Summer Research Snapshot: Louis Haugh

Louis is an artist-researcher with more than a decade’s experience in socially engaged practice. A recent residency at Roscommon Arts Centre sparked his research into cillíní, burial sites for unbaptised babies and children, often located in ecologically significant landscapes and used as recently as the 1980s. Louis examines these sites as a rare post-colonial expression of Ireland's cultural relationship with land and forests, tracing connections between deforestation and the erosion of cultural ties to place.

This research raises important questions about decolonisation and the persistence of inherited practices. A solo exhibition at Roscommon Arts Centre in late 2027 will bring together this work alongside projects developed during a residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (Oregon, USA) in 2026, and a commission for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's Place and Nature Award 2025.

Building on this foundation, Louis' PhD (hosted by NCAD) explores community gardens, urban growing spaces and ideas of the commons in collaboration with BRINK!, Grow NI, Quarto and Community Gardens Ireland. 

Recent fieldwork included attending The Story of Flax at Mallon Farm in County Tyrone and meeting Belfast community activists from Gairdín an Phobail - using Irish and English in efforts to decolonise growing-space infrastructure; Three Sisters on the Falls Road; and Reclaiming the Commons - transforming residential alleyways into community growing spaces.

Louis continues to build relationships with community organisations across Ireland and plans to attend Community Gardens Ireland's Autumn Gathering in Limerick. He wryly notes that ecological systems such as roots and pollinators ignore political borders, making an all-island approach to biodiversity both natural and necessary.

Louis also values being part of the Co-Create doctoral cohort, describing it as an inspiring community of practitioners who bring extensive professional experiences into their respective PhD journeys.