Just Rambling

Description

Just Rambling – For generations the people of Ireland have wandered the roads of their locality, in the dark months of winter, calling to their neighbours homes. An unannounced visit, sometimes without even a knock, they were always made welcome. The news of the area was shared, cups of tea and food, games of cards played, sometimes there was even music, song or dance. And there was always storytelling that involved meeting the fairies on dark winters night that would send you walking home all the brisker when your rambling had finished.

But things have changed in Ireland today. Our doors are locked, automatic gates keep spontaneous visits away, the tv and social media provide the news and stories and you have to ring a few days in advance if you plan on calling to the house. We have high speed fibre optic broadband connecting us around the world in seconds yet no human connection with the people who live all around us.

The loss of social connection is having a huge impact on mental health, particularly amongst our older generation. According to a study published in recent weeks by the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing of Trinity College Dublin, this critical issue is linked to heightened feelings of loneliness and a sense of disconnectedness from their communities. Social connection plays a huge part in protecting our mental health, not just for the elderly, but for all ages. Another study conducted by Alison Fagan, published in the Journal of Aging Studies 2024, explored the lives of Irish centenarians and asked the question whether there was a secret to living well and ageing well. One of the biggest takeaways from their answers was social connectedness: connection to your family and your wider community.

We have to mind not only our physical health but our social health too. Just Rambling project seeks to reverse that and bring back the old ways of a community connecting with one another. Empowering the generations of today to ramble once again.
Throughout last Winter 6 homes in Leitrim welcomed their neighbours to their kitchen fora night of music, song, stories, food and good company. For anyone wanting to ramble that can’t travel, volunteers in the community gave them a lift to and from the house.

But the notion of rambling wasn’t just confined within this project to these 6 homes. We put a national call out to the people of Ireland to go rambling this winter. Call in once a week to your neighbour or gather a few together to come to your own home.Check in on a neighbour who is isolated or has no form of transport and ask them would they like to go visit a friends house that they used to ramble to. Those long dark evenings of winter affect us all. The project was a great success and will happen again in Winter 2025.

Aim of Initiative

To bring a community closer together. To truly know the people you live beside; that you don’t just wave at them as they drive past you on their way to work and that’s your only form of connection with each other.

To highlight the importance of social health amongst all ages and show ways of how we can strengthen in.

To connect younger and older generations of a community, so they can converse, socialise and learn from each other. This makes a healthy community.

To teach people how to ramble again. The simple act of regularly visiting a neighbour, a family member or friend, unannounced.

Who is it aimed at

It was aimed at everyone in our community. We wanted all ages to take part, to reconnect with each other once again. Not just locked gates and making phone calls to see if it was ok to visit somebody’s house in two weeks time. We wanted to encourage spontaneous act of calling to a neighbour and just having a conversation whether it was children or adults. While everyone of all ages was invited to get involved (and they did), the project was particularly mindful of those that might really need a visit and social interaction. Or might want to go visit another house but have no means of transport or help. Or those that thought they would be an inconvenience or not welcomed. This project is for everyone that makes up our community; all ages, all abilities, all nationalities.

3 Steps critical to success

1. Identifying 6 Leitrim homes/families to lead the project – that would welcome gatherings in their kitchens.
   Identifying people within those 6 locations that would be like to be part of the project and educating the wider community on the concept. Raising awareness so it reaches the people that would like to be involved that we were not aware of. We did this by launching the project with a rambling event on RTE Radio 1 Countrywide live from Edwina’s kitchen.
2. Ensuring volunteers were in place to bring people to the 6 houses. Having local people prepare food, having local musicians, singers, dancers, storytellers on board. And creating a safe space for all of these ramblers, that they felt wanted, comfortable & celebrated.
3. Teaching the wider and national community about the act of rambling and how to do it. The biggest challenge for people raised was how to let people know that they are welcome to visit ones home. We came up with a strategy of the children making “Ramblers Welcome Tonight” signs which were placed at the gates of the homes on specific nights and this was very successful nationally.

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. Winter! Weather! Darkness!
   These three things played a real challenge on the events but we always worked around it and postponed to another suitable safer day.
2. The fear and lack of confidence in the older generation to go out their front door in Winter. A lot of them were so set in the pattern of going no where in those dark evenings that they were too anxious to actually leave and be brought rambling even though they really wanted to. About an hour before they were due to be collected, the phone call would come where the thoughts of leaving was just too much for them. We’re building new strategies to address that issue for this Winter.
3. Some members of the community horrified that a neighbour would call to your house uninvited without any forewarning. We’re working on them!

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. A stronger community! People now knowing more than just the names of the people that live in the hills around them. Now they know them personally. They stop to talk on the roads when they pass each other. They ask each other for help. When the power went out for days they called to each other to check what needed to be got from the shop or shared generators and battery lights. They invite each other to their homes.
2. Social health improved. Confidence grew in our older generation. The Winter was less daunting. The younger generation learned so much about their locality, town lands, rivers, fields, folklore, just by sitting down and talking to the older generation of their community. And that was reciprocal for all involved.
3. Most importantly, the rambling continued. It didn’t just stop because the project ended. More and more people are contacting us, wanting to be a host house this Winter or want to know how to get involved this year, volunteer or want their parents/grandparents to go rambling again.