There are two rent-free bedrooms available (one immediately, one soon) in the farmhouse at An Teach Saor. But this is not a place for people who want to save money. It’s a place for people who want to radically reduce their dependency on it all together.
Life at An Teach Saor can be as mucky, bloody and sweaty as it can be satisfying; beautiful and rewarding. It is not a place for anyone wanting to make it safely and conveniently to death. In our over-civilized society it seeks to renegotiate the the deal between comfort and aliveness for those who live here, and is a space that enables those who are enthusiastically seeking it to live in direct and immediate relationship with the surrounding landscape.
It involves hauling, sawing, and chopping wood before breakfast; hot tubs under the night sky; wheel barrowing fresh manure through mud; candle lit dinners from the garden; working in rhythm with life; making blackberry wine; butchering road kill deer; knitting socks; tanning skins; sewing clothes; collecting willow on horse and cart; drying herbs; music; dance; writing; art. Sometimes there will be incredible silence with no distractions from the interiors of your own skull and what’s immediately around you. Other times you may be drinking homebrew at a Shindig in our community event space-The Happy Pig. It encourages you to resist chasing more than you need, and to turn off your screen and to connect to your particular place, in the here and now, instead. Techno-utopians need not apply.
These large rooms would suit single people, couples or a small group (up to four people). Depending on the numbers living here, living costs are between €45-€65 each per month, with the aim to reduce these overtime. There would be a trial period, but it’s ideally suited to those looking to sink roots. We’re also open to turning it into a cooperative.
Those offered a room would be joining Elise and Jorne in the farmhouse, along with Mark and Kirsty, with an eclectic mix of poets, doers, thinkers, performers, dreamers, travellers and misfits occasionally staying in our visitor accommodation.
The farmhouse is part of a 3-acre small holding complete with 110m² event space (with accommodation for 6-15 visitors, a bar, kitchen, composting toilet, shower), a D.I.Y shed, a young orchard and copse, vegetable gardens, two store rooms, a 60m² woodshed and potting shed.
Qualities we enjoy are lightheartedness, ease of communication, openness, honesty, a love of placed culture, a calling to rewild, generosity of spirit and a longing and determination to explore life in its raw elemental form. Enthusiasm is more important than experience.
If you or anyone suitable you know are strongly interested, write a letter with any relevant, succinct thoughts (a bit about yourself, why you’d like to join etc.) to the following address:
Mark Boyle, KnockMoyle, Kylebrack, Loughrea, Co. Galway, Ireland
17 Comments
This is exciting beyond belief…I’d like to come and visit and bring my skills to help. I am able to do joinery,mixing cement, being inventive and creative with material at hand (SO much can be recycled, upcycled and re-appropriated!), knitting and crocheting, making wine, creating tasty hedgerow salads…have you thought of using wool for insulation? It’s free for the walk (just pick it off the fence if Ireland is similar to Scotland). I have been known to produce sounds resembling folk tunes from my mandolin and bowed psaltery and occasionally I wax lyrical about you name it: I can probably find the prose in it! I’m crap at sarcasm, though and the garden path up which I can be led is truly well-trod! If that sounds acceptable to you all, I’d love to come for a visit although as a general assistant/key worker in a residential home for the elderly I’d need to arrange holiday cover for my night shifts, so a range of dates would be great! I’d come in my trusted car/night accommodation, so wouldn’t need much space!
I like to give hugs, so hugs to you in advance! Charlie
His book has completely changed my way to see life.
So that I tryed to find the community in Japan but there are stilk few. I’ve just started to learn agriculture and permaculture in CSA in Germany so I don’t have much experience and long time to stay. But if you accept me, I’d like to visit you in March just before going back to Japan and start to share ideas.
I am a social worker, so can take care people(plants too) who needs help. And also can cook Japanese vegitalian foods.
I’m really looking forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Saya
Hey Charlie and Saya,
Just seen your replies to Mark’s post. Just in case you missed it, he asks people to get in touch by post:
“If you or anyone suitable you know are strongly interested, write a letter with any relevant, succinct thoughts (a bit about yourself, why you’d like to join etc.) to the following address:
Mark Boyle, KnockMoyle, Kylebrack, Loughrea, Co. Galway, Ireland”
Good luck to both of you,
Riyaz
Hi we want to book to stay a night. How do I book my phone number is 086 3331350 could you please let us know
Too bad that it involves butchering road kill.. otherwise it would be a dream come true..
Hi there! Since this article is a few years old I just wanted to see if 1) this was still in existence 2) how I might be able to get in touch with Mark about helping out.
melody – address in article
Well,is it still in existence,,?,surely it is but if it is not then why donr you whose reding this,create your ,own thing.dont just sit there, hand in your notice and f well start living.!
I hope to come here soon. You seem to have truly figured things out. Would be great to learn from your skills and pick your brain
Is this still on going guys ??
Its so refreshing to see this happening.
I can do chippy work and welding and worked with hands all my life.
Let me know the plan for the new year?
