A Lust For Life

A deeper look into the heart of Ireland: Census of the heart findings

Census of the Heart is one of those ideas that drops into your world from the great beyond and works its magic until you give your whole heart to it. Elizabeth Gilbert famously claims in her book ‘Big Magic’ that “Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. It is only through a human’s efforts that an idea can be escorted out of the ether and into the realm of the actual.”

I have come to the conclusion that Mari Kennedy and I are partners in the crime of curiosity. We have started small movements with a “what if” question at various kitchen tables. We like to ask big questions about being human in this world we live in.

When Census of the Heart came calling we needed a whole team of believers who were ready to come on board and make magic happen with us. We collaborated with lots of brilliant humans – artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, researchers, creatives, academics and designers to bring that “what if” question out “into the realm of the actual”. We all wanted to start a new conversation. Together, we discovered that great conversations start with great questions.

Those questions became Census of the Heart – a pilot / prototype project that disrupts and responds to the National Census 2016. Our alternative census places the human experience at the heart of the matter asking not just who we are as a nation but how we are as a nation. Our intention was to orient Census of the Heart around our innate qualities of connection, empathy, compassion and care. We set out discover our place in history and our place in the future. We wanted to know what matters to us as individuals, as a society, as a country and as a planet.

As a planet we are at a challenging moment in history. As a small island nation we are also at a meaningful intersection or pivot point. Down the tracks, 100 years from now, future generations will be able to access the National Census 2016 records and find out about us, their ancestors. We recognised a unique opportunity to engage with people in Ireland, inviting them to check in with themselves and to express their voice.

We now find ourselves at an exciting juncture at The Trailblazery which is an Irish collective (some of the people behind the Census of the Heart initiative) who create social experiences that disrupt and evolve our current narratives. The citizens have spoken and we are now custodians of a unique repository of knowledge that holds the intimate hopes, regrets, fears and dreams of almost 12,000 people in Ireland, exactly 100 years after the Easter Rising of 1916. A total of 11,708 people participated in the Census of the Heart survey between April 23 and May 22, 2016.

Anyone who was living on the island of Ireland (32 counties) was eligible to participate in the survey. Our English Language Survey had 11,484 responses, our Irish Language Survey had 224 responses and all ethnic groups listed took part in the survey. We are now publishing our Preliminary Report which scratches the surface providing some rich findings that explore the complexity of being human in Ireland in 2016. Most importantly, like all good research, the report tells us things we might not have known before, revealing areas ripe for more questions and deeper research.

A Revolution of the Heart?

We made Census of the Heart for many reasons. We wanted to disrupt things. We wanted to ask deeper questions that relate to the human experience. We wanted people to have an opportunity to go inwards, check in and express themselves. We wanted people to feel valued, included, cared about and listened to. We wanted to inspire future dreaming. We wanted to nudge humanity forward and encourage an inner revolution – a revolution of the heart.

So we invited people on a journey to;

What people said – a sample of statistics from Census of the Heart:

You can read our full report at censusoftheheart.com. Here are some of our key observations:

1. Questions that could evolve the National Census

In designing the survey Census of the Heart, we felt it was important to evolve and add a number of demographic questions outside those currently posed in The National Census. This was to reflect the increasing diverse and complex expressions of people’s life choices in Irish society in 2016.The data shows that Census of The Heart respondents engaged with all of the additional options and questions offered in our survey e.g. 81 different words were expressed by respondents outside of male and female categories to describe gender identification.

2. Cherish?

We asked the question “Do you feel cherished in Irish society?” 100 years after the term was featured in the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. While we are aware that in the context of the Proclamation the term “cherish” refers to the inclusion of Protestants and Catholics in Ireland 1916, in Census of The Heart the term has a broader socio-economic frame of reference. To survive and thrive as a species we believe that our social and economic systems must evolve to ensure people feel cherished meaning valued, protected and cared for in Ireland 2016. Over one third of respondents disagreed and strongly disagreed with the statement, while another one third sat on the fence. We are left wondering if the concept of being cherished is a foreign one to people in Ireland today.

