Last weekend, volunteers from the Tuatha finished off phase 1 of a giant 'fairy ring' in the centre of the sacred Oak Grove within Terryland Forest Park.
Last weekend, volunteers from the Tuatha finished off phase 1 of a giant 'fairy ring' in the centre of the sacred Oak Grove within Terryland Forest Park.
Its construction will add another exciting mythological and scientific feature to the Outdoor Classroom dimension of the park
A
circle of fungi is a beautiful natural phenomena that is the
surface representation of a network of small threads, called mycelium,
that form part of what we now refer to as the Wood Wide Web, a mutually beneficial underground communications and resource-sharing system connecting the trees of a forest.
In
mythology these mushroom circles were known as Fairy Rings where the
'little people' merrily danced in the woods under the moonlight.
William Butler Yeats mentions this in his poem The Stolen Child:
"...We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight..."
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight..."
The
giant toadstools were made from concrete under the supervision of
Michael McDonnell, one of the finest of Galway craftsman and lovingly
painted by Tuatha volunteers including Helen Caird
Oak Groves
were associated as places of learning and ceremony during Celtic pagan
and early Christianity. Our Oak Grove where the fairy ring is located
comprises a circle of oak trees planted by volunteers in March 2000.
Sadly
the tree in the centre fell during Storm Eowyn but was replaced
recently by a semi-mature oak secured by Galway City Council parks
department in county Wicklow.
