Talking Towns Previous Seminars:
2024 SEMINARS
Thursday 12th December 2024, Seminar 19: Rural Housing and the Housing Commission Report
- (opens in a new window)John O'Connor, Chair of the Housing Commission report and former CEO of the Housing & Sustainable Communities Agency
- (opens in a new window)Kathryn Meghen, CEO of RIAI and member of the Housing Commission
- (opens in a new window)Orla Murphy Assistant Prof in UCD
- (opens in a new window)Dr Karen Keaveney, Associate Prof in UCD
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here.
Thursday 21st November 2024, Seminar 18: Towns-Focused Research
- (opens in a new window)Professor Hugh Campbell (Professor of Architecture, UCD School of Architecture) and Johnathan Janssens ((opens in a new window)plattenbaustudio and (opens in a new window)Co-Lab Architects)
- (opens in a new window)Dr Dean Phelan (UCD School of Geography)
- (opens in a new window)Dr Tabassum Ahmed (Teaching Fellow and Researcher, UCD)
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here.
Thursday 10th October 2024, Seminar 17: Ballina: The Power of Research to Reinvent a Town
- (opens in a new window)Cllr. Mark Duffy, Independent Councillor, Mayo County Council
- (opens in a new window)Kevin Loftus, MRIAI, Director at ACT Architects, Ballina
- (opens in a new window)Dr. Sarah Cotterill, Assistant Professor, University College Dublin
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here.
Thursday 9th May 2024, Seminar 16: Town Centre First: Reinvigorating Irish Towns
- (opens in a new window)Dr Sandra O'Connell, Director of Architecture and Communications, the RIAI
- Sharon O'Gara, (opens in a new window)The National Town Centre First Office
- Peter Sager and Imogen Blaikie, (opens in a new window)Allies and Morrison
- (opens in a new window)Colin King and (opens in a new window)Cormac Murray, (opens in a new window)O'Mahoney Pike Architects
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Dr. Miriam Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor UCD
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 18th April 2024, Seminar 15: Urban Heritage: People and Places
- (opens in a new window)Merlo Kelly, Design Fellow and PhD researcher, UCD
- (opens in a new window)Dr Neza Cebron Lipovec, Assistant Professor, Univeristy of Primorska, Slovenia
- Dr James Hennessey, (opens in a new window)The Paul Hogarth Company
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Dr Anna Skoura, Post Doc Researcher, UCD Centre for Irish Towns
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 28th March 2024, Seminar 14: Housing Unlocked - Urgent Ideas on the Housing Crisis
- (opens in a new window)Nathalie Weadick, Design Fellow and Lecturer in Cultural Policy UCD
- (opens in a new window)Cormac Murray MRIAI, O'Mahony Pike Architects
- Emmet Walsh MRIAI, (opens in a new window)EWA Architects
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Stephen Wall, UCD Centre for Irish Towns
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
2023 SEMINARS
Thursday 4th May 2023, Seminar 13: The present and future of the High Street / Main Street in our towns
A 'Nations of Towns' seminar co-organised with University of Edinburgh.
- (opens in a new window)Iain Scott and Mark Bingham ((opens in a new window)Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of Edinburgh) ''Transforming Scotland's Towns-Reflections on 3 years of ESALA studios on Re-thinking the High Street’.
- Giulia Vallone MRIAI
- (opens in a new window)Tara Buckley, Director General of RGDATA (Retail Grocery Dairy & Allied Trades Association)
- Chair: Dr Miriam Fitzpatrick (Centre for Irish Towns)
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 6th April 2023, Seminar 12: Making art in the rural
Co-organised with (opens in a new window)Cultural Policy Observatory Ireland. This session will explore the circumstances, challenges and opportunities that making art in the rural presents for those living and working in and across the rural.
- (opens in a new window)Dr Bernadette Quinn (Senior Lecturer in the College of Arts & Tourism, Technological University Dublin) 'Harnessing digital infrastructures to make art in the rural'
- (opens in a new window)Dr Anthony Schrag (Senior Lecturer in Arts Management and Cultural Policy, Queen
Margaret University, Edinburgh, Scotland) '"Not Solutions Focused": arts organisations operating in remote and rural areas - findings and discussions from the (opens in a new window)Rural Arts Network Scotland' - Catriona O’Reilly (Cavan County Council Arts Officer) 'Inclusivity and Ambition – Cavan Arts a rural border Local Authority perspective'
- (opens in a new window)Dr Victoria Durrer (Ad Astra Fellow in Cultural Policy, UCD, (opens in a new window)Dr Aoife McGrath (Senior Lecturer, Queens University Belfast) and Argyro Tsampazi, (Researcher, Queens University Belfast) 'Sites of Significance: Understanding the dance ecology in rural border areas' (a project funded by (opens in a new window)Cavan Arts / Cavan County Council with support from (opens in a new window)Creative Ireland).
