Community Updates

Ireland’s six circular champions revealed at the Full Circle Awards 2026

3 min read

Circular.ie, Ireland’s national platform for circular economy, has announced the winners of the Full Circle Awards 2026, celebrating individuals, organisations and community groups making a tangible contribution to circular living and sustainability across Ireland.

Returning for a second year, the awards, funded by the Government of Ireland under the Circular Economy Fund, celebrate the individuals and initiatives helping communities across Ireland reduce waste, reuse resources and promote more sustainable ways of living through local activation.

The 2026 winners are:

Repair & Reuse Champion - Kevin McGuire, Co. Monaghan
For transforming reclaimed and discarded materials into artworks, community projects and his recently opened Genesis café.
Creative Circular Design - Sean Corcoran, The Art Hand, Co. Waterford
For his large-scale Crockery Mountain artwork, created using more than 10,000 pieces of discarded crockery with over 150 volunteers.
Community Circular Champion - The Circular Square, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
For its community hub bringing together repair, toy sharing, sewing, clothes swaps and other circular activities.
Best Community Campaign - Ciorcal Project, Áislann Rann na Feirste, Co. Donegal
For its Circular Fair, repair café, creative workshops and initiatives supporting the reuse of materials and clothing.
Circular Living Advocate - Ciarán Molumby, Islander Architects & TU Dublin, Co. Dublin
For promoting circular approaches to architecture, including his work highlighting the environmental impact of demolition.
Circular Sports Champion - Moyne Villa Football Club, Co. Galway
For embedding reuse and resource-saving practices across the club, including boot and kit sharing and solar power.

From left: Moyne Villa Football Club's Tom Walsh and PJ Walsh, winners of Circular Sports Champion at the Full Circle Awards, with Sinéad Ní Mhainnín, a judge at the awards.

Sean Corcoran, winner of Creative Circular Design at the Full Circle Awards.
Sean uses inclusive, community‑driven mosaics and ephemeral recycled artworks to spark conversations about over‑consumption and inspire meaningful environmental behaviour change.

Theresia Guschlbauer and Louise Lalor (pink) of The Circular SquaRE, which won the Community Circular Champion award at the Full Circle Awards. Clonmel’s Circular SquaRE brings repair, reuse, sharing and community creativity together under one roof, making circular living visible, accessible and part of everyday life.

Kevin McGuire, named Repair and Reuse Champion at the Full Circle Awards.
Kevin’s work has energised Monaghan’s community, with Genesis Café becoming a standout catalyst for reuse, repurposing and real circular‑economy action.

Ciaran Molumby, winner of the Circular Living Advocate trophy at the Full Circle Awards.
Ciaran's work defines circularity as an active resistance to the current ‘demolish & replace' culture, treating architecture as a form of material stewardship, rather than a cycle of consumption and demolition.

Maria Coleman of Ciorcal Project, winner of Best Community Campaign, at the Full Circle Awards.
Ciorcal is a circular arts campaign based in Áislann Rann na Feirste, a community centre supporting recreation, education, culture, heritage and community activities in the rural Gaeltacht area of West Donegal.

This year’s winners showcase the breadth of circular action happening across the country, spanning creative reuse and design, community repair, circular approaches to architecture, local campaigns and grassroots sport. Each champion wins €2,000, along with a one-of-a-kind handcrafted trophy created from upcycled materials.

Speaking about the Full Circle Awards, Eibhlin Fitzpatrick, Community Manager at Circular.ie, said: “We were incredibly impressed by the quality of this year’s nominations. What really stood out was how practical a lot of the work is. These are people and groups finding ways to make better use of what we already have, whether that’s repairing, reusing, creating, sharing or simply doing things differently. The six winners have all made a real impact in their communities and it is great to be able to recognise that work.”

The second annual Full Circle Awards ceremony took place in Carlow on 17 September 2026. For more information please visit: https://circular.ie/full-circle-awards-2026