New perspectives on climate change and our heritage

Join us in the Royal Irish Academy for a conference exploring climate change and our heritage.

Building on the similarly themed 2023 event, this one-day conference aims to deepen our understanding of the complex and evolving relationship between climate change and cultural heritage across Ireland and internationally.

The event will provide a forum to reflect on the 2025 Built & Archaeological Heritage Sectoral Adaptation Plan, hear about strategic coordination and cross-sector collaboration to protect cultural heritage at a European level, and engage with case studies on protecting Ireland's natural and cultural heritage and adapting to current and future scenarios.

The conference will be structured around two keynote presentations and two panel sessions. The first will present case studies on the preservation of heritage in the face of climate change, while the second will explore strategies for adapting to heritage loss and engaging communities and stakeholders in mitigation and adaptation efforts. 

Climate change is impacting both tangible and intangible heritage across a variety of landscapes and contexts, including archaeological heritage, built heritage, natural heritage, and museum collections. This conference will build on the first seminar’s focus areas (such as Scattery Island, holy wells, language, and inland waters) by expanding to new and emerging challenges and providing fresh insights into vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation.

In the afternoon, participants will break into groups to discuss and identify policy challenges and gaps, and to propose practical approaches for progress in this field. Outputs from these breakout sessions will contribute to a policy report.

Provisional Programme

09:30–10:00 – Registration

10:00–10:10 – Opening Remarks: Professor Fiona Regan, Chair, Climate Change and Environmental Sciences Committee

10:10–10:35 – Keynote 1: Amanda Loeffen, Human Right 2 Water – SD-WISHEES: Supporting and Developing WIdening Strategies to Tackle Hydroclimatic Extreme Events

10:35–11:00 – Keynote 2: Cathy Daly, Carrig International – Built & Archaeological Heritage Sectoral Adaptation Plan

11:00–12:30 – Case Study Panel

• Fergus McCormick, Office of Public Works – Skellig Michael
• Martha Farrell, Munster Technological University – Maharees Conservation Society
• Anna Meenan, Heritage Council – Traditional farm buildings

12:30–13:30 – Lunch

13:30–15:00 – Innovation and Adaptation Panel

• Damian McFerran, National Museums NI – Environmental monitoring and public engagement
• Lily Toomey, Trinity College Dublin – Using historic maps to reimagine Irish peatland futures
• Trish Morgan, Dublin City University – Novel communication of environmental crisis

15:00–15:15 – Break

15:15–16:15 – Breakout session

16:15–16:45 – Feedback session

16:45–17:00 – Closing remarks

About the Speakers

Amanda Loeffen

Amand Loeffen is CEO of Human Right 2 Water, and an experienced general manager and business development executive in water, energy and sustainable development, working on projects in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia, plus leading research in water and environmental law. Previously as Director General of WaterLex, she led a team of water governance experts to encourage law and policy reform. Current research projects include a global study on Resilience to Climate Emergencies, the link between the healthy environment and water, and the development of Human Rights Indicators. She leads the UNECE People-First PPP Stakeholder Engagement subgroup to realise benchmarks for developing human rights-based approaches. She is currently on the steering committee of AGUASAN, the Water and Climate Coalition, and the Strategic Advisory Committee of the World Water Quality Alliance. She also part of the SD-WISHEES coordination team.

Cathy Daly

Dr Cathy Daly is a Senior Research Consultant with Carrig Conservation and a Senior Lecturer in Conservation at the University of Lincoln UK. She has expertise in climate change adaptation policy and planning, engaging with stakeholders and assessment and monitoring for heritage assets. During her doctoral research she undertook a vulnerability assessments of Ireland’s two World Heritage sites to climate change (2013) and repeated this for the OPW/DHLGH Preserving Legacies project (2023-24). She is currently Principle Investigator for Carrig on SeaCChange, an EPA funded research JPI project on community led climate adaptation for coastal heritage. Cathy was lead researcher and author of both the 2019 and 2025 Built & Archaeological Heritage Climate Change Sectoral Adaptation Plans and has led for Carrig on the subsequent implementation contracts with the Department. Cathy is a member of the ICOMOS International Climate Action Working Group and the global Heritage Adapts campaign.

