Roisin Markham

My week started somewhere else.

I love Kerry. Having said yes to an Active Hope Retreat in the kingdom. I had committed to a one year holdfast exploring Joanna Macy’s work with a group of people last year. This for me was the beginning of closing to that commitment. How curious that it fell on the week of Bealtaine, the Celtic festival of summer and blossoming.

The year of exploration has seen a deepening of relationships with new and familiar people, learning to sing, being in community and figuring out what Active Hope is. The retreat last weekend was a tonic. Three full days of the work that reconnects, moving through the spirals four sections

• Gratitude
• Honouring the pain
• Seeing with new eyes
• Going forth

I get it now, before the retreat last weekend I was still a bit skeptical. The spiral feels more embodied, grounded and the work relatable. Their were such divine offerings from the group and care deeply in all parts of our shared time. From our contract of how we would work together to food, to co-design of the time to co-production and genuinely delightful facilitation of sessions. Extraordinary gifts of restitution, care and love.

My plan was to show up and participate, cook, clean, attend to what might be needed, but I’d no intention of offering a session or testing anything. My future ancestor work fits well into the third part of the spiral Seeing with new eyes, but others were engaged more deeply. Some were testing out workshop ideas, facilitating different parts of the spiral to learn the how, others on familiar ground for them generously sharing their excellence, their work and energy. Saturday night I was asked about doing a piece… I’d really not considered it in any shape or form. I did a deep dive on that section and an idea came easily to me. The following day when the time came I invited embodiment as a response to questions, a variation of social presencing from Theory U. It worked really well. Asking participants to shapeshift, to questions like “what comes through you” about their work and volunteerism.

After our retreat was complete we parted company Monday morning, I took a personal pilgrimage out past Ventry to Slea Head, Ballyferritter, Gallarus Oratory connecting with memorises from my childhood to my 20’s and to our own children’s adventures along that coastline.

I returned home Monday evening unburdened, restored and refreshed.

Hey, welcome. These are my studio notes from the week that are a reflection of my week, insights, a question for you and some resources.

I write these, I’ve made a choice not to use AI, so the spelling mistakes are gifts and the structure of flow is organic.

Reflection

May has come along with the glow of summer, blue skies lit up by blousy apple blossom and ancient forest bluebell carpets.

It was a week of glorious celebrated sunrises with my eldest at Cahore, 5:30am on the pier. They began almost warm but by the end of the week that north easterly wind had the sea choppy and a cold sharp wind making swimming very cold.

I really enjoyed work this week. Tuesday morning I delivered a short presentation of the Courtown Community Council Circular Economy Report to the Courtown Riverchapel Towns First Initiative working group.

My recommendation that the Town’s First Courtown and Riverchapel initiative must prioritise and give importance to to the circular economy and economic development within National and EU commitments on emission reduction along with actions for 

• waste reduction and reuse of material resources, 
• skills and learning for repair and mending, and provision of a space to run a repair cafe locally
• regenerative business and eco-tourism as foundational 
• sustainable business and infrastructure development 

I also spoke to Eight Forms of Currency which was in the original deck from Waste Ireland and is a very useful framework as we move towards the work of a just transition.

I also used the Goodlife Ireland 2030 research and walked people through it

It was a quick 15 minute presentation that I was glad to share and grateful to the TFI Working group for inviting me to speak to them. I spoke about the legacy of their work and the importance of each of the devious they make now for future generations. I emphasised this is an opportunity to use the circular economy to move beyond business as usual. I used a different approach from the last presentation, it worked better.

I deleted +6050 emails this week in an attempt to pay attention to what I’m storing in Data Centres. My digital footprint needs tidying up.

This week I finally got hands on with the co-design project for Smart Dublin 8 and one of their international clients. That’s the one that has been happening since December! So good to be doing the work. I had so much joy building the training, I’d drafted a messy zine and I was clear on the type of graphic visual approach I wanted to take.

Delivered the training Wednesday, great question asked and I’ve tee’d up next week’s workshops.

Business development and prep work filled the next two days.

Insights

I’m so tempted to write less and share mostly photos. What do you think of the amount of photos in the post?

These tiny yellow shells I associate with Dingle from my childhood memories. Amazing to find one at Cahore when I was swimming during the week, in 20 years it’s the first time I’ve found one locally.

