Finding happiness in The Hollies

Sustainability was a novel concept in 1998, when two families purchased land in West Cork to start an eco-village. More than a quarter of a century later, their enterprise is going from strength to strength, on a site near Enniskeane

THE Hollies Centre for Sustainability has just past its silver anniversary. It all started from an idea in 1997 when two families began separately searching for the right place and people with which to start an eco-village.

They found it in West Cork, a farm in disrepair called The Hollies near Enniskeane.

Thomas and Ulrike Riedmuller and Rob and Emma Hopkins, with their children, met along the way and bought the land in November 1998 on behalf of their new educational charity An Baile Dulra, which is now better known as The Hollies Centre for Sustainability.

It is a beautiful place with a pasture, old trees, and plenty of rocky outcrops that many farmers would call marginal land.

Visitors taking part in a nature awareness programme at The Hollies Centre.

Hardly anyone had heard of sustainability, let alone permaculture, back then, and anyone ‘eco’ was considered to be an ‘eco-warrior, tree-hugger who was trying to stop progress’, said Thomas, a former conference interpreter and radio journalist.

‘When we told people we wanted to grow organic food and build homes from local, natural materials, some reacted defensively, but this was a long time ago,’ he said.

Now the eco-village, which has more than 20 residents, is considered an asset to the surrounding local communities.

In the early years, an ambitious planning application was refused by the authorities. After three applications and four years of pursuing their vision, permission to build was granted.

In the meantime – because planning took so long – Rob found an opportunity in Kinsale to develop Europe’s first year-long full-time course in permaculture design, complete with modules ranging from green building to community leadership. This gradually morphed into a QQI level 5 and 6 course in ‘sustainable horticulture/permaculture’ at the recently-renamed Cork College of Further Education and Training/Kinsale Campus.

Lots of people take part in the Nature Awareness Programme at The Hollies Centre.

Every year since 2001, this unique course has been attracting more than 50 students from all over Ireland and abroad, and Thomas joined the teaching team in 2002.

Rob left Ireland after seven years to do a PhD in energy descent action planning, based in Totnes in the UK. He is now internationally known as the founder of the Transition Movement (transitionnetwork.org/) which is about helping local communities to tackle climate change and to wean themselves off their dependence on fossil fuels.

This movement has its roots in The Hollies and Kinsale College, where Rob and Thomas had launched the Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan after an extensive community consultation process in early 2005.

Meanwhile, back at The Hollies, Thomas and Ulrike attracted other associates who contributed their skills to develop the centre into the current educational resource. They provide an annual programme of courses in practical skills, ranging from organic gardening and natural healthcare to family communication and horse-assisted learning, to natural building. This has earned them an international reputation for the revival of cob building, a technique all but forgotten since the advent of cement as the industrial construction material.

The Hollies Centre works with schools offering tours and sustainability education, such as the Curious Minds programme under Science Foundation Ireland. A Forest School also operates from here under the name Mucky Boots.

Ulrike Riedmuller with course participants at The Hollies.

An educational market garden offers training courses and periodically provides organic vegetables in Bandon and Clonakilty. In terms of water conservation, Hollies resident Ron de Bruin worked with county councils and the EPA for years to pave the way for the acceptance of compost toilets and grey water solutions so that water-polluting WCs may one day become an embarrassing thing of the past. Ron now runs a busy company, dryloos.ie, supplying dry sanitation to sites all over Ireland in collaboration with county councils.

Hollies resident Selvi Iyilikci works therapeutically with four horses, offering group sessions for children called the Pony Tribe, as well as personal development sessions for adults using an approach called equine-assisted learning under the name of Hollies Horse Sense.

Thomas works as a freelance family and elder mediator, certified by the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland.

The last 25 years have seen challenges and changes, but The Hollies is going from strength to strength. More recently, both Ron and Thomas started working with local projects as their bio-diversity experts.

Ron is leading a research project for wildwork.ie while Thomas is currently helping Ballineen Enniskeane Tidy Towns to develop their sustainability strategy, as well as bringing local school groups and his students from Kinsale together for an ambitious tree-planting endeavour initiated by the Community Council in Dunmanway.

And after 26 years of growth, the Hollies continues to teach an alternative way forward.

Courses and visits to The Hollies Centre can be arranged via www.thehollies.ie and by phoning 023 -8847001.