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: : HINTERLAND : : Building Sustainable Food Systems through Collective Regeneration :: Enda McEvoy; Fergal Anderson; Claire Davey.

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A taste of Pálás an Phobail 💚

Last Friday, something different happened at Festival Printworks Gallery.

Pálás an Phobail — tasting a sense of place, created by Blanka Major (@bla_nka) & Hinterland (@hinterlandgalway) as part of Culture Night Late (@culturenight), transformed the gallery into a People’s Palace: an edible, sensory space where food became a way to reconnect with people, stories and place.

Moving through a series of spaces and sensory encounters, they invited us to explore the connections between food, landscape and memory and to taste a sense of place.

From familiar flavours to new encounters, the night brought people together around a shared table and offered a different way of experiencing togetherness, one that felt both deeply rooted and completely new.

A night to remember.

Thank you to everyone who contributed, and everyone who came, shared, listened and made the night what it was. A night about food, place and belonging, and the many ways we come together.

💚

Videography by @takeasiesta_

‘Pálás an Phobail - tasting a sense of place’, is part of the Culture Night Late programme, funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport under the Night-Time Economy programme with support from Galway City Council Arts Office. @galwaycitycouncil @artscouncilireland

Supported by ProHelvetia, The Swiss Arts Council as part of the LINA Architecture programme. @prohelvetia @lina.community

@micildistillery

#ArchitectureAtTheEdge #AATE26 #LeChéile #PálásAnPhobail #CultureNight taken in Galway, Ireland by @hinterlandgalway

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a month ago

Food as culture.

Tonight we gathered at the Pálás an Phobail as part of @culture_galway to think about how we might rethink our places and spaces and what happens when we look at them through food.

@bla_nka map gave us a starting point: a way of seeing the city through the places where food is grown, shared, prepared, exchanged and eaten and through the relationships, memories and possibilities held within those spaces.

From there, the conversation opened out. What does food tell us about a place? Who gets to use our spaces, and who gets to shape them? What could happen if food, sharing and community were given a more central place in how we imagine our city?

A huge thank you to Blanka, for bringing her work, curiosity and perspective to the evening, and to Professor Anna Davies, TCD and Michael Higgins @bohs_climatecoop for joining the conversation and helping us think beyond food as simply something we consume, towards food as a way of creating connection, belonging and community.

And thank you to everyone who came, listened, questioned, ate, talked and shared the space with us.

It felt like a really special evening and a reminder that sometimes rethinking a place starts simply by gathering people around a table.

Thank you to Frank and the whole @archattheedge team for bringing us together and to everyone who helped make Pálás an Phobail - Tasting a Sense of Place happen: @franniejeffers Oisin @leafandroot Thalli Foods Mike and his oysters @micildistillery @biainnovator kitchens @artscouncilireland @galwaycitycouncil

Food as culture. Food as place. Food as connection. by @hinterlandgalway

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Pálás an Phobail — tasting a sense of place
by Blanka Major + Hinterland

#AATE26 Interactive Exhibition + Creative Workshop + Artist Talk

What makes us belong to a place?

For Culture Night Late, Architecture at the Edge is collaborating with architect, artist and curator Blanka Major and Hinterland to explore the connections between food, people and place.

At the heart of the evening is Pálás an Phobail — a “People’s Palace” — an edible installation where gathering, eating, listening and exchanging ideas come together around a shared table. Moving through a series of spaces and sensory encounters, the evening explores how food connects us to landscape, memory and belonging.

As part of Culture Night Late, the evening unfolds across Galway through a series of connected experiences: an outdoor installation on Druid Lane, a Ceremonial Tea at The Mick Lally Theatre, followed by Pálás an Phobail at Festival Printworks Gallery, and culminating at The Mick Lally Theatre with Cathedral AKA Shampain.

_Festival Printworks Gallery, Market St.
Friday 18 September
7–11pm

FREE — prebooking essential.

With contributions from Professor Anna Davies, Geography, Trinity College Dublin, and Michael Higgins, Political Liaison & Systems Change Lead, Bohemians Co-operatives.