“The children of Gaza should not have to pay the price, as all children have done in the past, for the sins of anyone around them. This just has to stop.🛑

I’d insightful conversations on the retreat, someone shared some feedback with me that was challenging. The antidote was some lovely support unpacking the feedback, making space to being more curious. It made me realised I can be an asshole about feedback, so apologies if I’ve practiced radical candour on you without your permission.

A conversation on the retreat about a photographer always being on the outside of their work brought to mind this work that I’d seen and documented in December 2023. It’s the first time anyone had referenced exactly what this work was about since I saw it.

‘Infinite Self acts as a call to artists to treat themselves as an art object. Artists often depict others and not themselves, hiding their physicality from public view. I believe audiences are more interested in and trusting of artists who portray their physical selves, using their bodies as their medium.’

It in turn inspired me to document myself in front of the work.

Yesterday I referenced these images and context with a rare selfie shared to instagram.

The artists image is stunning, sophisticated and has such depth, I find meaning in it still. Art is important.

I love designing training. Co-design is a whole different level, I put together a 101, fundamentals course laying the foundation for the next steps of the project.

Main co-design principle “designing with not at”.

During the sunrise today the conversation was about The Settlers, Louis Theroux’s revisits the West Bank 14 years after his first visit. The two in my company were horrified by the settler approach in the West Bank, the attitudes and terrible treatment of Palestinians. It’s ever present with me the situation in Gaza, the West Bank and across 70 other genocides.

Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO spoke out this week about Gaza showing real leadership.

“We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza,” Dr Ryan said.

“We are starving the children of Gaza, because if we don’t do something about it, we are complicit in what is happening before our very eyes.

“We are complicit. We are causing this, you, us and everyone who does nothing about it, it’s horrific.

“Any right-thinking human being will stand up and say, this just must stop. As a doctor, as a physician, as someone watching more than 1,000 children without limbs, thousands of children with spinal cord injuries and severe head injuries from which they’ll never recover, thousands and thousands of children with severe psychological distress that they may never recover from.

“We are watching this unfold before our very eyes and we’re not doing anything about it. As a physician, I’m angry. I’m angry with myself that I’m not doing enough.

“I’m angry with everyone here. I’m angry with you. I’m angry with the world.

“This should not be happening. It cannot continue. We have to stop.

“This is an abomination. It’s an abomination. We have to ask ourselves the question, how much blood is enough to satisfy whatever the political objectives are of any regime.”

“We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza”

Extract from The Journal.ie article.

I am horrified at man’s inhumanity to man, at the ongoing genocide in Palestine and the targeted annihilation of people. The sheer scale of murder. The lack of universal sanctions or any actions against the aggressor to bring an end to the terror and aid blockade.

I reject all violence. Everyone has a right to life, to fresh clean drinking water, food, safety and a home. Why is global leadership not holding Isreal to account? its genocide and removal of basic human rights for Palestinians?

To deal with big systemic problems like social justice and climate change we need to work in community. Carrying the burden alone is not the work. We need community to support and resource ourselves.

Resourcing ourselves is key to being able to do the work at a deep level, you may already know that…

A question for you?

How do you resource yourself?

Resources

One of my first co-design projects from 2014, a popup garden in Gorey Public Library.

The Settlers, Louis Theroux, BBC

Reciprocity as relational responsibility Sabrina Meherally 5 minute read on Medium.

In response to this global crisis, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) has proposed the creation of an “Alliance for Peace.” On April 26, 2025, in the town of Gernika, Spain, UNAOC and Religions for Peace, with the support of the SDSN, co-organized the launch of  “A Call for Peace, the End of Wars and Respect for International Law.” This initiative aims to strengthen global condemnation of war, promote a message of peace, and uphold respect for international law.

Add Your Name to a “Call for Peace, the End of Wars and Respect for International Law” here.

A view to next week

A busy week of co-design workshops very much looking forward to them.

I’m writing about my unique perspective of the type of design I offer. How I blend and combine different methodologies for the right fit outcome required. It’s so seldom design is an open fluid process.

I have capacity for work mid May and am available for project or programme work from the second week in June.

Thanks for being here.

Have a great week.