Dargan Forum 2026 a great success
Two days, eleven rooms, one conversation
The Dargan Forum 2026 set itself a single, stubborn question: how does a country deliver its twin transition — green and digital — without leaving towns, communities and smaller enterprises on the wrong side of the divide? Across two days, hosted from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, the Forum answered not with abstraction but with people in rooms, earthing national ambition in the concrete reality of places, businesses and public services.
The programme was bookended by two social functions — the Official Reception that opened proceedings and the Garden Party that closed them — and between them sat nine content sessions, each a movement in the same larger arc. What follows is that journey, in order.
Macro theme — The Digital Divide and Ireland's Twin Transition (green + digital) — bringing national-scale technology and innovation down to the lived reality of local communities, towns and counties.
The opening welcome. The Official Reception set the civic tone, with Cathaoirleach Barry Saul marking the Forum at year four as a milestone for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and framing the council's role in the green and digital transition — a hospitable prelude rather than a session, handing the substance to the days ahead.
The Official Reception opened the Dargan Forum 2026 at Harbour Commissioner House, setting the civic tone for the two days ahead. Cathaoirleach Barry Saul marked the Forum at year four as a milestone for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, joined by His Excellency Dr. Lahcen Mahraoui, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Ireland.
Setting the national frame. The Playbook for Regional Development put the divide on the table directly. Cormac McCann of Meath County Council named the binding constraint — broadband gaps that still block hub viability in towns — while Leah Fairman of the Western Development Commission drew on the national hubs programme to explain why some hubs become genuine town anchors and others stay empty. Hosted by Seán Tobin of .ie, the room kept circling the same fault line: where national digital strategy and regional reality diverge, and what it takes to close the gap.
The Dargan Forum Playbook for Regional Development asked what actually works on the ground. Hosted by Seán Tobin, it brought together practitioners who had led real change — across town centres, remote-working hubs, community enterprises, digital infrastructure and skills — for an evening of honest, evidence-based conversation about what had worked, what had not, and what a genuine playbook for regional progress looked like in practice. Three panels examined Regenerating Town Centres, New Ways of Work: Hubs as Engines of Rejuvenation, and Flexible Skills & Workforce Development.
From frame to delivery. The Main Event widened the lens to sustainability, resilience and prosperity, hosted by Eoin Killian Costello of the Dargan Institute. Theresa Cloonan of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council showed the transition made practical — an analytics engine, built with Microsoft, processing thousands of public-consultation submissions so specialist staff could return to assessment and community engagement. Alongside her, Vanessa O'Connell of RWE Dublin Array translated offshore-wind delivery into indigenous clean-energy capacity, evidence that the macro theme lives or dies on infrastructure built locally.
The Main Event, hosted by Eoin Killian Costello with the opening panel hosted by Chad Gilmer of iPLANiT, took place on 25 June in the Carlisle Room of the Royal Marine Hotel. It brought together speakers from government, business, health, transport and renewable energy to explore how technology was delivering Ireland's twin green and digital transition. Across an official opening and three themed sessions — Sustainability, Resilience and Prosperity — the Forum examined how technology was empowering economic development, building systemic resilience across the built environment, healthcare, public services and business, and translating green and digital strategies into tangible regional growth.
Trust as the first mile. If the Main Event was the macro, the .ie Connected Communities session was the micro of inclusion. Mark Kelly of An Cosán argued that for marginalised communities inclusion has to precede trust, while host Seán Tobin connected trusted online identity for Irish SMEs to place-making itself — a reminder that digital adoption is never only technical.
The .ie Parallel Session, Connected Communities, hosted by Seán Tobin, explored how organisations scaled a digitally trusted online presence to deepen engagement, build digital skills and create meaningful connections. As digital interactions increasingly shaped how communities connect and participate, the session put trust, authenticity and inclusion at its centre — making the case that technology alone did not guarantee success.
Moving people, not just data. Active Travel & Mobility Hubs, hosted by James Phelan of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, earthed the green transition in streets and stations. Conor Geraghty of the National Transport Authority described the investment programme funding roughly a thousand local-authority projects, and Clara Clark of Cycling Without Age Ireland insisted that active travel only counts as transition if it is genuinely inclusive, from Blackrock outward.
Active Travel & Mobility Hubs, hosted by James Phelan, Director of Infrastructure and Climate Change at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, took on the real challenge behind record investment: integration. The session brought together planners, researchers, advocates and policy leaders to show what active travel and mobility hubs looked like in practice — from county-level infrastructure decisions to the national policy frameworks shaping where investment went — and how active travel could be embedded into how towns, counties and regions are planned.
