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    • Project Overview Exploring how design-led research can support greener, more resilient futures for island and coastal communities.
    • 2025 – Present A thematic approach
    • 2023 – 2025 One vision, five work packages.
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    • About Future Island-Island A collaborative project led by Ulster University, with Queen’s University, The Glasgow School of Art, University of the Arts London
    • Why Rathlin Island? Northern Ireland’s only inhabited offshore island, Rathlin is a place shaped by weather, story, and memory.
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  • Journal
  • Events
  • Research
    • Project Overview Exploring how design-led research can support greener, more resilient futures for island and coastal communities.
    • 2025 – Present A thematic approach
    • 2023 – 2025 One vision, five work packages.
    • Fellowships Space for researchers, designers, artists and creative practitioners to collaborate, experiment and learn.
  • About
    • About Future Island-Island A collaborative project led by Ulster University, with Queen’s University, The Glasgow School of Art, University of the Arts London
    • Why Rathlin Island? Northern Ireland’s only inhabited offshore island, Rathlin is a place shaped by weather, story, and memory.
    • Our People Connecting academic research with lived experience, practical making and community knowledge.
    • Glossary
  • Journal
  • Events
  • Resources
  • Get Involved
  • View our YouTube channel
  • View our images on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • View our Bluesky account

What’s On

Event date: May 5, 2026

Belfast Design Week – Designed to Learn: Creating Environmental Board Games with Children

By: Jenny Jackson-Smyth & Dr Susann Power
Time: 12:00noon - 14:00pm Location: HALT (Weaver's Cross)
This fascinating talk and workshop gives an overview of the Future Island-Island project where two academics will explain and deliver hands-on creative, design-led workshops...
Event date: May 26, 2026

Maritime Festival 2026 – From Tow to Sea-Twine

Time: 7pm Location: The Yurt Behind the Manor House, Rathlin Island
Flax was once a staple crop across the island of Ireland, as part of its thriving linen industry. Historically, the coarser "tow" fibre from...
From Tow to Sea-Twine Gillian Steel
Event date: May 29, 2026

Maritime Festival 2026 – Botanical Printing

Time: 11am until 3pm (drop-in) Location: The Yurt Behind the Manor House, Rathlin Island
Also known as eco-printing is an environmentally friendly art form where natural pigments and tannins from leaves and plants are transferred directly onto fabric...
Botanical printing by Gillian Steel
Event date: June 10, 2026

Maritime Festival 2026 – Reconnecting to Flax, The Artisan’s Approach

Time: 7pm Location: The Branson, Rathlin Island
Tiernan will take us in search of the 'lost feeling' that guided medieval spinners to produce some of the finest linen ever known. Through...
Event date: June 11, 2026

Maritime Festival 2026 – The Appliance of Science, First Steps Towards The Automated Flax Spindle

Time: 7pm Location: The Branson, Rathlin Island
With the help of the latest breakthroughs in the science of spinning, Tiernan will outline how the automated flax spindle has become a real...
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