Every Community Deserves a Circular Fashion Hub.
This month I've been in Carlow Town a lot, getting ready for our Fabric of Change Pop-Up Store, a really exciting circular fashion initiative. But the pop-up wasn't the only thing that brought me to Carlow…
Proof that circular Ireland is alive and growing
I was invited to the award ceremony of the Full Circle Awards, run by Circular.ie. Circular.ie is a national digital platform and resource hub designed to make the circular economy easy to understand and act on. Each year, people around the country are invited to submit their local circular initiatives.
On the day, 36 shortlisted initiatives were presented across six categories. These ranged from repair and reuse and creative circular design to community campaigns and even circular sport. Events like this are such an inspiration and a boost for us working in the space, seeing that the circular economy isn't a buzzword. It's alive, it's growing, and it's led by an incredibly diverse mix of people working in and for their communities.
Every entry was absolutely amazing to hear about (you can discover them all here). But one winner really stood out for us: the Circular SquaRE in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
The Circular Square
The Circular SquaRE is a community-run circular economy hub in Clonmel, and it has been described as Ireland's first. It grew out of the local Repair Café, set up by a group of repairers back in 2018. After years of squeezing into borrowed rooms, the group opened its own space in 2025.
It's built around three rooms, and honestly, it's the kind of set-up we'd love to see everywhere:
- The Repair Workshop, where you bring your broken bits to the monthly Repair Café and the team does its best to fix them.
- The Toy Library, where families can borrow toys for up to a month instead of buying new ones.
- The Sewing Room, home to a sewing group run by volunteer seamstresses, where you can learn the basics or get help with your own projects. This room can also be used for swaps and other fashion-related initiatives.
The whole thing is run by volunteers, and it already hashad a huge impact. In just the first five months of 2025, around 70kg of items were repaired and 150kg reused. The Toy Library alone has nearly 100 families signed up.
A double nomination
The Circular Square was actually represented in two categories at the awards. It won Community Circular Champion, and Louise Lalor was shortlisted for Circular Living Advocate. Louise is a Tipperary native, a mum of two and a primary school teacher, and she has been the driving force behind the Toy Library, which was a huge motor for the larger Circular Square project. Each category winner receives a €2,000 prize and a handcrafted trophy made from upcycled materials. Full Circle Awards 2026 +2
"we are thrilled that our Circular Square Hub has been recognised by such a distinguished panel of industry experts." Theresia Guschlbauer – Circular Square Manager.
Why we're convinced circular hubs are the future
At VOICE, we believe circular hubs are the future of the circular economy.
Across our projects, and in all our collaborations with community groups, we keep hearing the same barrier: there's not enough space. Initiatives lack the room and infrastructure to grow and welcome more people and make it known by everyone in the community. The Circular Square's story shows exactly this. The energy, the volunteers and the demand were already there. What was missing was a location to bring it all together. And now that they have it, it's even clearer how these initiatives can work in synergies and how valuable that can be for a community.
Dreaming of circular fashion hubs
With Fabric of Change, we're particularly excited about local circular fashion hubs: spaces that professionals and the general public can both use.
How incredible would it be if every community had a dedicated place where everyone knows they can go for repairs? A place that also hosts a community closet, has equipment like sewing machines for anyone to use, and welcomes local groups to run workshops?
That's what the Circular Square is giving Clonmel. It has public space and a sewing room with seamstresses side by side. The Toy Library next door makes it even more welcoming: young children are included and more waste is avoided.
What's next for Carlow
Through our Fabric of Change research, we've found that there are already many examples of hubs like this in Ireland and beyond, in colleges, libraries and more. As part of Fabric of Change Carlow, we're hoping to explore this idea with Carlow County Council and local residents. Along the way, we want to gather insights that help anyone else hoping to start a similar process in their own area.
The first step being our Fabric of Change Pop up Shop. Although not permanent, this shop will be a capsule of a hub, with local charity shop rails selling second hand clothing, local crafters exposing their products and a community swap shop on the Saturday (10th of October). But this space will also be there for anyone to use, with our crafters corner, which will provide any visitor with material to try simple fixes or embellishment techniques.
So if you're in Carlow between the 5th and 10th of October, come and say hello at the pop-up!️
