In an unassuming cul-de-sac in the north Dublin suburb of Marino, innovative solutions to some of the biggest quandaries of our time are being drawn up.

Glenn Shekleton is a husband, father of two, professional dog walker, innovative entrepreneur, music nut, Green Party member and sustainability advocate, with a particular focus on eco-friendly construction.

“I’ve been self-employed for 24 years,” he says. “Before then, I had a publishing company in London, and also did a bit of management consulting and stuff like that. I just love going out and doing stuff. The business side of things is one of my passions in life. I just do things. Do things simpler: that’s my life motto.”

An example. Outside, in Glenn’s well-maintained back garden, you’ll find his brood of hens. As well as providing fresh eggs, the chickens have been saving him a chunk of change on his compost bin bills.

“I built this chicken coop and when I was going over my brown bin figures, I noticed that my waste had gone down by 50%,” he reveals. “Everything I used to put in the brown bin – my scraps of food, potato peelings, grass cuttings and hedge clippings – I’ve been throwing in the coop.

“They’re nature’s compost heap: what they don’t eat, they will scratch into the ground. You’ll notice all the leaf moulds when you’re going around Dublin this time of year. It takes two years to get mulch from that, whereas if I put the leaves in with the chickens, they’ll be gone in a month.”

Glenn Shekleton. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Core Of The Plant

Glenn Shekleton’s chicken scheme is indicative of his environmentally-focused, problem-solving mindset.

“I think we have made a real mess of things and it’s getting worse and worse,” he says. “You look at the roads and everybody wants a big car. They want a big house. They want more and more. Christmas is coming – and they’re in the shops pulling stuff off the shelves. So yes, we have a problem. We need to stop doing that, because we have finite resources. It’s as simple as that.”

Most recently, Glenn bought a plot of beautiful, historical land near Athlone in Co. Westmeath, and close to Moydrum Castle, the landmark building which appeared on the cover of U2’s 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire.

A music enthusiast and a keen fan of noise rock in particular, he plans to transform his 0.7 acre site into a one-of-a-kind, eco-friendly guest house, recording studio and gig space. The aim? To make The Walled Gardens of Moydrum the must-go-to place for musicians, bands, music lovers and holidaymakers who care about sustainability.

“I’ve been to about 40 gigs this year, and the talent in Irish music at the moment is just off the scale,” Glenn observes. “The outside will be made from recycled plastic, and the studio will contain re-used, secondhand equipment. The house is going to be built out of 99% recycled plastic materials. There’s going to be nothing new in there.

“Hopefully, artists and bands will pick up the vibe off the environment. When you’re surrounded by simple spaces, without things to clutter up your mind, that should be good for the creative process.”
Glenn discusses the benefits that being in a choir has had on his mental health. With that in mind, he’s planning to build a stage for choral performances on top of the houses in Moydrum, turning the walled garden into a unique and biodiverse amphitheatre.

When it comes to construction, Glenn will make use of hemp – or more specifically hempcrete – which blends the inner core of the plant with a lime-based binder, creating an eco-friendly and bio-composite building material.

“The walls are all going to be made from hempcrete,” he explains enthusiastically. “For damp and sound insulation, it’s perfect. The best part is, if you build a wall and then don’t like it anymore, you can crumble it up and scatter it on the ground as fertiliser.”

Glenn Shekleton. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Control, Regulate And Tax

There are challenges involved in using the plant. Despite containing only faint, effectless traces of THC, it remains illegal to grow hemp in Ireland. These strict laws, Glenn feels, are preventing us from reaping the benefits of a useful and versatile crop.

“We’ve had hemp regulation for about 100 years,” he informs me. “But there’s nobody alive today who can tell you why we actually regulated it in the first place.

“A lot of the time, people are giving out to farmers in relation to climate change. It’s all stick, but we should give them a few carrots. Hemp grows in three months. From that, you produce animal bedding, building material, clothing or paper. Then you potentially have all the CBD products as well, if we made it legal to produce them here.

“There is an industry there in the making that Ireland could benefit enormously from – local and rural communities in particular, because it won’t be a city thing. I think we should be giving something back to the farmers, who are up against it all the time.”

Glenn knows the industry from direct experience. He’s set up a cannabis edibles business, which will operate strictly according to law in the US and Canada and brings his own Irish branded array of weed-infused products (cake, cola, chocolate, coffee and gummies) to the increasingly marijuana-friendly North American market.

“I’ve been working on a cannabis business for about the last 18 months,” he says. “I was thinking about it because we had the Citizens’ Assembly and I was, right, there’s an opportunity evolving here.

“The assembly was a disappointment in the end, and I came away thinking ‘All my plans have gone up in smoke’. Then I thought, ‘Well, why don’t we go somewhere where it is legal?’ I am going to sell my products in North America.

“All products will be grown, processed and retailed by the Master Franchisees in Canada – and in the States in the US where the recreational use of cannabis is legal. The entire 100% of our revenue from these products will be in the form of royalties, derived from sales in their franchise territories. I had one brand this time last year, now I have five brands.”

Glenn has even gone so far as to invent his own lingo.

“Shmuu is my word. I’ve trademarked it. It means getting high on edibles. So as opposed to saying you were stoned, you’d say you were shmuu’d.”

As it stands, Irish citizens will have to wait for their chance to get shmuu’d. Cultivating cannabis, and consuming it, are both still illegal in Ireland.

“I think the first target is to get decriminalisation,” Glenn says. “The major political parties are unlikely to consider legalisation, despite the fact that it has worked well elsewhere. The bottom line is that you are much better to control, regulate and tax the use of cannabis, the way they have in so many parts of the United States now.”

Either way, Glenn is committed to using his business successes as a means of supporting his local community.

“The majority of the profits from all of this will be used to pay for extracurricular activities in State secondary schools,” he explains. “Because the Department of Education provides no funding for extracurricular activities. We need to get kids and teenagers motivated. This is my way of giving back.”

• shmuu.com