_Curators Talk with Blanka Major
The Mick Lally Theatre, Druid Lane
Sunday 20 September · 5–7.30pm
Free — prebooking advised via Eventbrite.

‘Pálás an Phobail - tasting a sense of place’, is part of the Culture Night Late programme, funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport under the Night-Time Economy programme with support from Galway City Council Arts Office. @galwaycitycouncil @artscouncilireland

Supported by ProHelvetia, The Swiss Arts Council as part of the LINA Architecture programme. @prohelvetia @lina.community

1.⁠ ⁠Blanka Major, Croquer le paysage with Viviants Bordeaux, LINA community, Arc en Reve, 2026. Image: Rodolphe Escher
2.⁠ ⁠Kitchuan, Gradients, Newrope for ONA community, 2023. Image: Charlotte Schaeben
3.+4. ⁠Argilla, in collaboration with Cassandra Hänggi, Art x Science Office, UZH Zürich, Grube(n), 2025. Image: Johanna Hullár taken in Galway, Ireland by @hinterlandgalway

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Pálás an Phobail ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️
Culture Night Late Galway @culturenight
18.09.2026 — from 19:00
AATE Festival Printworks Gallery
15 Market Street, Galway

What makes us belong to a place? And what makes a place belong to us?

Following a first research trip in June, I’m very excited to continue working with Claire Davey @claire__davey and Enda McEvoy @enda_mcevoy from @hinterlandgalway, together with Architecture at the Edge @archattheedge @francismonahan on Pálás an Phobail – tasting a sense of place.

For Culture Night Late, we bring together food, sound, stories and spatial interventions to explore belonging through taste. Taking Hinterland’s ongoing work around food systems, resilience and local food culture as a starting point, the evening looks at the spaces, ingredients and infrastructures that shape how we gather and eat — and at what is at risk of disappearing.

Seaweed, salt, bread, butter, potatoes: familiar tastes become ways of reading a place. Through a sequence of culinary explorations, spaces are discovered through taste and stories of use, memory, abundance and obsolescence begin to unfold. Some encounters are individual, others collective — shared around a table, passed from hand to hand.

Together with conversations and contributions from local experts, Professor Anna Davies (Geography, Trinity College Dublin) and Michael Higgins (Political Liaison & Systems Change Lead, Bohemians Co-operatives) the evening is less about proposing a fixed answer than opening a conversation: What could these spaces become? What do we choose to keep, reuse and transform? And how can food help us imagine new forms of gathering?

Registration necessary — more information via the link in bio.

Very excited to see you there 💜

___________________
‘Pálás an Phobail - tasting a sense of place’, is part of the Culture Night Late programme, funded by the Arts Council and the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport under the Night-Time Economy programme with support from Galway City Council Arts Office. @galwaycitycouncil @artscouncilireland

Supported by ProHelvetia, The Swiss Arts Council as part of the LINA Architecture programme. @prohelvetia @lina.community taken in Galway, Ireland by @hinterlandgalway

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We’re delighted to announce that we’ve received funding from the Creative Climate Action Fund III and the Shared Island initiative for ‘The Messages’: a new women-led climate and food project with partners from the west of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

In partnership: The Mary Robinson Centre, Hinterland CLG, Project Dandelion and artist Victoria McCormack. We’re delighted to be working with the Women’s Resource Development Agency, Studio Idir and Brink in Northern Ireland.

The Messages is funded under the Creative Ireland Creative Climate Action Fund III, announced by Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Ministers Patrick O’Donovan TD and Darragh O’Brien TD. It’s one of 11 successful initiatives named under the Creative Climate Action Fund III.

Taking its name from the Irish colloquialism for ‘the groceries,’ The Messages builds on a shared food culture rooted in land, sea, seasons and community — exploring and reshaping how people grow, share and relate to food across the island of Ireland.

