programmes to Corca Dhuibhne primary schools since 2021. Her studies in climate, sustainability and environment, and her postgraduate in Irish Folklore feed her creative and environmental work. 

"I am so pleased to be sharing the role of embedded artist with Zoë and Silke. The Maharees is a special place, and it’s an honour to work with the Conservation Association."

Silke is a visual artist and mindfulness teacher, living on the Dingle Peninsula. Her work is site- specific, she responds with a variety of creative approaches to places. Her focus is to re-connect a sense of belonging and identity within the natural world.

“I am excited and humbled to be one of the embedded artists in this project. I am looking forward to learning with and from experts and people living in Maharees about their struggle and success with protecting their home from climate change. I wish to contribute to the existing work by raising awareness through creative actions on how to protect this beautiful tombolo."

Clare lives near Ballydehob in West Cork. She has a long history of working with groups and communities on social and sustainability issues, a PhD on engaging communities in climate action and a particular interest in reflective learning and evaluation. Between 2018 and April 2023, Clare led the MaREI engaged research team in Dingle Peninsula 2030, supporting the sustainable transition on the peninsula. She established a process of reflective learning within the partnership and co-created a series of learning briefs (including three for the 2022 Dingle Peninsula Creative Imagining project). 

Zoë is a designer who has been living in Castlegregory for the past two years. She has volunteered in community-led projects throughout her life, exploring and supporting local resilience and place-based sustainability and climate action. Her passion lies in designing workshops that engage people to participate in imagining a future that is locally relevant, environmentally sustainable and just. Zoë holds a degree in Psychology from University of Edinburgh and a Masters in Integrated Design from Koln International School of Design where she specialized in co-design processes. She previously worked for Ireland’s Knowledge Centre for Carbon, Climate and Community Action within MTU, educating community groups and schools about climate change and the circular economy.

Aidan is from Kilshannig West and is one of the founding members of MCA, as well as their current Chair. He has extensive experience growing vegetables in a variety of landscapes in Kerry, including the sandy soils of Maharees. Aidan brings his previous experience of being a participant farmer in Creative Climate Action: Corca Dhuibhne Inbhuanaithe with artist Lisa Fingleton in 2021.

Martha is a lecturer at Munster Technological University within the school of Business, Computing and the Humanities and a founding member and director of MCA. She is actively engaged in community-led environmental action for the last eight years and is also a member of Tralee Tidy Towns (Secretary), MTU Green Campus (Chair), Tralee Chamber Alliance (Company Secretary), the Transition Kerry 'From the Ground Up' network, and  the Kerry Climate Action Network. Dingle Peninsula Creative Imagining project. 

Patricia has lived in Kilshannig for 4 years during which time she became a member of MCA’s Biodiversity subcommittee. Her role within the project’s Steering Committee is to guide the project throughout and represent a part of the wider community. Patricia brings many years of project management and strategy design, and a growing interest in our environment.

Jeanne was born and raised in Maharees and has spent much of her life working in Spillane’s Bar, a local institution which has been in her family for 5 generations. In between stints working at the pub, she has also pursued her passions of learning, traveling and (cliché alert!) trying to make a difference. Jeanne is currently doing a PhD in Sociology in UCC with a focus on energy and climate. Having worked at national and international policy levels, Jeanne has come to believe that substantive, sustainable change must be achieved at local level and that local action can set an example while having a lasting impact at a national and global level. She is excited for Maharees to continue to show this in action.

Deirdre’s key focus is to build a sustainable community by fostering an ecosystem that supports the creation of enterprise and employment on Corca Dhuibhne. Through Dingle Hub, she works on multiple projects which address the peninsula’s transition to low carbon ways of living. These involve working in partnership to explore coastal resilience, energy communities, greener transport initiatives and anaerobic digestion solutions to address climate change. Deirdre is a Chartered Engineer and holds a degree in Electronic Engineering from NUIG and a Masters in Engineering Science from UCC.