Publications and other outputs
DSIS Workshop 2 Report: Restoring the Sacred Ordinary in a Time of Polycrisis
This report describes the DSIS workshop ‘Restoring the Sacred Ordinary in a Time of Polycrisis’ held at University College Cork on June 17-18, 2025, hosted by twice former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese.
- Authors
Ian Hughes, Bob Grumiau, Ciara Norman, Maggie O’Neill, Gerard Mullally, and Edmond Byrne
- Year
- 2025
- Category
- Report
- Keywords
- polycrisis, metacrisis, sacred, sacred ordinary, Mary McAleese, Restoring, DSIS, Sustainability, Human Flourishing
- Full Citation
Ian Hughes, Bob Grumiau, Ciara Norman, Maggie O’Neill, Gerard Mullally, and Edmond Byrne (2025). Deep Societal Innovation for Sustainability and Human Flourishing (DSIS) Project Workshop 2 Report: Restoring the Sacred Ordinary in a Time of Polycrisis. June 17-18, 2025 Workshop Report, North-West Council Room, University College Cork.
- Link to Publication
- /en/media/research/dsis/WorkshopReportRestoringtheSacredOrdinary.pdf
Abstract
The workshop ‘Restoring the Sacred Ordinary in a Time of Polycrisis’, hosted by twice former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, brought together international scholars to develop the concept of ‘the Sacred Ordinary’. The workshop took as its starting point a definition of the ‘Sacred Ordinary’ as being the fundamental experiences of relationality, joy, meaning, and beauty which are found in everyday experience, and which motivate and define us as human. The idea of ‘the Sacred Ordinary’ has emerged as a key concept in the EPA-funded DSIS project for conceptualising the transformation to greater sustainability and human flourishing that is necessary to escape from the contemporary polycrisis facing humanity.