Bohemians climate justice officer: If a community owns a football club, it should be able to own anything

You won’t hear Seán McCabe lecturing people about the need to have shorter showers or to turn down the heating. In his job as Bohemian FC’s climate justice officer he is acutely aware that a lot of the people who are passionately vocal about the environment “aren’t that financially troubled”.

Lecturing people who can’t afford to buy organic or to avail of grants for solar panels and who are preoccupied with surviving until the end of month pay packet, would be “tone deaf” he believes.

McCabe lives in Phibsborough in Dublin 7 where he is among the 55 per cent of the population who rent their homes. In a previous job with Tasc, the think tank for action on social change, he devised the People’s Transition (PT) model of climate action. The emphasis is on climate justice and on tackling inequality and raising standards of living as part of any bid to reduce carbon emissions.

McCabe, who also worked for the Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice, ran as an Independent in Phibsborough in the 2019 local election. When he did a pilot PT report there for Tasc, he highlighted the “underrepresented voices” and the “pockets of deprivation” which exist close to some affluent areas there.

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Those seldom heard voices included the 13 per cent with a disability, the 3 per cent working as carers, ethnic minorities who make up 38 per cent of the Phibsborough population and lone parents who account for more than 50 per cent of families in some parts.

Phibsborough is also of course the home of Bohemians. McCabe points out that the club is “member-owned” since 1890, in tune with the PT model of having community co-operatives to lead the climate “solutions” which Tasc will be suggesting in 30 communities around the country. Twenty PT reports are due to be completed by Tasc by 2025.

“One thing which is great is the diversity of communities we are working with across the island of Ireland,” says Kieran Harrahill, senior researcher with the think tank. They include Ballymacarrett in east Belfast, home to Harland & Wolff shipbuilders; Kilcormac in the midlands, an area impacted by the closure of Bord na Móna; the south Kerry Gaeltacht; the Dublin suburb of Crumlin, and Enniscorthy, a town with a population of 12,000.

Harrahill echoes the point made by McCabe that climate change can seem far removed from the day-to-day concerns of those with “more immediate needs like housing, sustainable employment, or access to public services”.

One of the solutions mooted for Phibsborough was a retrofitting co-operative, a measure that could improve comfort for residents, as well as improving energy-efficiency and reducing bills over time. Another plus was the opportunity to create a skilled workforce, embedded in the local community and working in a co-operative.

“People’s Transition is about how to democratise local economies in this moment of great transition so that the climate action that you take not only helps the planet, but helps people,” McCabe says. In his role with Bohemians he is leading some of the changes suggested in the Tasc report.

“There is a really simple narrative there that says if you can own a football club that performs in the top league in Ireland, you should be able to own anything else – like a solar farm or a retrofitting business, as a community,” he says.

The Dalymount-based club has been awarded €500,000 from Pobal’s community climate action fund and is now working with partners in Dublin 7, such as Grangegorman Development Agency and Mountjoy Prison, trying to figure out how co-operative businesses might help the planet while also helping the community.

A bicycle library and a “library of things” such as lawnmowers and drills that are used only occasionally, will be among the first initiatives, while a co-operative retrofitting business is a more long-term project. McCabe concedes that there have been hiccups, such as insurance companies baulking at the notion of drills being circulated in the community, “but nothing that can’t be overcome”.

Bohemians has already been talking to Friends of the Earth and other agencies about exploring the possibility of retrofitting the homes of all of its 2,500 members.

“They are not all homeowners – but they all deserve to be living in a warm home,” says McCabe.

After a Europe-wide survey of people living within two kilometres of football stadiums found that respondents feel more connected to their local club than the local community, McCabe says Bohemians is well-placed to lead a range of climate actions. According to the survey, 54 per cent of the local community felt very connected to Bohs, compared to 19 per cent feeling very connected to their local community. Furthermore, 41 per cent of Bohemians fans feel their voice is not heard in local decision making.

The current focus on individual action makes people feel hopeless in the face of a climate crisis, McCabe believes.

“People want to be part of something bigger than themselves, like when they come to a football match. It should be less about blame and more about what can be done,” he says.

When an older member of the Bohemians club recently revealed that he was not availing of a grant to insulate his attic as he was not able to clear out the space, the club sent a few volunteers to help. “He trusts the club so he let the volunteers into his attic,” McCabe says.

“As a community we can overcome a lot of challenges that as individuals we could never overcome.”

Having been raised on a beef farm in Tipperary, and having focused on a “just transition” for the beef sector in his PhD, Kieran Harrahill probably wasn’t surprised when the most recent Tasc PT report found a strong view among the farming community in Co Roscommon that farmers were being “disproportionately blamed” for climate change.

With a total of 6,088 farm holdings in Roscommon, there were many concerning findings for those worried about the future of the sector there.

The average age of farmers in the county is 58-years-old. Roscommon is the county with the highest percentage of people in the 80+ age category at 4.4 per cent. The average size of a holding in the county is just below 28 hectares, with sheep and beef farming the most common types of agriculture. The average income for sheep farmers is €16,500 while for suckler farmers it is less than €10,000 – a sharp contrast with the average national income for dairy farmers at €150,000.

The report found that coal or peat was the main source of heat for 32 per cent of homes, while oil, natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas was the primary source of central heating for 59 per cent of households. A total of 244 houses in the county had no central heating.

Harrahill says two challenges must be addressed: farmers are struggling to make a living and at the same time feel they are being blamed for the climate crisis.

With sheep farmers getting 20 cent for a kilo of wool while paying multiples of that to have the wool sheared, the report recommended that a wool processing co-operative be established in the county whereby wool would be used for insulation.

Another “solution” recommended in the Roscommon report was a grass biorefinery co-operative where grass would be processed to produce feed and energy.

Matthew Carroll, a Co Roscommon-based sheep farmer who was involved in setting up the Galway Wool Co-Op in 2021, welcomes the proposal to establish a wool processing co-operative.

The qualified civil engineer who returned from Australia to his family farm four years ago, pointed out that for many farmers wool is “a liability rather than an asset”.

Carroll says that with Irish wool considered too coarse for a lot of products “including 99.9 per cent of the tourist stuff like Aran sweaters” which are made with imported merino wool, alternative uses like insulation could provide sheep farmers with a lifeline.

“The report is looking at practical solutions and is bringing farmers into a climate action conversation which is positive,” Carroll says.

He believes that the perception that environmentalists are at odds with farmers is over-stated.

“In day-to-day life you don’t get people giving out to you for farming,” he points out. And with farmers, especially in Roscommon, frequently adversely affected by flooding, he says the sector is all too aware of the need to adapt.

“People’s Transition is about listening to everyone,” McCabe says. A Football for Climate Justice survey carried out among fans of seven European clubs including Bohemians found that the Dublin club had the most people in full-time employment, but their members also had most difficulty paying utility bills.

“That tells you something fascinating about the current situation in Dublin,” McCabe says.

“We have full employment but people cannot afford to pay for the basic necessities. So that has to inform how we conceive climate action.”

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