3. National Pride

We set out to investigate what the respondents would have to say about their connection to their national identity, national pride, being alive in Ireland in 2016 and what kind of Ireland they wanted to leave as legacy for future generations. In the qualitative responses, the 1916 commemorations were referenced in a number of ways – nostalgically, romantically, critically and also as meaningful and inspiring. In an initial analysis of Q38 the word “proud” occurred 471 times. We note however that although the word proud recurred most frequently, this appeared to be proud to be Irish but not proud of Irish behaviour regarding inequities.

4. Temperature Social Justice & The Call for Change

The overarching emergent theme within the qualitative data was social justice across all aspects of society e.g. health, equality, homelessness, children, the vulnerable and the marriage referendum. Within Q38, frustration was a noted emotional response, particularly in relation to the divide between the “have and the have not’s” and social inequity. Negative emotions e.g. depressing, frustration, despair, disappointment was frequently used in reference to a perception of increasingly materialistic values, neoliberal agendas and the oft-cited ‘corrupt’ or failing government more focussed on personal gain or economics. The 8th Amendment was also repeatedly mentioned as a key concern and a source of inequity and shame, questioning Ireland’s status as a contemporary country. Conversely the Marriage Equality Referendum was perceived as a collective “shot in the arm” and was considered something to be proud of, inspired hope and brought with it a sense of potential. Family, friends and community were also presented as important factors in the respondent’s sense of support and ability to cope with change.

5. Emotional States of Being

Census of The Heart set out to assess the emotional state of the nation. In the quantitative section we included questions on Wellbeing, Happiness and Emotional States of Being. Positive emotions ranked higher than negative in the question asking people to identify their feelings (Q27) with the top 3: Grateful, Content and Positive. The highest-ranking negative emotion was Overwhelm (both Eng and Ir) Lonely (Eng) and Scared (Ir). A striking feature of the qualitative responses is that over and over respondent’s statements reflect emotional states that are contradictory and dualistic. Most responses held both positive and negative states sometimes in the extreme.

6. Message in a Bottle

We presented two open-ended questions in the survey that invited respondents to consider the future, consciously taking them from 1916 to 2016 and forward to 2116. Both questions gave respondents an opportunity to imagine the world 100 years from now and speak to future generations in 2116. Q34 focused on aspirations for the future. In a preliminary word search of Q34 safe, peaceful and equal were the words most frequently used to describe aspirations for the future. Q38 asked respondents to leave an impression of what it means to be alive now in Ireland.

Sample of messages to future generations in 2116:

“Our generation is either jumping on planes or jumping in rivers. At every stage of our lives now, we will be poorer than our parents were. I hope 2116 is a nicer place” Q38

“I am sorry that we could not think of you when we were in charge of the country. Ignorance and greed got the better of us. We were a country that had many dark clouds hanging over us so we were inclined to avoid progress “ Q38

“We are at a time of great change; information flows allowing us knowledge to sculpt Earth’s future development. Respect for nature & each other must win out over unsustainable greed if we are to survive. There is no Planet B.” Q38

What’s Next?

Phase 1 is now complete with the launch of the preliminary report. Phase 2 is about further developing and analysing the data collected in Census of The Heart. We want to take the process further with a dedicated team of experts and partners. We want to drill deeper, down into the data to find emergent themes, patterns, beats, rhythms etc. We also want to cross reference the data to discover the true meaning of key attributes gathered from the survey, which may lead to further research in key areas. We want to host some Trailblaze events and experiences that respond to Census of the Heart data and findings.

We want to continue on this Census of the Heart journey and recruit more heart revolutionaries along the way.

The people behind Census of the Heart – Kathy Scott and Mari Kennedy

By Kathy Scott

Over the last 15 years Kathy Scott has worked as a curator + creative producer in the Arts, Cultural & Social arena. She is the creative director of The Trailblazery {Saoirse | Freedom, Census of The Heart, We Need to Talk About Ireland, Rites of Passage} designing cultural experiences that shine a light on people who are nudging humanity forward one story at a time. Other creative projects include the ireland: iceland project, a collaborative creative project connecting the islands and people of Ireland & Iceland + Wonderlust – a bespoke.