Our Vision
Our vision is to create an intergenerational cohousing project in Portaferry that demonstrates sustainable design and rich community.
We are building private, energy-efficient homes suitable for a range of household sizes and incomes , with shared spaces including a common house, safe play areas, wildlife sanctuaries and growing space. We hope it will act as a catalyst and inspiration for others.
How we live and work together
Kindness - how do we deepen our trust, respect and acceptance of others?
Cooperation - how do we approach decision-making and conflict responsibly?
Authenticity - how do we authentically care for members of our community?
Sustainability - how do our community’s decisions impact on the future generations of our community and the wider world?
Social solidarity - how do we work to enhance the lives of others?
Integrity - how do we challenge ourselves and the community to live our values?
Joyfulness - how do we help create a nourishing and joyful environment that fosters play, art, life and laughter?
Climate resilience - how can we work to build our resilience to climate change, and what does this actually mean in our context?
What is cohousing?
Cohousing is a form of collaborative housing that offers residents a strong sense of neighbourhood and community, where residents know their neighbours well, something that is often absent in towns and suburbs.
Cohousing communities consist of self-contained, fully-equipped dwellings and extensive common amenities including a common house and recreation areas. Residents are involved in the development of the community so that the community reflects their priorities. Some defining characteristics of cohousing are:
PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Members of the community have equal opportunity to actively participate in the decision making around the design and development of the community.
NEIGHBOURHOOD DESIGN
The physical layout and orientation of the buildings (the site plan) encourages a sense of community. For example, the private residences are clustered on the site leaving more shared open space, the dwellings typically face each other across a pedestrian street or courtyard, with cars parked on the periphery. The common house is centrally located so that it is easy to pass through on your way home. But more important than any of these specifics is the intent, through the design, to create a strong sense of community.
COMMON FACILITIES
Common facilities are designed for daily use. They are an integral part of the community, and are supplemental to the private residences. The common house will include a dining area and a kitchen, rooms for meetings, activities, exercise, children’s playroom, and a couple of guest rooms for visitors. There will be a central green common with a playground, lawns, and garden as well as an area for growing fruit and vegetables.
RESIDENT MANAGEMENT
Cohousing communities are managed by their residents. Residents also do most of the work required to maintain the property, participate in the preparation of common meals and meet regularly to develop policies and solve problems for the community.
NON-HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE AND DECISION-MAKING
In cohousing communities there may be leadership roles, but no one person or persons has authority over others. As people join the group, each person takes on one or more roles consistent with his or her skills, abilities or interests. We aim towards decision making by consensus.
NO SHARED COMMUNITY ECONOMY
The community is not a source of income for its members. Occasionally, a cohousing community will pay one of its own members to do a specific (usually time limited) task, but more typically the task will simply be considered to be that member’s contribution to the shared responsibilities.
Who’s involved?
Andrew McMurray
I am a renewable energy engineer and cohousing enthusiast. I have a Degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Renewable Energy. I run a renewable energy consultancy business and have been technical advisor for 500MW of renewable energy projects.
I set up the Drumlin Wind Energy Co-operative in which 1000 individuals invested £4m to build and co-own community wind turbines.
I have been chair of Cohousing Connections since its inception in 2015 and have visited many cohousing projects in the UK. I live in Cloughjordan eco-village, in a tiny house which I co-designed.
I am a passionate environmentalist, involved in many environmental campaigns, and was a board member of Friends of the Earth for three years. I am a keen triathlete, wild swimmer and long distance hiker.
Sheila McCarthy-Dodd
I was born in Tralee, County Kerry, left to study in Galway and Dublin and emigrated to London in 1987. I've lived in Gloucestershire since the year 2000. I'm the single parent of a 21 year old daughter who is now living and studying in Dublin. My work includes psychotherapy and group facilitation. I love reading, conversation, dog walking, mindfulness and developing insight into human nature, our inner lives and our connection to everything that exists.
I want to live somewhere closer to nature and the sea. I want to live more (not entirely!) in community where I can contribute to growing food, cooking, developing inclusive community life and easily accessing friends, neighbours and my sister Mary for a coffee and a chat.
David Powell
I grew up in the peak district in England but have lived in Northern Ireland for 30 years. By day I am a civil servant, but my second job as a juggler takes me to festivals all over Ireland and as far as Kharagpur in India. I am also a board member and tutor for Streetwise Community Circus - who specialize in using “Social Circus” to engage with different disenfranchised groups including the disabled and the elderly. I am also a member of Northern Ireland Humanists and run Belfast Skeptics, a science advocacy group. I also love the outdoors and am a keen rambler.
I think we all hope that we will end up in a caring and friendly community, but the reality is that we need to be intentional and proactive in order to make this happen. Co-housing provides us with a template of how we can live in a place, where, although we may have different beliefs, we can share the same values and demonstrate those values by the way we live with each other.
