Supporting Our Vision
Evidence shows that quality relationships act as a buffer and a protective factor in our health and wellbeing. They can help us to feel safe, seen, soothed, and create a space where we are able to be open and share our worries and concerns.
Maeve Hurley
Advocacy
Relationships are a key determinate of health and wellbeing so we do everything we can to advocate for quality relationships in practice.
Our advocacy work, events and communications programmes are strategic and evidence-based to highlight the benefits of taking a relationship-centred approach in frontline practice.
- We have delivered presentations and workshops on a national level to highlight the impact of quality relationships in Ireland on health and wellbeing outcomes. These include national conferences such as the IFCA International Conference, Enable Ireland Conference, Unity Through Relationships Conference and the Social Care Ireland Conference.
- We deliver Masterclasses for the Royal College of Physicians Ireland (RCPI). Our founder, Dr Maeve Hurley, is regularly invited by the RCPI to share her vision and knowledge with members. She has delivered Advanced Masterclasses at the RCPI’s annual St Luke’s Symposium in Dublin and has presented at the RCPI’s Quality in Healthcare Summit.
- Our views, thoughts and insights into relational wellbeing can be found in health journals and national, regional and local media to raise awareness about the importance of relationships in practice.
- We engage in important skills and knowledge-based training with the Cork Specialist Training Programme for General Practice to develop GP Registrars’ capacity to take a relationship-centred approach in practice.
- We hold and facilitate on-line and in-person events to gather and welcome practitioners in real and virtual spaces to connect, collaborate and share learning and experiences with like-minded people and organisations.
Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope
Our facilitated screenings of ‘Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope’ have been warmly received by invited audiences of practitioners and teachers.
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ABLE launch
The launch of our accredited, evidence-informed ABLE training model was an important milestone in our history to date, marking the start of an exciting new chapter for Ag Eisteacht.
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Hands up for Children
To show our support of the Prevention and Early Intervention Services’ Hands Up for Children campaign, we organised an awareness event to highlight the need for increased State funding and a more targeted programme for early intervention.
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Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope

Our facilitated screenings of Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope support our work in helping practitioners to communicate with compassion, empathy and understanding.
We held our first facilitated screening of the critically-acclaimed documentary, ‘Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope’ at Nano Nagle Place in Cork in October 2018 for a group of frontline practitioners from the health, social care, youth and community sectors.
We created a ‘Tree of Hope’ and invited attendees to pin their thoughts and hopes on it to reflect a narrative of hope.
Since that first screening, demand for this powerful documentary has risen.
As we are licence holders, we continue to provide facilitated screenings for teachers and multidisciplinary audiences of frontline pracitioners to raise awareness of the research about Adverse Childhood Experiences and the impact of ACEs and toxic stress has on health and wellbeing.
Our aim is to facilitate a conversation among frontline workers and teachers about the role they can play in adopting a narrative of hope and how being ‘that one good adult’ can support and empower individuals.
Having positive relationships is one of the key components of improved outcomes for people who have experience ACEs.
We also offer virtual delivery of our facilitated screenings. Please contact [email protected] for details.

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ABLE launch

On Friday 12th May 2017, we celebrated the launch of our core ABLE training model in the tranquil surroundings of Nano Nagle Place in the heart of Cork city, surrounded by clients, our trainers and representatives from community, health and social care organisations.
Susanna Abse, Consultant Psychotherapist and former CEO of renowned UK charity, Tavistock Relationships, delivered a keynote speech at the launch on ‘The role relationships play in shaping our lives.’
Dr Sinéad Hanafin, a scholar of the European Academy of Nursing Science, a Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity and managing director of the research consultancy company, Research Matters, presented an overview of her research findings into the impact relationships have on our health and wellbeing.

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Hands up for Children
Our event took place in Cork in November 2015 and included a keynote speech by Fergus Finlay (former CEO, Barnardos). There were presentations by Marian Quinn (Chair, Prevention and Early Intervention Network), Katherine Harford (Manager, Young Knocknaheeny Area Based Childhood Programme) and Catherine Maguire (Infant Mental Health Specialist, HSE).
We firmly believe – and research shows – that with access to early intervention and a person-centred approach in practice, individuals can be supported to build their relational capability and resilience and so strengthen the wellbeing of all the family.
Over 100 people attended our event in Cork to show their support.
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