At the height of the Covid pandemic, Fionn Kidney took a career break and left Dublin to live on an island off the west coast of Mayo - now he's on a mission to 'empower people to create sustainable, affordable and healthy homes'.
During the deepest lockdown of 2021, I spent six months living and working remotely on Inishturk, an island inhabited by sixty of the warmest and most resourceful people you'll meet.
Whilst I spent the vast majority of those six months alone, I felt very lucky. From walks to the edges of the dramatic landscape to chats on the pier, everything was within 5km. The island enjoys better 4G coverage than my own home in Dublin, and on a good day, my friendly neighbours would leave a bag of treacle-laden scones or freshly-caught crab claws hanging on the gate.
Over the years, but especially in lockdown, I’ve grown huge admiration for the people of Inishturk. Between 60 people, they manage an entire land mass, including water, waste and electricity systems, a health centre, a community club with a pub and shop, farm hundreds of sheep and catch a significant amount of fish, crab and lobster. There is no plumber, electrician or painter to call. If something breaks, you repair it with whatever is to hand. And if you want something built, generally, you build it yourself. It’s not just skills that are passed between generations, but the 'we can do this ourselves’ mindset.
I had this in mind when leaving the island after the lockdown. I left my job and decided to start a career break by spending a week away from the laptop, taking a ‘Build School’ course. After a period of isolation, the idea of working with my hands among a gang of people appealed to me. On arrival it was clear that I wasn’t alone - after two of the most challenging years in recent history, it seemed that many of us were reflecting on the type of life we wanted to live, and new approaches to making it a reality.
Against the backdrop of a deepening housing crisis and spiralling construction costs, many of my fellow students came looking for their own solutions. Whether aspiring to build their own house, dreaming of joining the mass exodus to do up a stone cottage in the countryside, or just upgrading their home themselves, it felt like we were all seeking a small way of wrestling back some autonomy for ourselves.
It’s easy to forget that we once had the skills, resources and sense of community to feel confident to take on these kind of projects, and perhaps easier to believe that we have lost them forever. Around the campfire on a warm summer evening, I chatted with builder and head instructor on the course, Harrison Gardner. We spoke not only of the practical value of skills like building, making and mending - but of the mindset shift, sense of connection and confidence boost that can come about from learning them.
Over the next few weeks, we gave shape to a new non-profit social enterprise to help these skills reach more people. Just a few months later, with the support of start-up funding and an accelerator programme from Rethink Ireland, we launched Common Knowledge at the end of 2021.
Our mission at Common Knowledge is to empower people to create sustainable, affordable and healthy homes. We do this primarily by sharing skills through hands-on courses - skills like building, growing, making and mending. The learning environment is as important for us as the subject matter, so the courses take place near to nature in the west of Ireland, where we’re steeped in a vibrant rural culture, never far from a sea swim or a cosy pint, and where the meals we prepare are fresh, organic and nutritious.
We also apply the same type of skills to community projects - like when our community built a new home for local reforestation charity Hometree in 2021. Finally, we research & develop sustainable products and services like sheeps wool insulation, which harnesses the natural strengths of a material commonly considered a waste product in Ireland.
We already have many stories of people for whom our courses have sparked the confidence needed to overcome their fear of building. Ultimately, we aim to help people reconnect to the feeling of agency to build a better life, even lift up those around us and have a bit of craic along the way.
So far, people who have taken our courses tell us that they leave feeling twice as confident to take on their own projects. Which makes this whole endeavour twice as fulfilling. And brings us one step closer to Ireland becoming an island as resourceful as Inishturk.
Find out more about forthcoming courses at Common Knowledge here.