Towns worth keeping. The Value of Urbanism turned to the built fabric, hosted by Andrée Dargan of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. Triona Stack of the Centre for Irish Towns set out the regulatory barriers that keep buildings vacant when they could be viable, while Valerie Mulvin of McCullough Mulvin Architects made the case for conserving town character while adding homes and civic life — heritage as a platform for, not a brake on, renewal.
The Value of Urbanism — Respecting the Past, Embracing the Future, hosted by County Architect Andrée Dargan FRIAI, explored the practical ideas that turn vacancy into vitality. Two mini-keynotes anchored the session — David Browne (RKD Architects) on the growth pressures facing Irish cities, and Valerie Mulvin (McCullough Mulvin Architects) on activating towns by getting housing back into them — followed by four rapid-fire talks on living above the shop, the New European Bauhaus, a rediscovered grand-tour museum, and the Academy of Urbanism, before closing with an open Q&A.
Heritage as an export engine. Tourism + Heritage + Technology, hosted by Eoin Killian Costello, asked whether the sector could be Ireland's next boom. Orla O'Keeffe of Fáilte Ireland addressed the digital adoption gap that still leaves most small tourism enterprises operating without digital tools, and Dave Lawless of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council showed how local-authority place-making can position a coastal county as a distinctive destination.
Tourism + Heritage + Technology = Ireland's Next Boom Sector?, hosted by Eoin Killian Costello, explored how technology was being used to attract visitors, activate heritage assets, and create memorable, shareable experiences for communities across Ireland — bringing together national agencies, local authority leads and SMEs working at the intersection of culture, place and digital.
The county's coastline as industry. Marine Clusters and the Blue Economy, hosted by Paul Kennedy of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, tied the harbour's future to offshore wind, an operations base and the planned National Watersports Campus. Liam Cronin of Nova UCD added the innovation layer, turning marine research into blue-economy start-ups and AI-enabled nature-inclusive design — the twin transition as a source of new enterprise, not just new compliance.
Marine Clusters and the Blue Economy, hosted by Paul Kennedy, Director of Planning, Economic Development, Harbour Operations & Property at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, examined how Ireland's coastal communities could harness marine innovation — from offshore wind to maritime technology — to build new economic clusters. The session set out how the Council was developing a high-growth coastal economy: the Dublin Array offshore wind farm (RWE), roughly 10 km off Dún Laoghaire, is planned at 39–50 turbines and up to 824 MW — enough to power 770,000 homes — bringing an Irish supply chain, 1,000+ construction jobs, an Operations & Maintenance base in the Harbour and a Community Benefit Fund of around €6.5 million per annum, anchoring a Marine Cluster along the county's 17 km coastline.
AI in the everyday. AI and Innovation in public services, hosted by Theresa Cloonan of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, closed the content arc where the divide is most visible to residents. David Nagle of Microsoft framed practical platforms for modernising local-government delivery, while Richie Shakespeare of Dublin City Council pointed to cross-council collaboration as the way smart-city pilots become daily operations. A parallel SERI 100 Leaders session, hosted by John Logue, kept social enterprise in the same frame.
AI and Innovation: Improving Public Services, hosted by Theresa Cloonan, Head of Information Systems at Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, explored how innovation and AI could deliver better public services in practice — faster, simpler interactions and smarter decisions about the places people live and work. The panel brought together local-government and industry perspectives on the real challenges of adoption — trust, procurement, skills, data governance and the duty to serve everyone — and on how public bodies could adopt AI responsibly.
The SERI 100 Leaders parallel session convened senior leaders for a focused, invitation-based exchange on Ireland's innovation leadership.
From left to right: Cathaoirleach Barry Saul — Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council · Eoin Costello — Dargan Institute
The celebratory close. The Garden Party, in association with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Chamber and the Dún Laoghaire Business Association, drew the two days to a warm finish — Niall Lawlor and Colette O'Sullivan among the voices celebrating the local and county partnership behind the Forum, and a reminder that the conversation is rooted in a real town.
The Dargan Forum Garden Party closed the Forum, bringing participants and the local business community together for an evening of informal networking on the front lawn of the Royal Marine Hotel — hosted in association with the Dún Laoghaire Business Association, DLR Chamber of Commerce and Dún Laoghaire Tidy Towns.
The Dargan Forum 2026 turned Dún Laoghaire into the hub of a distributed civic-innovation platform: eleven distinct public events radiating out from the town across two days, each a node in a national conversation — yet every one of them hosted, convened and branded from Dún Laoghaire.
- Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (hub)
- Meath
- Monaghan
- Mayo
- Galway / Ballinasloe
- Drogheda (Louth)
- The Western Region
- The Gaeltacht
- Dublin City & Docklands
- Government & public services
- Renewable energy & the marine / blue economy
- Transport & active travel
- Heritage & urbanism
- Tourism
- SME, retail & enterprise
- Skills & the future of work
- AI & innovation
- Official Reception for the Dargan Forum 2026
- Dargan Forum Playbook for Regional Development
- Dargan Forum - Main Event
- .ie Parallel Session — Connected Communities with Seán Tobin
- Active Travel & Mobility Hubs with James Phelan
- The Value of Urbanism — Respecting the Past, Embracing the Future
- Tourism + Heritage + Technology = Ireland's Next Boom Sector?
