Really Free moneyless market opens in Scariff

Scariff Community Co-op goes moneyless this weekend as a new market spearheaded by local resident, Deirdre Morrissey has its first day out.

Known as the Really Really Free Market, everything available at the market is free, and people are invited to bring along any items or services they would like to give for free.

The Really Really Free Market takes place on Saturday, 1pm to 6pm, at the East Clare Community Coop in Scariff in the community garden area, weather permitting.

Deirdre, a Limerick city woman, who swapped her urban lifestyle in favour of a simpler and environmentally friendly way of living in East Clare, was inspired to hold the market event having read Mark Boyle’s book The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living.

She explained the idea behind it. “It’s a not for profit idea and I was reading the book of the guy known as the moneyless man, Mark Boyle, who lived in Bristol on no money and I was motivated after reading his book,” she said.

The book offers a free economy model and she said his idea at looking at gifting and sharing rather than buying and selling “really spoke to me”.

The Community Coop are hosting it for free in their community garden and those interested in getting involved can take a stall and bring anything they want to give to people for free.

“Anything you have bring it along it’s about giving for the love of it, and receiving for the love of it. You can see what you like and give what you like. There is no bartering involved. The idea is quite out there but it is really an idea about community building.

“There are lots of people giving out there and many don’t know how to receive sometimes so this is about building person to person relationships. One of the things in the book talks about how we’ve moved so far from our food that we don’t know where it comes from anymore and we lost the relationship building there.

“This initiative is about bringing people together and reallocating things that we have in our homes that we don’t need or use and I love this idea of gifting and sharing, I approached the coop and they thought it was a great idea,” she said.

The idea would be to bring things like books, clothing and services too as Deirdre explains.

“If anyone wants a stall and need to bring a mat or a throw or a picnic table and bring whatever they would like to give. If someone wants to bring skills too that is great. Maybe someone might like to bring a bike for instance and show people how to fix a puncture, or if someone wants to bring homemade food. It doesn’t have to be things. If someone wants to do face painting for free, it is limitless the only thing we ask is that there is no alcohol involved and to leave the political agendas behind,” Deirdre added.

This weekend’s market is the first of what Deirdre hopes might be a quarterly annual event.

“We will give it a try on Saturday. I would like to see run it regularly but that will depend on the success of it,” she concluded.

For more information contact Deirdre Morrissey on 087 6761517 or email deirdrebmorrissey@gmail.com.