OUR INTENTION

Our Intention

Our intention is to illuminate and create a community of people in Ireland, who have a grá (love) for life and who feel that they want to and can make a difference to the future – no matter how small.

We want to encourage as many individuals, teams, organisations, sports clubs, government departments, schools and communities to connect to the change they want to see in Ireland and to host an event to create the kind of culture and future that deep down we know is possible.

This Festival is not about getting it right or perfect! This is about starting new conversations, taking an inspired step, creating something new, trying something different and being part of a movement of change-makers, soul-shakers and dream creators in Ireland, who support a new vision of positive change in Ireland. Come on and join in. We are lit!

The Context for Fire Starter Festival

We have experienced a time of great uncertainty, instability and even unsustainability. We have faced serious challenges in Ireland with regard to housing, homelessness, the health sector, climate, education, suicide and depression to name just a few. And still we have so much hope and potential inherent in our people and built into our landscape and society across this beautiful land. What if we could give our attention, support and energy to the people who are making positive change in big and small ways? Can we create a strong web of like-minded and like-hearted people to 'spark and spread the fires' of conscious change in Ireland?

Sparks and ignition points

1. Fire Starter Scotland:

The creation of the first ever Fire Starter Festival in Ireland is in parallel with Fire Starter Scotland, which is now in its fourth year. A small and committed team from U Lab Ireland, contacted members of the Scottish government in April 2018 to understand more about the Festival which has created change across Scotland over the past three years and has not only been backed by their Prime Minister but also funded through government. In November, members of the Scottish government came to Dublin where the U Lab Ireland team co-costed a successful launch event for Fire Starter Ireland in Croke Park.

2. Theory U and U Lab:

U Lab Ireland, a growing community of conscious change makers in Ireland, who have been hosting MIT’s ULab MOOC (Massive Open Online Course with over 120,000 people globally) in Ireland since 2013, want to continue to expand the impact of this profound awareness-based method to enable profound and systemic change across the country.