Turn climate resilience and biodiversity ideas for your community into practical action

Meitheal Makers is a cost-free weekend planning retreat at Common Knowledge for community groups, inspired by the tradition of meitheal where neighbours come together to share the workload.

This weekend is designed to help you build momentum around an existing idea, make a clear plan, and leave with the confidence to deliver a local climate or biodiversity meitheal in your own locality.

Move from idea to action

Across Ireland, communities have no shortage of good ideas for climate and biodiversity action. What’s harder is turning those ideas into a real plan, keeping people engaged, and carrying a project through from enthusiasm to delivery. Too often, one or two people end up holding the work, momentum fades, and the original idea stalls, even when the need is clear and the will is there.

Meitheal Makers is designed to bridge that gap. Over one focused weekend, we help your group turn your idea into a practical step-by-step plan, build the skills and roles needed to share the workload, and practise the “meitheal mindset” through a hands-on trial meitheal on the land. You leave with clarity, momentum, and a pathway to run a local meitheal within six months, with match funding to help you get started.

Apply Here

Sharing our experience of the meitheal

At Common Knowledge, we’ve seen what becomes possible when people are given the time, support, and practical structure to work together well. Our site has been shaped by meitheal energy, and we’ve worked with dozens of community groups and hundreds of people, supporting them to do good work in their own places.

We’ve learned that the difference between a project that happens and one that stalls is rarely passion, it’s the practical stuff: a simple plan, shared roles, clear communication, and a way of working that feels welcoming and sustainable.

Meitheal Makers is our way of passing on those tools in a focused, hands-on weekend, so communities can step out of the day-to-day, get organised, practise the meitheal mindset, and leave ready to deliver real local climate and biodiversity action.

What is a meitheal?

A meitheal (pronounced meh-hall) is an old Irish tradition of neighbours coming together to share the workload, whether that was saving turf, repairing a wall, harvesting, or helping a family get a big job done.

It is practical, local, and rooted in a simple truth: many hands make light work, and shared work strengthens the ties between people and place. Meitheal Makers takes that spirit and puts it to work for climate and biodiversity action, helping communities turn ideas into tangible progress in their own local area.

What to expect across the weekend

We’ll share a practical model for building momentum and follow-through in community projects. It is less about perfection, more about what works. Expect a focus on:

  • Warm welcome and clear purpose (people show up when it feels good to show up)

  • Roles and shared ownership (so the project is not carried by one person)

  • Small wins early (so momentum becomes visible)

  • Good communication rhythms (before, during, after)

  • Practical planning (what, who, when, with what tools)

  • Care and conflict skills (because group work is real life)

  • Making it replicable (so the work can continue beyond one day)

Meitheal Makers is a two-day residential workshop (with a third day element across the weekend) for 5 community groups, with 4 participants per group. Over one focused weekend at The Common Knowledge Centre in Kilfenora, Co. Clare, you will shape your idea into a practical, step-by-step plan, and practise the “meitheal mindset” through a hands-on trial meitheal outdoors on the land. This is a hands-on weekend with a clear structure and plenty of time to work as a team. You will:

  • Build your project plan step by step, with support from the Common Knowledge team

  • Strengthen facilitation, communication, and conflict resolution skills

  • Identify timelines, milestones, and clearly defined roles

  • Develop outreach and funding strategies

  • Name the obstacles holding your project back, and plan how you will address them

  • Spend one full afternoon outdoors running a trial meitheal focused on coordination, leadership, and project delivery in action

Shared accommodation, breakfasts and lunch are provided cost-free.

Match Funding

Each group applying will commit to raising €500 locally towards your project, through a small fundraiser, local donations, or community contributions. With support from our funders, Common Knowledge will then match this with up to €500 in support.

The aim is not to create a barrier, but to build early momentum, local buy-in, and shared investment from the start. When a community backs a project early, it strengthens ownership and increases the likelihood that the meitheal will succeed.

Apply to take part in Meitheal Makers

We are inviting any community-led group working on local environmental, climate, biodiversity and place-based projects to apply, including:

  • Tidy Towns groups

  • Social enterprises, CLGs and community organisations

  • Community centres and local development groups

  • Grassroots climate, heritage and biodiversity groups

  • Residents’ associations

  • Emerging local action groups.

  • If you have a committed team and a strong core idea, you are the right fit.

Over the next year, we will bring four people from 20 communities for a focused residential weekend at The Common Knowledge Centre in Kilfenora, Co. Clare, and support you to leave ready to host a local meitheal within six months.

Applications are open from 28 February to 17 March.

Essential criteria:

Your group must:

  • Have a clear, defined idea for a meitheal that addresses an issue your community is facing

  • Bring 4 committed participants

  • Commit fully to the 2-day residential programme

  • Commit to raising €500 locally for your project

  • Intend to host a local meitheal within 6 months

Dates and how to apply:

  • Applications open: 28 February

  • Applications close: 17 March

  • Programme: focused residential weekend at The Common Knowledge Centre, Kilfenora, Co. Clare

Apply Here

2026 Supporters & Partners

Common Knowledge is deeply grateful for the support of its partners in bringing the Meitheal Makers project to life.

This pilot is funded by the SSE Airtricity Green Generations Fund and the National Philanthropic Pilot Scheme.