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The digital tapestry of Ireland extends well beyond cities to towns and villages across rural Ireland. Tubbercurry is just one outlier example of what is really happening.
The Department of Communications has launched a new Smart Community initiative as part of its digital strategy for the regions of Ireland.
The Smart Community initiative is a new approach that will bring exposure to digital content and technology into the community, and support people to discover the value of using digital in their daily lives.
‘It’s not a town you associate with Buffer, NearForm or Scrapinghub, and that’s why we’re doing this. We need to change the narrative’
– GROW REMOTE
“By working together and combining existing assets and resources under a shared vision, the community will maximise reach, impact and engagement of current schemes and programmes,” said Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment Seán Canney, TD.
Minister Canney said that the Smart Community initiative has the potential, in combination with local authority digital strategies, to deliver enhanced demand stimulation for uptake of high-speed broadband services in urban and rural communities.
Grassroots and green fields
The move has been welcomed by the emerging Grow Remote movement, which is championing the spread of remote working in the regions of Ireland.
According to the organisation, it will be holding its next Grow Remote conference in Tubbercurry to mark and highlight what is already happening in towns like it.
“We chose Tubbercurry because of the local team here, and because Tubbercurry is a town you need to experience,” Grow Remote said in a statement. “It’s not a town you associate with Buffer, NearForm or Scrapinghub, and that’s why we’re doing this. We need to change the narrative.
“They have all of the infrastructure here to handle remote workers – and if they didn’t, they’re just the team to get when it’s needed … in record time.”
Speaking at the upcoming Grow Remote conference on 16 April will be Marcus Wermuth from Buffer, Jordan Mirchev from Trello/Atlassian, Ryan Mesches from Teamwork.com, Alex Hirst from The Hoxby Collective, Tammy Bjelland from Workplaceless, Lorcan Roche Kelly from Bloomberg and Laurel Farrel from the Rural Online Initiative.
