Co-Operative and Community Action

Mathew Quill

This was our second year as a society on campus, following our founding in 2020, and was the year of our rebrand to the Cooperative & Community Action Society! We decided to change our name to this as the society's activities had expanded beyond just co-operatives as a means of community organising, and this was reflected with events promoting alternative forms of activism, such as cycling activism in Cork City, and most notably, our zine. Co-operatives still stayed a major focus of ours throughout the year however, with events like a talk and screening from members of the IndieCork Film Festival, a local co-op!

Our zine RAT.jpeg was our first physical publication as a society. The zine (short for magazine), was essentially a DIY publication which members of our committee designed –and literally stapled together! This zine contained art, written pieces about activism and more. It was even shortlisted for best publication at the STARS awards, something we were very proud of. Going forward we want to encourage our members to submit their own pieces to future issues of the zine, something we've started with the second issue.

Charitable fundraising was another way which we gave back to our community this year, as we ran our second charity quiz for Cork Penny Dinners, which raised over €500, as well as a bake sale held in aid of the Raise and Give We charities for 2023, which raised over €200!