'Dinnseanchas, Spirit-of-Place, and the Place of Empathy'

Thursday, February 20th, from 4.30 to 6 pm Irish | GMT, | 5:30pm to 7pm (French time)

via Irish studies at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris

Dear Reader

Some wonderful mid-week news! ​
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I'm delighted to share that Grace Wells, Honorary Advisor to Haumea Ecoversity and dear friend and colleague, who has supported Haumea Ecoversity from the beginning, worked alongside me to bring discussions of ecological values, the importance of the Irish language, and the Earth Charter to IMMA's 2023 Earth Rising Seminar ​
​A Quickening Holism: Creativity as an Act of Love [recordings available]​

Grace has also partnered with me over 2024 to bring ecoliteracy training to county council staff with responsibility for climate action, for Counties Carlow, Kildare, Meath, and Wexford.
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​She will be sharing an online presentation, 'Dinnseanchas, spirit-of-place, and the place of empathy,' via wonderful Irish studies colleagues of Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris (I and other Irish eco-art practitioners shared our work there last May).

Grace WELLS, ecopoet and recipient of the David Whyte Poet-in-Residence Award 2024 at the Burren College of Art (Ireland) will be sharing her presentation:

Dinnseanchas, Spirit-of-Place, and the Place of Empathy

Her presentation will be based in particular on one of her recent poems entitled “Wolf Medicine”, which you can watch and listen to before her talk, as on one of her special “eco-poetry films”

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b49_9ulpKNE

Watching the film she has made, Grace Wells hopes to be able to engage in a dialogue with her audience in parallel with her presentation.

Time: Feb. 20, 2025 Duration: 1 hr 30 min

4:40 Irish / GMT
05:30 PM Paris

Join the Zoom meeting

​https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8​

​1129196182...​

Meeting ID : 811 2919 6182
Pin / Secret Code: 4nZPUC

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Organised by Carle Bonafous-Murat, Marion Naugrette-Fournier, Valérie Morisson & Marie Mianowski —Event by ERIN- Centre de recherches en études irlandaises & nord-irlandaises, which organises online seminar “Irish Thursdays” of the Centre de Recherches en Etudes Irlandaises et Nord-Irlandaises ERIN (EA Prismes, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle), in collaboration with the webinar “Water and Land Uses in Ireland”, shared with the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 and the Université Grenoble-Alpes, and part of axis 3 of the GIS EIRE (Ecologies Sensibles et Récits Environnementaux).

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Biography

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Grace Wells is an award-winning eco-poet, environmental writer and re-wilder who has been publishing in Ireland since 2002. She is the winner of the Eilís Dillon Award and the Rupert and Eithne Strong Debut Collection Award. Her three collections of poetry have all been published by Dedalus Press, the most recent in May 2022, “The Church of the Love of the World”, which was shortlisted for the Laurel Prize and the National Farmgate Poetry Award. Many of the poems in this latest collection are accompanied by eco-poetic films, which can be found on her website, www.gracewellslittlesanctuary.com.

Her poems have been translated into Italian, Spanish and Galician. In November 2022, she published an anthology of poems she edited for Dedalus Press, “The Book of Life, Poems to Tide You Over”. In 2021, Grace Wells was chosen as Ennistymon’s Poet Laureate by Clare County Council and Poetry Ireland, as part of their inaugural Poetry Town project, and completed a book of poems about the town, its past, present and future, entitled “Everyone Has a Different Ennistymon”, which was published by Doolin Arts in 2023. Her poem 'Curlew' inspired significant political support for Curlew restoration under new policy from former Minister Malcolm Noonan.

In 2024, Grace was awarded the third annual David Whyte Poet-In-Residence Award at the Burren College of Art (Ireland).

As well as writing and speaking about the environmental crisis, Grace Wells works and volunteers at “Hometree”, planting trees and supporting the production of environmental writing such as “Under Summer Pastures”, a collection of essays exploring Ireland’s disappearing temperate rainforests.
“Hometree” is a native woodland charity that restores degraded environments, developing hedgerows and woodlands. It has just launched the “Wild Atlantic Rainforest” project, which plans to reforest several thousand hectares of woodland from County Kerry through Clare to Connemara.

Grace Wells is also writer-in-residence for “Hometree”’s latest eco-artistic project, “Dinnseanchas, Envisioning the Uplands” supported by Creative Ireland

P.S. In a coincidence, my philosopher colleague based in California, Nikos Patedakis PhD (DangerousWisdom.org) has created a 3-part podcast reflections on how we can cultivate an ecology of mind, guided by the wisdom of wolves... have a listen https://player.captivate.fm/episode/6d0bd4d9-0a2f-4a85-bb7b-2cf7ad678544 We can humbly learn so much from our 4-legged kin.

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How can I Join the Haumea Ecoversity Community? ​
Our new independent peer-to-peer ecoliteracy learning community, guided by the principles of the Earth Charter, has just begun.

We'd love to have you join or support us (small regular donations or sponsoring a learner, are all so welcome!)
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