Zone5

My good friend Andy Wilson of Westport, Co. Mayo, has just produced a new Irish Sustainability journal. It delivers what we have been needing in this country for a long time- a serious periodical covering every aspect of building the sustainable culture, with articles on the economy, building, climate change, food and energy.

Andy was the first person I visited on my first ever trip to Ireland, which must have been in around 1985 or ’86. I had hitch-hikedup to Antrim, via Scotland, for a “Skills and Knowledge” type festival that was to be hosted at a small-holding at aplace called Fleskwater. Well, the festival didnt actually come to much but I spent a productive week working with Andy and his companions who were practicing what remains the best example of what I think of as “hard core back-to-the-land self-sufficiency” that I have seen. They produced the bulk of their food with the sweat of their brow. On a return visit, I helped harvest wheat and rye with sickles. On successive visits over the years I cut my gardening teeth and honed my own philosophy of the self-sufficient life-style up on what Andy referred to as The Farm.

When Andy left the north to move to Co. Mayo, I eventually followed him with my move over the Ireland, settling in Westport for five years. In recent years, Andy has become a specialist in Renewable Energy and energy efficient housing, and has run workshops for us here in Kinsale. Left: Andy teaching an RE workshop in Kinsale college

So it is with great pleasure that I introduce this new magazine to you; it is a great achievement, and has been really well received everywhere that i know.

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