Hilda Hope
For the majority of my life I have resided in rural and island areas in Northern Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland where I have enjoyed the huge social benefits of living in communities where people are mutually supportive and have a rich sense of identity and belonging.
On returning to Northern Ireland after retiring from a career in community nursing and following the death of my husband, I was house hunting but could not settle on where when I finally realised my problem was that I was looking for a community rather than just a house.
The concept of Cohousing was new to me but it’s ethos of intentionally building a collaborative cooperative community closely reflected my living experience and I am excited to have become a member of the Portaferry project. The hugely added benefits are that the project is based on the environmental concerns and sustainability that are important to me and translating these into actions such as energy efficient homes and communal food growing to reduce food miles.
I envisage Portaferry Cohousing to develop into a strong collaborative community where people are respected for their uniqueness and will be supported and accepted to grow both as individuals and part of group with shared values and contribute to the success of the project.
I currently live relatively locally and will continue my voluntary work as a gardener with Women’s Aid and Board member of Women’s Aid Federation for NI; Consultative Forum member of AgeNI; hill walking leader with the Feel Good Factor (Women’s Outdoor Sports Club) and my hobbies of long distance trekking, cycling and gardening.
Tyrone Currie
My first career was in computer consultancy, then a maths teacher and for the past 30 years have been boat building; everything from wooden canoes to a fibreglass cruising catamaran. I have experience of property work, my present home is a self-build conversion from a stone barn using hempcrete.
I have participated in many courses and voluntary work over the years, from being an expedition leader with Raleigh International to transformative learning and leadership training with Landmark Education. I am a keen gardener and am able to plant and grow most of my own fruit and veg, the latest project is grafting fruit trees. I have quite a competitive spirit and have completed internationally at canoeing, sailing, rowing, war games and bridge.
In 2008 I took three years off to sail around the world, seeing how rural communities worked together across the world made a lasting impression on me. It was that trip that inspired my interest in Cohousing.
Heiko Vermeulen
I’m a Dutchman who has lived in many places including Germany, USA, India, Northern Ireland, England and Italy. After a career in the wine trade I started growing my own food and took a permaculture design course and have done many designs since. I also like to play music.
I have been married to Susan for over 30 years. She has a disability, following a car accident before we met, which is degenerating somewhat these days. It is mostly her memory that is affected, which makes social interaction difficult and awkward for her. She is on disability support and I am her main carer. We also run an acre of land with a small food forest and some chickens and ducks, a cat and as of next week a puppy.
Mary McCarthy
Having worked in Customer Service for many years in Dublin I went back to education and trained as a Montessori teacher and got the relevant childcare qualifications. I now work as a nanny and I really enjoy working with children.
My sister, Sheila, introduced me to the idea of co-housing and I now have become very interested in it. This is a very exciting project as it’s the first one to be built in Northern Ireland. I’d like to be involved in the community cooking in the Common house. I’m also interested in learning about planting and growing vegetables and helping out outside. I feel living in community is a wonderful and healthy way to live.
Fay Ballard
After more than a decade living in several African countries working for an international non-governmental organisation, I returned to Belfast with my family in 2018. In my current job I manage a team of technical specialists in areas like health, nutrition, water and agriculture, so I get to learn a lot from them.
My work with community-led initiatives in contexts of violent conflict, weather-related hazards (floods, droughts, storms) and disease outbreaks led to a realisation of how vulnerable we are in Europe - we rely on highly complex and globalised systems for our food, energy and health care and these can be more fragile than they appear. This led to my interest in cohousing as a way to live in community with others - I see this as a key way to increase resilience to what the world is increasingly experiencing.
I have two small children so outside of work and family I don’t get much free time, but I enjoy walks around this beautiful island, running (often with my dog), and attempting to grow food.
Joanna McMinn
I a member of Cohousing Connections and focused on creating an urban cohousing group project in Belfast. I have a background in adult education, community group support, organisation development and facilitation. I have over 35 years experience working in not-for-profit organisations, and have gained expertise in board governance, strategic planning, group process, and conflict management, all areas that cohousing groups have to be involved in. I am currently engaged in a year-long training in sociocracy with the Sociocracy for All (SoFA) Academy. I am assisting Portaferry Cohousing in an advisory capacity.
Mary Kerr
I grew up just a ferryboat ride away from Portaferry and so becoming involved in Portaferry Cohousing feels like a homecoming of sorts. I have moved house regularly & my friendship networks are scattered widely. However, I have been lucky enough to have lived and worked in places where that sense of belonging is still very much attached to the community you live in. I see the possibility of creating a similar sense of community through cohousing.
I have worked in various roles in the areas of education, migration and refugee integration. When I’m not working I love spending any daylight hours in my allotment and the night time hours with my lovely swing dancing ‘family’ which is a wonderful mix of ages, nationalities and personalities. I also enjoy anticipating and attending to my cat’s every need.