- Marine Clusters and the Blue Economy with Paul Kennedy
- AI and Innovation: Improving public services with Theresa Cloonan
- Parallel Session — SERI 100 Leaders with John Logue
- Garden Party in association with DLR Chamber & DLBA
The Forum put three of the town’s civic spaces to work over the two days — a historic harbour residence, the county’s landmark seafront hotel, and a Carnegie library.
The Royal Marine Hotel was the heart of the Forum: it hosted the flagship Main Event in the Carlisle Room and ran a programme of parallel sessions across its rooms — activating the venue, and the town around it, throughout the day.
Council staff did not merely attend — they led. Directors and senior officers hosted, chaired and spoke across the public programme, putting the Council’s expertise directly in front of a national audience.
| # | Council representative | Role | Public contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cathaoirleach Barry Saul | Cathaoirleach, DLR County Council | Host of the Official Reception; Welcome address at the Main Event |
| 2 | Frank Curran | Chief Executive, DLR County Council | Speaker at the Official Reception and the Main Event |
| 3 | Andrée Dargan | County Architect | Welcome at the Regional Development Playbook; Host of “The Value of Urbanism” |
| 4 | James Phelan | Director of Infrastructure & Climate Change | Speaker at the Main Event; Host of “Active Travel & Mobility Hubs” |
| 5 | Paul Kennedy | Director | Speaker at the Main Event; Host of “Marine Clusters & the Blue Economy” |
| 6 | Theresa Cloonan | Head of Information Systems | Speaker at the Main Event; Host of “AI & Innovation: Improving Public Services” |
| 7 | Paul Faughnan | DLR County Council | Panel member, “Active Travel & Mobility Hubs” |
| 8 | Dave Lawless | DLR County Council | Panel member, “Tourism + Heritage + Technology” |
| 9 | Roisin Cronin | Social Enterprise Officer, DLR County Council | Supported the “SERI 100 Leaders” parallel session |
The Forum’s themes reached well beyond the room, through a national media partnership and a sustained digital campaign.
- Irish Tech News — Ireland’s Green & Digital Transition — Dargan Forum (irishtechnews.ie)
- ThinkBusiness — John O’Shanahan on sustainability, investment & SMEs at the Dargan Forum (thinkbusiness.ie)
- ThinkBusiness — June Butler on sustainability, growth & SMEs in Ireland — Dargan Forum (thinkbusiness.ie)
In media partnership with Think Business (Bank of Ireland).
- Cormac McCann — Broadband Officer, Meath County Council — A hot but engaging day in Co. Dublin today with a morning at the #DarganForum, listening to Annalise Murphy, Lorraine Heskin and a host of tech experts discussing resilience, sustainability and prosperity at the 4th Dargan Forum. (linkedin.com/in/cormacmccann)
- Dr Joe Tierney — Lecturer, TU Shannon (Athlone Campus) — An insightful day at the Dargan Forum. The Royal Marine Hotel was an excellent venue. The focus was the green & digital transition, and much more was debated across hospitality, tourism, team building, heritage, inclusion, destination development and place-making. (linkedin.com/in/dr-joe-tierney-a8835421)
- Shubhi Mishra — Marketing Manager, Evad — One of the highlights of the Dargan Institute, Dún Laoghaire Forum was bringing Adam Bot from Rasbot along — and he definitely stole the show, from dancing to levitating. (linkedin.com/in/shubhimshra1701)
- Kevin Egan — Founder, HTC (MapClick) — Swords Live is on a field trip to its south-side neighbour Dún Laoghaire at the Dargan Forum today. (linkedin.com/in/kevineganxyz)
- Eoin K. Costello — Executive Director, Dargan Institute clg — Today was my final Dargan Forum and marks the end of an era for me. Ten years after I started my Digital Dún Laoghaire to Dargan Institute journey, I announced my retirement during this morning's Forum. The Dargan Hub, the Dargan Forum and the Dargan Institute are ending on a high note. (linkedin.com/in/eoinkcostello)
- A multi-channel run-in across LinkedIn, with a per-event document carousel and company-page campaign.
- 30 personal email broadcasts and 1:1 invitations to targeted guests.
- A full official photography archive of 1,625 images for ongoing promotion.
The Dargan Forum 2026 was covered across national business and technology media. Selected coverage from the campaign:
In media partnership with Think Business (Bank of Ireland).
See photos you like? They are all here free to download — darganinstitute.ie/photos
