Agus Arís – means And Again in Irish

When I first started UpSew in 2014, my naieve thinking was it could be a way to get the conversation started on our relationship with fast fashion. I used think if more people sewed, then maybe they would buy less. This was my blue-sky thinking in 2014 and things just seem to get worse. In this time Earth Overshot Day has moved from August 19 to June 5.

I really think its unfair that consumers are bearing the brunt of this, or more specifically, future generations. While fast fashion is a huge problem, so is big oil and big tech and the big profits that are made from these are certainly not being seen by communities.

Last year (August 2025), I started really thinking on UpSew and if there was anything else that could be done to promote sustainable choices. Originally I had the idea to take some of the unsold donations from the charity shop (these are exported) and see if I could do a project where these could be used locally. I ended up bring home far too much, as there is far too much. And I was being very selective (only natural fibres etc). This project was to be Agus Arís.

Since August 2025, I started the Repair Cafe in Galway and this has been great. One of the drawbacks of my mending workshops was I never got sufficient time to help people with individual repairs and here I do. Myself and the other volunteers give our time for free here, as we all believe in repairing and sharing.

In the last year I have seen the need for a dedicated space for circular living. Getting a space for the Repair Cafe is very difficult. So far this year, we have had 3 locations. Even now, I have a space secured until April 2027 but do not know beyond this. Getting teaching spaces is always difficult despite having a waiting list for classes. And the more I talked with people in the last year, the more I realised that there are lots of community initiatives that want to link up and a definite need for a central accessible space.

Agus Arís has evolved to being a pilot for a circular hub. We have Arts Centres for Arts and Culture, Museums for Heritage, but nothing that puts sustainable living front and centre. If we are to keep side-lining circular living, how can we expect people to adopt sustainable practices.

Agus Arís aims to be a space to explore creative reuse, repair culture, and practical sustainable‑living initiatives for Galway. It’s a way to test how we can reuse textile waste locally and how we can support a more sustainable city through community learning, repair skills, and shared resources.

Updates will be posted www.instagram.com/agusaris.ie and I will document the process on my blog here in ‘workroom notes’

August 2026