Events and Recordings
Welcome to our events and recordings page!
We regularly host information talks, webinars and events on a range of topics. Check out some of our recent events below, and watch this space for upcoming events.
Recent events
CLM50: 50th Anniversary Event Panel Discussion & Poetry Recital
On the evening of Wednesday, February 26th, Community Law & Mediation celebrated its 50th anniversary in style at City Hall in Dublin.
The celebration of CLM’s past, present and future featured an expert panel of speakers including Michael O’Flaherty, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, social justice and human rights campaigner, Tessa Khan, Executive Director of Uplift UK & former director of Climate Litigation Network, and Rose Wall, of Community Law & Mediation.
Joined on the night by colleagues, friends and partners of CLM past and present, we also welcomed Dublin Writer and Poet Colm Keegan, who recited two impactful and relatable pieces, while discussing their significance.
CLM50: Celebrating 50 years of Community Law & Mediation
Community Law & Mediation (CLM) is an independent community law centre and charity, working since 1975 with communities impacted by disadvantage and inequality.
In 2025, CLM celebrated its 50th anniverary with a commemorative video that celebrates its achievements past and present. Featuring testimony from staff, board members, volunteers, and clients, the video seeks to celebrate 50 years of CLM, while also looking forward at the work to come.
Over the years, CLM has adapted and expanded its services in response to changing needs in the community, offering new services first in mediation, and more recently in environmental justice and children’s law.
Webinar: The Cost of Access to Environmental Justice in Ireland
Webinar: Climate justice before the courts – Ireland and Switzerland
Webinar: Ireland’s Climate Justice Obligations – Outlining Ireland’s Legal, Scientific, and Policy priorities ahead of a new government.
On January 23rd, 2025, Community Law & Mediation’s Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) held a webinar to outline Ireland’s scientific and legal responsibilities on climate change, upcoming climate cases, and what the next Government must do to close the emissions gap.
The expert panel of speakers included:
– Professor Kevin Anderson , Climate Scientist and Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester: Kevin has been consistent in engaging widely across all tiers of government (UK and EU) on issues ranging from climate modelling (IAMs), carbon budgets and ‘negative emission technologies’. His analysis previously contributed to the framing of the UK’s Climate Change Act and the development of national carbon budgets.
Kevin spoke about the gap between where we are, and where we need to be, to remain within 1.5°.
– Dr. Andrew Jackson , Assistant Professor in Planning and Environmental Law at University College Dublin: Andrew is an environmental and planning lawyer, with broad interests in these fields at international, EU and Irish levels. He has been involved in public interest environmental and planning litigation for many years, including before the Irish, English and EU courts.
Andrew spoke about Ireland’s legal obligations to remain within 1.5°, as well as upcoming climate cases.
– Oisín Coghlan , CEO of Friends of the Earth: Oisín is the CEO of Friends of the Earth Ireland, the Irish member of the world’s largest network of grassroots environmental organisations with over 2 million supporters in 75 countries. He leads their work to ensure that legal framework is translated into the transformative action required to curb climate chaos.
Oisín spoke about what these scientific and legal obligations for 1.5° mean for Ireland’s new government.
– Rose Wall , CEO of Community Law & Mediation: Rose has been the CEO of Community Law & Mediation since 2013. In 2021, Rose set up CLM’s (and Ireland’s first) Centre for Environmental Justice, which works to ensure that marginalised groups are not disproportionately impacted by climate change or other environmental harms, and that environmental measures and climate action protect and build equality and social justice.
Rose chaired the event, and spoke about why CLM is engaging in the climate justice space, and bringing climate cases.
CEJ Webinar: Guide to the CEJ’s Environmental Justice Free Legal Advice Clinics.
On November 5th, 2024, we held a one-hour webinar featuring a presentation and Q&A on the Centre for Environmental Justice’s free legal advice clinics.
During this webinar, we covered:
– What is environmental justice?
– What kind of environmental issues are prevalent?
– The clinic process: what to expect and typical timelines
– Information, advice, advocacy, and representation
– Attending as an advocate with client consent
– Outreach clinics: how we can help your organization
– Strategic cases
– Protecting environmental rights, and advocating for law reform
– Q&A Speaker: Justine Schoenfeld-Quinn, new Environmental Justice Lawyer with the CEJ.
We hope this meeting will demonstrate how our free legal advice clinics can assist the communities your organisation works with and deliver better outcomes for those experiencing environmental injustices.
CEJ Webinar: Understanding the Requirements of Ireland’s Carbon Budget Programme.
We often hear that Ireland must reduce its emissions 51% by 2030, but what does the Climate Act really require?
On November 13th, 2024, Community Law and Mediation’s Centre for Environmental Justice held a free online webinar on Ireland’s legal obligations on climate change.
Speakers Alan Brady BL, Professor Hannah Daly, and Manager of the Centre of Environmental Justice Clodagh Daly discussed what our future government must do to close the emissions gap.
