Brilliant Ballybunion began with a simple but ambitious idea: what if food, biodiversity, creativity and science could come together to imagine a more sustainable future?

Since then, the project has engaged residents of all ages; from first-time gardeners to seasoned farmers, schoolchildren to local chefs and artists to academics. By weaving together practical skills, creative expression, and scientific knowledge, Brilliant Ballybunion has become more than a project. It’s a collective journey of resilience, imagination, and hope.

In its first year, the project invited 14 local collaborators on a shared path of learning and growing. Through the Fridays on the Farm series with Rena Blake at The Barna Way organic farm, participants sowed seeds, harvested crops, built a willow room and filled creative nature journals with drawings and reflections.

Alongside this, the community explored local biodiversity with marine scientist Dr. Joanne O’Brien through the Wild About Life programme; recording bird calls, cataloguing insects and plants, and even testing water quality in local streams. These hands-on experiences revealed the richness of Ballybunion’s natural environment and the need to protect it.

Creative gatherings were central to the journey: Events like Ballybunion Goes Wild!, an evening of radical hospitality, and Sing for Your Supper, wove community voices together through music, poetry, food, and storytelling.

By its second year, Brilliant Ballybunion was rippling outward into the wider community. Thousands of people engaged with The Square Tomato exhibition at Siamsa Tire in Tralee. The exhibition included films and drawings created by the embedded artist Lisa Fingleton with the Brilliant Ballybunion team. Writer Gemma Tipton described the exhibition as having:

"a remarkable sense of hope, and that is ultimately the energy that this work inspires and ignites"

The North Kerry Sustainability Day at the Tinteán Theatre in February 2025 drew hundreds to themed panels on food, biodiversity, energy, and climate adaptation. And the impact of Brilliant Ballybunion is already clear in the new groups, practices, and passions taking root in the community.

Like the Ballybunion Nature Group, now 40 members strong, monitoring species such as the Ringed Plover, Carder Bees, and the Small Blue Butterfly. Born out of Sustainability Day, this group brings together local residents with the NPWS, Kerry County Council, Ballybunion Golf Club, and Ballybunion / Ballyduff Tidy Towns.

And then came the summer highlight: the Ballybunion Bean Festival. Families and community members across the town received bean seeds, complete with ‘Bean Certificates’, joined WhatsApp bean-growing groups, and shared their harvests at a grand Bean Feast for 70–80 people, co-ordinated by Lily Toomey and Steph Sheahan from Rituals of Plate.

The Bean Team and Meitheal groups with local collaborators, met over 20 times this year in the run up to the festival to prepare the land and cultivate ideas, reinforcing the idea that sustainability is a collective effort.

There were panels on soil and seed saving, a Bean Screen showing films, drawings, a play (The Bean Chronicles), and a concert by Sailhymn project who played on as thunder rolled over the Atlantic.

The festival received an additional buzz in the run up to the festival with a visit from Cynthia Nixon, best known for her role as Miranda Hobbs in Sex and the City. A passionate advocate for climate action, she met with locals and growers and was full of beans about the food, biodiversity and creativity in Ballybunion.

One festival goer summed it up:

"I came for the food, but I left with the belief in the power of community."

The Ringed Plover surveying. This summer, the Ballybunion Nature Group carried out Ireland’s first local survey of the Ringed Plover – a tiny ground-nesting bird that lives along our shores. The Ringed Plover was brought to our attention by one of the Brilliant Ballybunion collaborators, Sean Culhane, who has been birdwatching since childhood and has seen a huge decline in this little bird. With guidance from Sean Culhane and Barry O’Donoghue, about 20 locals (including kids!) took part. Together, we counted birds, chatted with walkers about keeping dogs on leads, and learned how small changes can protect nests. There were highs and lows – the joy of finding nests and the sadness when they didn’t survive – but most of all, we discovered how much nature teaches us, and how powerful our community can be when we work together.

The impact  of the project is visible everywhere. Children are growing beans and sunflowers at school. Families are bird and dolphin-watching. New gardeners are tending their first vegetable patches. Creative voices are telling new climate stories through art, music, and theatre.

For many, the project has turned climate anxiety into action, and disconnection into collaboration. As one collaborator reflected:

"Working with others on these projects has made me feel connected - like I’m part of something bigger than myself."

What makes Brilliant Ballybunion unique is its creative heart. Artists, musicians, chefs, and storytellers are embedded at every stage, turning climate action into something imaginative and inclusive. This creativity, supported by Creative Ireland, has been central to its success, opening new doorways for people to engage with climate and biodiversity issues in ways that feel joyful and meaningful. Brilliant Ballybunion has been selected as one of the projects to be showcased at the Earthrising festival at the Irish Museum of Modern Art this September.

Brilliant Ballybunion shows what’s possible when community, creativity, and climate action come together. Marta O Connor, a community collaborator summed it up when she said:

"Sow a bean, plant a dream"

From meitheals to bean feasts, dolphin rescues to school gardens, the project is cultivating more than plants and habitats. It’s growing resilience, imagination, and hope for Ballybunion’s future.

Discover more about Brilliant Ballybunion’s brilliant journey at brilliantballybunion.com.