At its heart will be Creative Food Facilitators — women trained alongside climate experts, artists, scientists and growers, fostering behavioural change in communities through shared meals, food exchange and distribution, weaving practical creative climate action into daily life. The aim is to embed lasting change that reduces food waste, increases access to seasonal produce and establishes replicable, community-led resilience models.

This is creative climate action you can taste, share and grow.

#TheMessages #SharedIsland #CreativeClimateAction #FoodSystems by @hinterlandgalway

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2 months ago

Who decides where affordable food is available?

New York City is asking residents to help choose locations for its new network of publicly owned grocery stores.

It’s a simple idea with an important question behind it: what happens when communities help shape food infrastructure, rather than leaving it entirely to the market?

Who holds the power in our food system?

A new survey from Ireland’s Agri-Food Regulator offers a rare glimpse into this, the survey highlights a persistent imbalance of power within the food system.

The findings reveal that when suppliers face pressure on prices and fear speaking out against powerful buyers, the costs are borne not only by farmers but also by biodiversity, local economies and the resilience of our wider food system.

As Ireland continues to grapple with food affordability, retailer power, and the resilience of our food system, it’s an interesting example of a city taking a more active role.

Would a model like this have a place in Galway or elsewhere in Ireland? by @hinterlandgalway

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4 months ago

Yesterday we finished our food mapping workshops with young people in Westside and Tuam as part of the Sauti youth project.

We explored what a food system is and invited young people to map the places, people and activities connected to food in their communities. Together, they identified everything from shops and growing spaces to places where food is shared, cooked, eaten and wasted.

For two of the sessions, the groups also cooked and ate together, grounding these conversations in everyday experience.

The maps aren’t intended to be comprehensive. Instead, they capture something more interesting: how young people see and experience food in their local area.

The sessions provided an introduction to GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Working from their hand-drawn maps, the groups learned how places can be represented as data and transformed into digital maps. Using the SketchMap tool, their observations were geo-referenced and translated into GIS layers, creating a visual record of how they understand their local food environment.

A huge thank you to everyone at Sauti Youth Project, Youth Work Ireland Tuam and Corrach Buí Youth Centre who supported the work, and especially to the young people who shared their ideas, observations and imagination so generously.

It’s easy to talk about food systems in abstract terms. These workshops were a reminder that they are lived every day, in the places where people shop, gather, cook, eat and spend time together.

#FoodSystems #YouthParticipation #CommunityDevelopment #ParticipatoryMapping #Galway #Tuam by @hinterlandgalway

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5 months ago

Tesco’s CEO has just received a pay package worth £10.8 million, an increase of more than £1 million in a single year!

The company now takes more than £1 in every £4 spent on groceries in Britain.

We’re told food inflation, supply chain instability, rising production costs, and pressure on household budgets are simply unavoidable realities.

Farmers are squeezed to closure. Independent retailers disappear.

How is this justified?

This isn’t just about executive pay. It’s about concentration of power within the food system.

When a small number of corporations dominate how food is grown, distributed and sold, food stops being treated as a public good and becomes primarily a mechanism for shareholder value.

Who should control food systems…
Communities?
Farmers?
Public Interests?

Or

corporations whose success is measured by market share and profit extraction?

People are struggling to put food on the table, while supermarket dominance and executive rewards like this continue to grow.

We need to rebuild local and regional food infrastructure, support independent producers and food hubs, and treat food resilience as part of national resilience, not just retail performance.

Food security without food sovereignty leaves power exactly where it already is. by @hinterlandgalway

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5 months ago

When practical thinking meets need 🚍🥕

This post really struck a chord with us at Hinterland.

For the last couple of years, we’ve been trying to explore the possibility of a mobile food hub/shop model for Galway and the west, inspired by projects like this in Denmark and initiatives such as @queenofgreensbus

The idea feels obvious in many ways:
repurpose existing vehicles, existing routes, bring fresh/local food directly into communities, reduce isolation, strengthen local producers, and create visible, practical climate action at community level.

And yet… despite consistently positive responses to the concept, we’ve struggled to find a pathway to actually test or pilot it.