Centre for Environmental Justice Webinar: The Ambient Air Quality Directive
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to human health. In response, the European Union recently updated its air quality regulations via the Ambient Air Quality Directive.
On November 20th, 2024, Community Law and Mediation’s Centre for Environmental Justice held for a one-hour free webinar at 2pm on the specific requirements of the revised Directive for EU member states.
Speakers discussed whether the revised Directive adequately safeguards public health, and how the Directive can be implemented in a manner which is fair and inclusive in Ireland.
Speakers included Emma Bud, Lawyer leading ClientEarth’s clean air work, Cale Lawlor, Doctor and public health advocate specialising in air quality, and Clodagh Daly, Manager of the Centre for Environmental Justice.
Planning and Development Bill Town Hall – Access to Justice.
On February 6th, 2024, we held a online town hall event on part 9 of the Planning and Development Bill 2023, which discusses proposed changes to the process of judicial review.
Speakers included Gavin Elliott, Environmental Lawyer at Community Law and Mediation, Robin Mandal, Chairperson of the Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance, and Mary O’ Leary, Chairperson of Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Environment.
The Planning and Development Bill was published in November 2023 – Its purpose is to consolidate all of Ireland’s previous planning legislation and make our planning system more streamlined and straightforward.
However, access to justice via judicial review has been a key point of contention throughout the shaping of the bill. The focus of our online town hall discussion was on the access to justice provisions contained in Part 9 of the Bill.
The proposed changes, under Part 9, will make it more difficult and potentially costly for citizens, residents’ associations and community groups to challenge planning decisions which affect their community and the environment.
Environmental Rights Webinar Series
Our annual ‘Know your rights’ webinar series examines why environmental rights matter and how individuals and organisations can benefit from exercising these rights.
The three part series focuses on the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention which is an international agreement that gives people the right to access information about the environment.
Pillar 1: Access to Information on the Environment
The first in our three-part webinar series, featuring presentations from Niall Sargent (Investigative Reporter) and Eoin Brady (Environmental Lawyer) focuses on Access to Information on the Environment, how to request information, the type of information that can be requested and what to do if your request is refused.
Pillar 2: Public partipation in environmental decision-making
The second in our three-part webinar series, featuring presentations from Dr. Alison Hough BL (TUS Midlands and EJNI) and Dr. Mary Dobbs (Maynooth University) focuses on the critical importance of public participation in achieving climate justice. It asks what public participation means, what participation can look like, different ways of participating (eg public consultations, campaigning, lobbying) at the national level down to the local, and relevant case law for public participation in the Irish context.
Pillar 3: Access to Justice
The third and final the series focuses on access to the law in environmental matters and climate litigation. With presentations by Ida Edling of the Swedish Aurora Climate Case and Gavin Elliott of Community Law & Mediation.
Additional resources:
- Community Law & Mediation’s Guide to the Aarhus Convention
- Webinar on Energy Poverty in Ireland
- Webinar on the development of a national Clean Air Strategy
- Webinar on Know Your Environmental Rights – at the Local Level
- Webinar on Climate Justice in Ireland
- Joint Statement on Energy Poverty
- Joint letter with JFCJ on affordability of active travel
- Submission to the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss
- Open letter on Just Transition Alliance
- Year One in Review – First Year of the CEJ
- Year Two in Review – Second Year of the CEJ
Launch of ‘Environmental Justice in Ireland: Key dimensions of environmental and climate injustice experienced by vulnerable and marginalised communities’
‘Environmental Justice in Ireland’, a report by DCU (School of Law and Government) and CLM (Centre for Environmental Justice) was launched by Minister Joe O’Brien on 24th March 2022.
Launch of Community Law & Mediation’s Guides to taking employment equality and equal status cases
On Wednesday 5th May 2021, Minister Roderic O’Gorman joined us to launch our new guides to taking Employment Equality and Equal Status cases. We were also joined for a panel discussion by Senator Eileen Flynn, Suzy Byrne of the National Advocacy Service, Reuben Hambakachere of Cultur Migrants Centre and Jane O’Sullivan of Community Law & Mediation.
Launch of CLM’s Centre for Environmental Justice
Community Law & Mediation was joined by Mary Robinson to launch its new Centre for Environmental Justice on Thursday 11th February 2021.
Celebrating Community Law & Mediation’s 45th Anniversary
Community Law & Mediation (CLM) celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2020, a year which saw the organisation undergo a significant transformation to meet the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, while also embarking on new projects, with the establishment of a Centre for Environmental Justice.
We were delighted to be joined by Justice Colin Daly, Ursula O’Hare of the Law Centre NI and Sean Canning of Camden Community Law Centre (London) to celebrate CLM’s 45th anniversary. There was much discussion about the achievements and challenges for community law centres in each of our jurisdictions.