by Pádraic Gilligan, Co-founder, SoolNua Consulting

Déjà Vu

It’s happened to me before—that strange, shimmering sensation of déjà vu, the faint note of familiarity in a place I’d never been. A landscape that felt like I’d lived there. A street that felt remembered. A city that somehow knew who I was.

The first time was in St. John’s, Newfoundland, on Canada’s eastern seaboard. The driver who picked me up from the airport spoke in vowels straight out of Offaly or Laois, and as I walked the city’s main street, I had the oddest feeling I knew where I was going, like I was retracing the steps of my great grandfather.

The second time—just days ago—was on final descent into Vágar Airport, gateway to the 17 inhabited Faroe Islands. The sense of connection this time wasn’t linguistic but landscape. Peering out the plane window, I could’ve sworn we were dropping into Donegal. The same verdant, treeless hills. The same silver streaks of rain-swollen streams, threading their way from moody peaks to ocean inlets below.

CityDNA in the North Atlantic

I was in the Faroes to attend the CityDNA Autumn Conference, hosted in Tórshavn, the capital city of this extraordinary archipelago. Alongside my colleagues Gráinne Ní Ghiollagáin and Sydney Nolan, I was privileged join a community of place-makers, storytellers, and destination strategists gathering to discuss, debate and dialogue on the visitor economy.

But before we could shake hands, hug or share insights, we had to surrender to the elements. The weather—belligerent and capricious, as it often is in this part of the world—had other plans. Flights were delayed, cancelled, re-routed. We found ourselves stuck or re-routed in or to Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Stavanger, Reykjavik  in unfamiliar transit lounges, impatiently refreshing apps and sending frantic WhatsApp updates.

But adversity has its upside. We leaned into the “slow travel” mindset and found ourselves forging unexpected connections. Sometimes, waiting is where the real conversations begin. Torshavn’s first lesson?

Tórshavn—named for Thor, the Norse god of thunder—is one of the smallest capital cities in the world. With a population of just 23,000, it accounts for nearly 40% of the entire Faroese population. But what it lacks in size, it more than makes up for in serenity, colour, and bougie appeal.

From Vágar Airport, Tórshavn is a 40-minute drive via an undersea tunnel—a feat of engineering that links many of the islands and includes the world’s only under-sea roundabout. The road undulates and curls, offering a continuous unfolding of scenes: craggy cliffs, sea birds in flight, waterfalls cascading down from the peaks.

For sections of the drive, fish farms are the only sign of human habitation so there’s a lonesome, raw, remoteness to it all – just like Donegal. And Torshavn, on the horizon, is the antidote to this loneliness, painted in earthy reds, greens, and mustard yellows, it brings cheer to your heart and a big smile to your face.

Most CityDNA delegates stayed at the Hilton (opened 2020, Torshavn’s first global chain) or the green certified Hotel Brandan, both located adjacent to the city’s sports stadium overlooking the harbour. It was a brisk 20 minute march downhill to the harbour area where there’s a proliferation of boho bars, restaurants, craft shops and some wonderfully whimsical sculptures.

Our conference sessions took place harbour-side at Silo, a multi-level university facility with a beautiful, intimate amphitheatre. Our local partners transformed the venue into an exciting creative lab with unique theming for each floor. Along with the very popular knitting, there was a keyboard and guitar on the 5^th floor for any musicians who felt inspired to play. I took full advantage of unlimited access to a very nice Taylor.

Besides standing sessions with compelling input from CityDNA President, Barbara Jamison Woods, on the State of the Industry and the State of the Alliance, brilliant keynotes were delivered by two exceptional young women: Jess Palmer from House of Beautiful Business who talked to us about community and the need for intentional rituals and Dr Caitlin Morrissey who shared the ground-breaking research she’s undertaking with Dr Greg Clarke on the DNA of cities.

A bracing Atlantic wind may have swept through Tórshavn, but inside Silo, the air was charged with something far more exhilarating: purpose. At the heart of our gathering stood The Tórshavn Declaration—not a document, but a dialogue. Across four workshops aligned to the PEST framework, delegates debated the pressing challenges confronting our cities. Politics, economics, society, technology: each strand unravelled, examined, rewoven. Then, in a powerful plenary, moderators surfaced the collective intelligence of the room. This was co-authorship in action, a compass forged in community, pointing towards a more regenerative visitor ecosystem. Over the next number of months we’ll process the outcomes, socialise to our wider CityDNA community and lay foundations for the next phase in the Alliance’s strategy.

But Tórshavn wasn’t all talk. As the grey light of the Torshavn day dimmed and darkened and conversations spilled from conference rooms to cobbled streets, the soul of the Faroe Islands revealed itself. Nowhere more so than at OY Brewery, where local beer flowed, the seafood chowder was soul-stirring, and Marius Ziska held us rapt with a set so intimate it felt like the music was stitched into the walls. It was one of those rare evenings—part celebration, part communion—where connections deepened, ideas fermented, and the spirit of this extraordinary place found its way into every glass raised and every story shared.

And huge thanks to photographer, Jørgen Neshamar Asmussen aka Littlemanshouting for his magnificent pictures that so capture the mood and the moment