Please take a few moments to give us your feedback.

Please tell us your IGNITE! story. 

(This form has only two questions.)

This is the Follow-Up questionnaire that looks at your lived experience in the context of the larger project. 

Did you attend on Sunday? 

This questionnaire uses 'Wellbeing Umbrellas' to describe the emotional impact of the experience. 

Wellbeing outcomes are very important to Samhlaigh. This anonymous form takes about two/three minutes to fill in. 

This is a general IGNITE! feedback form, originally emailed just after the event.

The sooner you can take the time to use them, the clearer the memory of the event remains. 

If feedback forms do not interest you. Feel free to write a few sentences and send them along via email, (samhlaigh[at]protonmail.com) or anonymously via post to Maria Coleman, An Tearmann, An Machine, Clochán Liath, Co. Thír Chonaill. 

(This reflection might even be the results of plugging into the activity described below…..)

"On Sunday, I shortened the planned workshop somewhat to allow time for people to return back to their lives, travel etc. The piece of the workshop that got truncated was a short writing workshop. I distilled it into the following instructions:

• use a body-point-of-view verb (e.g. stomp, sway, charge, soften, sing, discern etc.) to 'break the ice' of the blank page.
• use unexpected words (e.g.'springing' in the song we were sharing, 'The May Morning Dew')
• As inspiration, think of Tonya's earlier insight that through movement, we become poetry. 

I'm sharing below the results that came from following these instructions myself. I hope that if you haven't already done some writing it might inspire you to distil something of the magic of the weekend into the time capsule that is created by notes taken in your own hand. Interestingly, the writing emerged from the walk Kathleen sent us on during Saturday's workshop, 'Dúlra an Chroí'. It also gathers threads from experiences shared by participants of Friday's ' Seeing with New Eyes' workshop led by Caroline.

I encourage you to share any writing that emerges for you and let me know if I can publish it on this page. It isn't visible to the public. Only participants have the link, sent via email."

Scroll down to read Jacqueline's poem, 'IGNITE' 

Story Mycelium

I bounce down the path,

heart light in the knowledge these steps ignited Anna's imagination the day before.

This path and grassy verge somehow still seem to pop with the possibility

granted by the licence to be one's own steward.

Buoyant, I smile into it all.

The river calls.

Hunker now by the water's edge,

Hips hover close to the earth,

The water's white-noise splashes me to another vibration.

I see the sparkle, that glistened Geraldine's shapeshifting.

Photons pulse and undulate.

And I sense now what moved her to perch mid-stream

on Claudie's rock, thick with Rebecca's moss.

I pick a mossy rock. Its heart -shaped.

I linger with it, in that sacred space held by stillness in flux.

Shifting now, I direct my steps for further explores.

Aiming to find my own purpose

in this window of opportunity that is a temporarily private riverside path.

But soon, I have Caroline's tears in my tissues,

Her choked-back sadness for 'fíor-uisce' polluted.

The ditch to my left is pearly grey, and stagnant, and smelly, and backing onto crumbling houses.

Like her, I feel its painful poison seeping underground,

To join the flow.

These troubles are surprised and dissolve to awe

as the path curves to reveal

a perfectly-formed clearing in a grove.

A place to sing in circle and connect and light a gathering fire.

Picking strewn rubbish, I envision a possible future.

But then the call of time and schedule drags me back.

On the path I find a hazel, and marvel at the silvered, previously unrecognised

tree that dropped it, and think of the fabled salmon's wisdom.

Patrick told us there were hazels. I pocket one to gift him.

As our stories weave together.

I see with new eyes.

I resonate with 'dúlra an chroí'.

I become my inner artist child.

I realise we have now become the chattering mycelium from the original dreaming.

(Maria Coleman, May 3rd 2023, An Tearmann.)

IGNITE

I was seeking creativity for my unfulfilled and forgotten soul

Longing for a spark to ignite my dormant creativity

Searching for a way to find my place and feel whole

So, I journeyed to this special place, ready to open up and embrace

And in that moment, I found my true home, a conscious creative community space

The pulse of creativity made me feel alive

A new perception and a renewed paradigm began to emerge

My creative soul, once dormant, was ignited back to life

I'd found a way into the web of life's great embrace

I saw the world in a whole new way and discovered a whole new me

Through guided meditation, I entered the realm of the other-than-human guise

Transporting me to a world beyond the skies, where magic lies

I saw the world through the eyes of a goat, fearless and sure-footed

I felt its freedom and vitality as it moved undeterred

I felt its strength and power, grounding and free

I felt the Earth's energy igniting, connecting my heart and soul again

This personal experience has changed me, deep within my core

I realised that accepting my creativity is my true destiny

I will carry with me the memories of those beautiful souls that I met there

For they helped me find my way back to the heart of my creativity

A gift that will always stay with me

(Jacqueline Gallagher, May 4rd 2023, Bundoran.)