Fergus McCormick

Fergus is a Senior Conservation Architect working in the Monuments Section of the Office of Public Works in Dublin. Fergus is responsible for the repair and maintenance of National Monuments in state care in the Killarney in Southern Ireland. His responsibilities include the management of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Sceilg Mhichíl in County Kerry. He has many years of experience working on historic buildings in Ireland, England and Germany. Fergus is currently an OPW representative on the Advisory Group for the Climate Change Adaptation Plan for the Built and Archaeological Heritage Sector chaired by the Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Martha Farrell

Martha Farrell is a lecturer on the Bachelor of Business and MA in Regenerative Tourism programmes at Munster Technological University. She is a founding member and director of Maharees Conservation Association CLG. She is actively engaged in community-led environmental action and heritage sharing for the last ten years and is also a board member of Tralee Tidy Towns and Tralee Chamber Alliance. She is passionate about harnessing asset-based community development approaches, volunteerism and collaborative action for climate adaptation.

Anna Meenan

Anna joined The Heritage Council in 2008 as their Traditional Farm Buildings Grant Scheme Project Manager. Prior to this she worked as an Architectural Conservation Officer in local authorities. She also worked as Project Manager of the Mourne Homesteads Scheme in Co. Down and as an Architectural Recorder with Dublin Civic Trust. Anna is a graduate of Art and Architectural History at Trinity College Dublin and also holds qualifications in Architectural Inventory & Recording and Applied Building Repair and Conservation. She is a long-standing member of ICOMOS Ireland and represents the Heritage Council on the Historic Environment Stakeholder group.

Damian McFerran

Dr McFerran is Records Centre Manager at the Centre for Environmental Data and Recording (CEDaR), National Museums NI (NMNI). Based within the Curatorial Department, CEDaR is a partnership between NMNI, NI Environment Agency (NIEA) and the local recording community, Environmental Recorders’ Group (ERG). Damian has managed CEDaR since 1995, half a lifetime. He has retained his entomology interests and combined with other projects to address the continuous need for evidence.

Lily Toomey

Dr Lily Toomey is an environmental historian whose research spans energy history, modern and contemporary Irish state-building, and rural development, with a particular focus on peatlands. As part of the DAFM and EPA funded RePEAT project, she explored the legacies of colonial mapping within contemporary land-uses in Ireland. She has further engaged in policy development as part of the UNEP’s Global Peatlands Initiative Evidence Synthesis programme, where she contributed to a meta-analysis of place-based and community-led peatland governance initiatives. As a community organiser, she collaborates on Creative Ireland funded climate action programs in her home in North Kerry.

Trish Morgan

Trish Morgan is an assistant professor in DCU’s School of Communications. She researches the systemic aspects of environmental crises. Her work is interdisciplinary, drawing from environmental geography and communications, using both theory and practice-based approaches. Her key research interests include the nature/society relationship, political economy, urban political ecology, and speculative environmental futures. She is also interested in novel communication approaches, combining traditional research with practices using sound, photography, video, and augmented reality. Trish has completed two EPA-funded research projects on the role of communications, including novel practices, in behaviour change towards environmental sustainability. She is currently PI/co-PI on two interdisciplinary funded research projects concerned with novel communication of environmental issues. The SEED project is concerned with novel communication of environmental datasets. The Climate Talk project empowers young people through multimedia to voice their concerns about climate change.

About the Royal Irish Academy

The Royal Irish Academy (RIA), established in 1785, is an all-island, independent learned society and academic body that champions research by supporting and promoting scholarship in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. Its elected membership of approximately 680 individuals and 80 staff represent Ireland internationally, provide expert advice to government, carry out research, administer research grants, organise conferences and public lectures, publish academic books and journals, and maintain a research library.

Eolas faoi Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann

Is cumann léannta neamhspleách, uile-oileáin é Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann, a bunaíodh sa bhliain 1785. Tacaíonn an tAcadamh le scoláireacht agus taighde sna heolaíochtaí, sna daonnachtaí agus sna heolaíochtaí sóisialta. Tá tuairim is 680 comhalta tofa ann agus 80 ball foirne, agus déanann siadionadaíocht ar son na hÉireann go hidirnáisiúnta, cuireann siad comhairle shaineolach ar fáil don rialtas, déanann siad taighde, déanann siad deontais taighde a riaradh, eagraíonn siad comhdhálacha agus léachtaí poiblí, cuireann siad leabhair agus irisí acadúla i gcló, agus déanann siad cúram de leabharlann taighde.

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