Sounds good to me, despite my diet being mostly vegan. I have worked on what might be a similar project in Andalusia where I managed the ancient arabic gardens and irrigation system: I also lived in Belfast for a couple of years in the late 1970s. I have skills in domestic DiY eg electrics, plumbing and glazing and enjoy cycling and walking; in 2005 I sailed in a friends boat round the entire island of Ireland. I have trained both as a botanist and as a mechanical engineer (I was not the brightest student in either case) and worked as a secondary teacher of maths & physics for 30 years. Recently I also devised a way of making vegan yogurt that does not require a starter or one or two other things that are essential with dairy milk yogurt; the scheme involves a degree of upcycling that pleases me greatly and I have used it to supply my yogurt needs for the past 4 years.
I have four sons who are now fully grown men; they might miss me but my absence would be good for them. I am also a fiddle player (Irish Trad) and have busked in several countries in S Europe. I also once did a paid TV gig with an all-Ireland champion piper (OK, it was 2 mins to round off a regional programme on St Patrick’s day).
I have travelled overland as far as Afghanistan (1969) and N.Africa (1984) and enjoy meeting and being with others who share a similar outlook. I enjoy hard physical work though at 74 have to pace myself!
Hi
Vert interesting project
Could you send me on a contact please
I am completely and totally interested in becoming a part of an intentional community in Ireland. After 38 years as a professor of “politics” in the US where so little is being done to address the issue of environmental sustainability and liberation from the oppression of capitalism in all its anti humanist manifestations, I so want to “be the change, I want to see in the world.” I would love to visit this summer to experience such a community with the intention of becoming part of one by 2024. Please send me any contact information. 100,000 thanks, Christianna Leahy
I’ve just returned from taking 15 undergraduates on a study tour in Ireland which just further solidified my desire to live there permanently. My 24 year old son has dual citizenship with Ireland.
Christianna – address in article.
Good Day…After watching Mark and Ben do the program..The Happy Pig fills my thoughts…I am stuck in the cycles of work to home and time poor with an aging body…..
I loved the simplicity of life you showed us…
Just like to thank you for the wake up call to my Spirit.
Much love and thanks.
May my courage pick up a pen and adventerous Spirit find me at your Happy Pig in this Lifetime..xxx🫂🪴🌻🤞🌞🤷♀️😊
Dans l’adresse de Mark Boyle, ( KnockMoyle, Kylebrack, Loughrea, comté de Galway, Irlande ) …
J’ai cherché sur la carte , Loughrea est à l’est de Galway , avec son lac .
Mais KnockMoyle est au nord de l’irlande . je n’ai pas compris . merci .
Bonjour, l’adresse est correcte. Il peut y avoir deux zones portant le même nom. Merci.
Bonjour Marc
Je viens de regarder sur la télé l’émission de Ben qui a séjourné une semaine chez toi, je veux surtout te dire que j’apprécie beaucoup ta façon de voir le monde et la vie… et te dire aussi que j adhère à beaucoup de ces idées ..
J habite une grande ville très “” artificielle”” et J’aimerai bien passer une semaine chez toi dans les bras de notre mère Nature.
Faut-il réserver d’avance ou pas ? Ça ne me dérange pas de dormir à la belle étoile dans mon sac de couchage !
Pour finir, peux tu m envoyer ton adresse postale pour t écrire une vrai lettre ? Je n’aime pas trop communiquer par mail .
À très bientôt j’espère
Fouzy
Beautiful to read about the Happy Pig.
Unfortunately one website of Mark is hacked I think. Or maybe partially.
The one which begins with moneylessmanifesto
and ends with org.
I cannot find who is responsible for it, so I leave the information here in the hope someone knows what to do about it.
Love from the Netherlands,
Kirsten
N’envoyez pas d’argent à des sites internet voleurs . Envoyez directement à Marko . Mark Boyle, KnockMoyle, Kylebrack, Loughrea, comté de Galway, Irlande . Mais enfin , envoyez lui plutôt des graines et … des poules ! … Et du “papier-cul” !!!
I sent a registered letter on the 9th June and have not received a reply, which doesn’t mean that it wasn’t sent to me ( someone might have taken it out of my mailbox). While waiting for the reply, I read quite a lot about the community – whatever was available for free – and now I only want to know what kind of spirituality and festivals they have; t.i. is there a pagan cult involved where people worship prechristian deities or chant and perform shamanism?
Hi, I am from Sweden and I went to the Happy pig in 2018. It was a great experience of exchange and thought flexibility. Loved the place and people.
Hello everybody i ve been to slieven aughty center today but i didn t find the Happy pig or Mark. I really would like to meet him. Were I in the right place or not? Baci from italy.
Hi there,
I would love to be involved in communal living. I am hardworking, play fiddle and sing. Can I volunteer?
Kind regards,
Shazia
Hi, Shazia,
I am a retired midwife and my house is “for sale”. I am planning to buy land somewhere. (Don’t know where ) when it’s sold.
Do you want to join me in an adventure ?
( want to visit happy pig first )
([email protected])