Introduction

Ireland's Age Friendly Cities and Counties (AFCC) programme, established in 2010, is one of 12 country- or state-level programmes affiliated to the World Health Organization's (WHO) burgeoning Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities (Age- Friendly World, 2016). As such, it is currently being implemented in all 31 local authority areas across the country. Aside from the scale of the Irish programme, the context in which it was developed has several distinctive characteristics. The programme was initiated at a time of global economic crisis. Because of exacerbating local economic circumstances, this was experienced more severely in Ireland than in many countries, leading to the country becoming one of the ‘bailout nations’ co-funded by the so-called Troika (European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund). As a consequence, a severe austerity programme, which saw major cutbacks to public health and social services, including services provided for older people, was introduced contemporaneously with the development of the AFCC programme.

The programme's governance structures are also notable. Unlike in other countries, where research centres, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or local authorities assume a leadership role, the development of Ireland's national programme was supported and resourced primarily by an independent think-tank, the Ageing Well Network, which was in turn financed by an international philanthropic limited life foundation, The Atlantic Philanthropies (hereafter Atlantic). Ireland's demography is also distinctive. Although its population is ageing, it remains relatively young in comparison with other highincome countries. This combination of circumstances – the scale and coverage of the Irish programme, the particular set of international and local economic forces at play during its implementation, and the organisational and demographic factors that influenced its development – provides a unique context in which to examine the development and implementation of an age-friendly initiative.

Key features of the WHO Age-Friendly Cities and Communities initiative have increasingly been the focus of scientific debate (see Chapter Two). Researchers have examined the various approaches adopted, the conceptual understandings that underpin these approaches, the challenges facing age-friendly initiatives, and the outcomes achieved (Scharlach, 2009; Fitzgerald and Caro, 2014; Moulaert and Garon, 2016).