Third Annual Harvest & Heritage Festival in Galway city neighbourhood

Part 1 of an exciting programme for Ballinfoile Mór Harvest & Heritage Festival 2012

Bike Repair workshop, Outdoor Baking, Blacksmith’s Forge amongst highlights of Ballinfoile Harvest Festival

Scarecrows, an outdoor pizza oven, a blacksmith’s forge, a bike repair workshop, demonstrations of straw rope-making and locally produced cakes and jams will feature as some of the highlights of the third annual Ballinfoile Mór Harvest and Heritage Festival that will take place on Saturday September 22^nd in the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden. 

Part 2 of an exciting programme for Ballinfoile Mór Harvest & Heritage Festival 2012

We have put together an exciting programme of events to appeal to all ages in a wonderful garden setting that will be a celebration of the high level of volunteerism and sense of community that exists amongst the ordinary people of the Ballinfoile, Bothár an Choiste and Tirellan area.  

As well as the organic garden growers, Cumann na bhFear (aka Men’s Shed), Scoil San Phroinsias,  the Tús community work placement scheme, RAPID, Galway City Council, Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park, Foroige, Sunny Meadows playschool and other local groups are involved in a neighbourhood festival based around promoting locally grown food produce, culture, crafts, arts, heritage and environmental awareness.

“We will have pizzas served freshly baked from our own outdoor oven; spuds boiled in traditional skillet pots over an open fire; “Granny’s Kitchen” with delicious cakes and buns made to old-time recipes; food dishes from Africa and Asia; an organic food stall; a blacksmith’s forge producing domestic and garden metal implements; demonstrations of farrier skills, traditional drystone walling and straw rope making; an Irish music seisiún; wooden and leather good stalls displaying locally made bee-hives, garden benches, pens and hair barrettes; a ‘High Nelly’ Bike Restoration heritage exhibit; disc jockeys; a marine aquarium; face-painting and an array of scarecrows

Harvest Fest 2011-Garden plots were covered with Scarecrows made by local chldren

Dozens of scarecrows of all shapes and sizes will populate the vegetable plots.

The scarecrows, made out of straw and recycled clothes by the children of Scoil San Phroinsias and the Sunny Meadows preschool, will pay homage to the age–old tradition that farmers and gardener used up until recently to protect the seeds and shoots of their food crops from being eaten by birds.

Harvest Fest 2011 - Volunteers Brian & Tiernan staffing the Bike Repair Workshops

We will also have a bike maintenance workshop where people can bring along their bicycles to get expert advice on how to adjust brakes, fix a puncture and clean gears.

“The aim of this and similar grassroots festivals across Ireland is to foster a feeling of individual self worth and purpose as well as to engender a sense of place and neighbourly goodwill amongst residents of local communities;  to help Irish people re-discover the value of making, repairing and growing everyday items. As a nation the Irish have traditionally been characterized by a strong community ethos as exemplified by the GAA, ‘Meitheal’ and a coming together in times of adversity. In this era of recession, high employment, growing emigration and a lowering of national expectations, we need ordinary people to once again take the lead in improving the quality of life of their own localities.

The Festival starts at noon on Saturday September 22^nd and continues until 2.30pm.

Mr. Nolan cycled all the way from Gort to attend the 2011 Ballinfoile Harvest Festival

Harvest Fest 2011- Delicious Home-Cooked Delicacies on offer

Harvest Fest 2011- Cumann na bhFear stand

Harvest Fest 2011 - Tiernan serves Smoothies

Councillor Frank Fahey with Tom Cuffe who organised Birdwatching tours of the neighbouring Terryland woodlands

The home-made Jam Stall

The Bike-Powered Smoothies maker

The Organic Fruit & Vegetable Stall

Volunteers from the Lisbrook Asylum Accommodation Centre digging vegetables at the Harvest Fesst

'Bling' Your Bike

Harvest Fest 2011 - Getting the Blacksmith's forge assembled

Serving freshly made ice lollipops

Part of the Huge crowd that attended the Ballinfoile Mór Harvest Festival Sept 2011

A Parent’s Time of Bittersweet

 

Photo shows Daíre with his teacher Máire Browne, his school bag & his bike(!) on his last day in Scoil San Phroinsias. Notice his whiteshirt that is covered with personal messages from his classmates, a lovely tradition now common in Irish schools.

As a parent I have experienced over the last few month’s extreme emotions, those of great sadness and those of great joy.
On June 26th, my youngest son Dáire left his primary school for the very last time, thus bringing to an end an unbroken family connection with Scoil san  Phroinsias in Galway city that went back to June 1996 when my oldest son Shane started his education there.
When I collected Daire on that June day I shed a few tears not just because I was a proud parent, but because  I realised that, for me, it was also the end of an era. 

I loved that school so much, the commitment of its teachers; the joy and enthusiasm of its pupils; the colour and variety of projects on display in the classrooms; the great array of concerts, fests, sports days and fund-raising that were held in and on behalf of the school. It is a fine institution with a strong learning, respect and discipline ethos. Scoil san  Phroinsias was and is the hub of the local neighbourhood; it is what binds us together as a community.

But on a personal level there is void inside me that will not be filled for a very long time. For I enjoyed so much being a father of a young child. I enjoyed walking up to school in the morning, holding my child’s hand, talking to him about his friends and his class, sharing a joke or two with other parents as I waved him goodbye from the school gate.  Now I know that I will never experience those feelings again, ever.

On a professional level, I work as a university Education Science, Technology and Heritage Outreach Officer. My main area of activity is in schools. So I would always bounce ideas and projects off my sons that I was working on, get their opinions, before I would roll them out into the classrooms. Over the years, I have learnt so much from my children. They (along with Cepta) were my mentors, my advisors, my confidantes. I am so lucky to have such great kids.
In June, Shane completed his last undergraduate examination at NUI Galway.
On Monday, Daíre  started his first day in post-primary school.
Life goes on and so must I. New challenges await.

Still, I always treasure happy memories of the boys’ childhood days.
On behalf of Cepta and myself, thank you so much Shane, Daire and Scoil San Phrioinsias.

Dáire's last school lunch pack