Local authorities like the idea. Development agencies like the idea. Everyone sees the value in principle. But when it comes to investing in exploring something that sits between transport, food, community development, climate action, health, and rural/urban regeneration it seems to fall between stools.

We’ve hit barriers around the fact that it’s mobile, it doesn’t fit neatly into one department or funding stream, and doesn’t align with traditional infrastructure models. Ironically, that flexibility is exactly what makes it interesting and potentially impactful.

What’s striking is that mobile shops and services used to be a completely normal part of life across Ireland. Now, at a time when we’re talking constantly about sustainability, food sovereignty, bioeconomy, rural isolation, ageing populations, and resilient local food systems, it feels harder than ever to support these kinds of practical hybrid models.

Genuinely curious:
has anyone come across funding mechanisms, partnerships, or examples in Ireland or elsewhere that support mobile community food infrastructure like this?
Can any state agency fund such an initiative, and why can’t we see mobile shops in every town in Ireland?

Because it feels like an idea whose time should come again. by @hinterlandgalway

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5 months ago

We had a great evening yesterday with @youthworkirelandgalway learning all about taste, galway wheat, and PIZZA making 🍕

This was a part of the ‘Youth Climate Food Lab’ project in Westside and Tuam with @sautiyouthproject taken in Youth Work Ireland Westside by @hinterlandgalway

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7 months ago

Last night we ran our first mapping session in Tuam with young people through @youthworkirelandtuam – @sautiyouthproject exploring what we’re calling:

“The Food System You’re In.”

We often talk about food systems as something abstract - policy documents, supply chains, climate reports. But for young people, the food system is immediate and lived.

We’ve defined it as:
• where food is grown
• how it gets here
• where it’s sold or shared
• where meals are cooked and eaten
• what happens to waste

Using participatory mapping tools (including GIS and sketch mapping), the group mapped their own local area - identifying food actors, access points, gaps, and patterns.

Then we added a “dream layer”: if resources weren’t a barrier, what would you change?

This work sits at the intersection of climate, inclusion, and local development. Highlighting for young people that food is not just about diet. It shapes resilience, equity, and participation.
When young people map their own food environments, they begin to see themselves as part of the system.

Grateful to be working alongside @youthworkireland and @youthworkirelandgalwa and the @sautiyouthproject on this - Next up: Westside.

#FoodSystems #YouthVoice #ClimateAction #ParticipatoryMapping #LocalDevelopment #Inclusion taken in Tuam Co. Galway by @hinterlandgalway

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8 months ago

Tá ‘Slí Beatha’ beo anois! We are live.
What does this mean?

Four professional vegetable growers have just invited you into their fields, their polytunnels and their gigantic glasshouse.

How Does Slí Beatha Work?

Find the right farmer to guide you on your growing journey and choose between four different locations in Co Galway: Craughwell, Loughrea, Claregalway or Inverin.

Every Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday in March, you’ll take part in a four-week, on-farm learning journey.

Each location follows the same shared syllabus, co-designed by the participating growers.

This is not a taster session.

Over four weeks, we cover everything you need to do the job properly:
🌱Site selection and farm layout
🌱Soil health, fertility and bed preparation
🌱Propagation and seed sowing
🌱Vegetable families and crop planning
🌱Transplanting and spacing
🌱Pest and disease management
🌱Correct tool use and workflow

But Slí Beatha is about more than information.

Working alongside seasoned growers, you begin to train your body as well as your mind. Repetition builds muscle memory. Movement becomes efficient. Tasks become intuitive. Growing food shifts from being something you “try” to something you know how to do.

We go deep - gradually, week by week.
By building skills step by step from Week One to Week Four, confidence grows. You leave knowing how to take what you’ve learned home and apply it in your own context.

You’ll also sit with others who are serious about making change in their own lives, and in the wider food system.

Each session includes a shared meal.

Learning. Working. Eating. In season. On farm. 🌱

Link in bio for tickets by @hinterlandgalway

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8 months ago