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Orla Murphy (Centre for Irish Towns/UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy)
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 2nd March 2023, Seminar 11: Understanding place: data and towns
- (opens in a new window)Phil Prentice (Scotland's Towns Partnership) 'Understanding Scottish Places'
- Dr Adwoa Ofori (UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science), ‘Citizen Rural project’
- Dominic Fahy ((opens in a new window)Geodirectory) 'Building Insights'
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Dr Sarah Cotterill (UCD School of Civil Engineering)
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 2nd February 2023, Seminar 10: Housing and Irish towns
- Prof (opens in a new window)Michelle Norris (Geary Institute UCD), 'Social housing, social mixing and the future of Irish towns'
- (opens in a new window)Niall Cussen (Office of the Planning Regulator) 'National Planning Objectives for Irish Towns: Implementation and Practice'
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Dr Karen Keaveney (UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science)
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
2022 SEMINARS
Thursday 3rd November 2022, Seminar 9: Transport and Mobility in Irish Towns
- (opens in a new window)Dr Fatemeh Golpayegani (UCD School of Computer Science) ‘Why shared Mobility services are important and how AI can enhance the quality of such services’
- Finola O'Driscoll ((opens in a new window)National Transport Authority) 'The Safer Roads To Schools programme'
- Sarah Togher (Manager, Mayo Community Transport CLG T/A TFI (opens in a new window)Local Link Mayo) ‘TFI Local Link Mayo – creating sustainable solutions to connect people and places’
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Dr Paraic Carroll (UCD School of Civil Engineering)
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 13th October 2022, Seminar 8: Vacancy and Irish Towns
- (opens in a new window)Dr Cian O’Callaghan (Assistant Professor in Urban Geography with the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin), '(opens in a new window)Rethinking Urban Vacancy'
- Ali Harvey (Founding Co-ordinator of the (opens in a new window)Collaborative Town Centre Health Check Programme’): ‘Towns in Ireland and the Urgent Need for the Democratisation of Data’.
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Dr Philip Crowe (UCD Centre for Irish Towns)
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 5th May 2022, Seminar 7: Transformations of life & work in towns
- (opens in a new window)Dr Orla Byrne (UCD School of Business): Overcoming challenges of small business
- (opens in a new window)John Evoy (General Manager, Grow Remote): Remote working as a key component of developing towns and town centres in Ireland
- (opens in a new window)Stephen Wall (recent master's student in Architecture, Urbanism, and Climate Action, UCD): The co-benefits of co-working spaces in Irish towns.
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 7th April 2022, Seminar 6: The Life of Towns through the lens of Public Space
- Chair : (opens in a new window)Dr. Miriam Fitzpatrick, Assistant Professor at UCD
- (opens in a new window)Eleonore Bascoulergue, current student of Masters in Architecture at UCD: her recent research on photography of Irish Towns.
- (opens in a new window)Valerie Mulvin, Architect, author of 'Approximate Formality, Morphology of Irish Towns' (2021), member of Aosdána, and founder of McCullough Mulvin Architects: the design of Irish Towns and her research journey through mapping and photographs.
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 3rd March 2022, Seminar 5: The border and Irish towns
- Chair: (opens in a new window)Dr Karen Keaveney
- (opens in a new window)Caroline Creamer (International Centre for Local and Regional Development, Maynooth University)
- (opens in a new window)Killian Doherty (Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture)
- Dr Paula McCloskey and Dr Sam Vardy ((opens in a new window)a place of their own)
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
2021 SEMINARS
Thursday 2nd December 2021, Seminar 4: Just Transition and Irish towns
- (opens in a new window)Dr Aparajita Banerjee (UCD Business) Just Transitions and the future of small towns in Irish Midlands
- (opens in a new window)Dr Alma Clavin (UCD Geography) Exploring place-based opportunities for Just Transition policy and practice
- (opens in a new window)Mr Sean McCabe (TASC - Think tank for Action on Social Change) Just Transition in an Irish context
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 4th November 2021, Seminar 3: Community participation in design and planning in towns
- (opens in a new window)Dr Sarah Cotterill (UCD Civil Engineering) Community participation with water infrastructure
- (opens in a new window)Ms Sophia Meeres (UCD Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy) Talking trees: the future forest and public participation
- Mr Tim Shea (UCD Masters in Regional and Urban Planning graduate) A transatlantic comparison of systems of town regeneration
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 7th October 2021, Seminar 2: Data and Irish towns
- (opens in a new window)Dr Karen Keaveney (UCD Agriculture & Food Science): Understanding Data Needs for Participatory Democracy
- (opens in a new window)Dr Jennifer Keenahan (UCD Civil Engineering): Wind modelling for pedestrian comfort in the built environment
- (opens in a new window)Dr Luke Kelleher (UCD Architecture, Planning & Environmental Policy): Mapping town centres
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here
Thursday 17th June 2021, Seminar 1: CfIT Soft Launch
- CfIT co-director (opens in a new window)Orla Murphy on the New European Bauhaus and its potential to connect with rural towns
- (opens in a new window)Gary Hamilton, a student in the 20/21 Masters in Architecture course in UCD's School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, talking about his thesis project which looks at remote working and adaptive re-use in the town of Ramelton, Co. Donegal
- (opens in a new window)Dr. Karen Keaveney from the School of Agriculture and Food Science about liveability, governance and mapping change in towns, in the context of the governments “Our Rural Futures” Rural Development Policy 2021-25.
You can watch the talk (opens in a new window)here