The next Future Ancestor Athy will take place in Athy, Co Kildare, Ireland on 16th May 2026, on Athy Library grounds. This page will be updated in December 2025 with details of surrounding socially engaged projects with community groups taking part, biodiversity, water & circular events.

“When future generations look back upon the Great Derangement they will certainly blame the leaders and politicians…for their failure to address…climate…but they may well hold artists and writers to be equally culpable – for the imagining of possibilities is not after all, the job of politicians and bureaucrats.”

Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement

We challenge this narrative by empowering artists, youth, and citizens to reimagine their role in shaping a future that honours our planet and future descendants.
The purpose of our project is to change the mindset or behaviour of the wider community, to merge Athy’s sense of place through the folklore of the River Barrow with the Unesco Endorsed Earth Charter Values, and to instil accountability and responsibility for the greater community of life. To engage with as many groups as possible who form this community and make systems change a regular day-to-day positive impact. Our Future Ancestor event will bring enormous focus to the preservation and protection of our environment and sustainability especially our waterways through memory and story.

Our ancient ancestors believed water was a portal to the other realms. The Festival will focus on the Earth Charter values through the folklore of Berba, the Goddess of the River Barrow. Berba has witnessed our ancestors drive communities of life to extinction and she is rising from the depths of the Otherworld to take action. She is the constant through changing times, past, present and future, and there would be no town without her. Water and rivers were sacred in Ancient Ireland and closely associated with Samhain as a gateway to the Otherworld. Berba’s animal friends like the Elk or Grey wolf will return from the afterlife to save endangered species of the present, they once roamed these lands when her banks were lined with carbon-storing forests.

Future Ancestor Athy, features a wide variety of eco-workshops, art installations, and performances centred around the mythical figure of Berba, the Goddess of the River Barrow. Berba serves as both witness and protector, embodying the interconnectedness of the past and future.

We will consider the environmental impact of every single material or process we use and produce a database of eco-products and lessons learned, to guide other community groups or events. We are planning a series of Repair Cafés up to Christmas, traditionally the most wasteful time of the year.

Repair Cafes will take place in Narraghmore on the 16th November and Athy on the 23rd November 2024.

What is a Repair Cafe?

Repair Café is a global initiative that aims to promote a sustainable lifestyle by reducing waste and encouraging people to repair their broken items instead of throwing them away. The Repair Café concept comes from the Netherlands. It was created in 2009 by Martine Postma in Amsterdam. She hit on the idea of setting up low-key meeting places nationwide where neighbours could repair their broken items themselves supported by specialists and in a relaxed atmosphere.

To book a space in The Old Hardware, Narraghmore click on their logo below!

To book a space in Athy Repair Cafe, click here!

Honouring our Ancestors and building awareness of the concept of “Future Ancestors”. Promoting Awareness through the visibility of the UNESCO-endorsed Earth Charter. Through the cycle of reciprocity, we will make a ceremonial oath to Berba, the witness to all future ancestors by asking for a gift of earth from the river bed, which be re-created through unfired compostable clay sculptures by Ciara O’Keeffe and returned to her on Ancestor Day.

Future Ancestor Project was developed and inspired through working on another community project in Athy, “How to be a Good Ancestor” with Anchor Youth Group and WIN (Women’s Integrated Network). “How to be a Good Ancestor” explores the value of memory, teenagers interview older members of the community and create visuals based on their wisdom.

The Earth Charter is a document with 16 principles inspiring a global movement for building a just, sustainable and peaceful world. It is the product of a decade-long, worldwide dialogue on shared values. The Charter offers a sense of interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of all people, the greater community of life, and future generations.