New Unity of Purpose Between Galway City Council & Communities to Protect Biodiversity & Heritage

Over the last few years, the protection of biodiversity and preservation of areas of natural heritage has deteriorated in Galway city. Serious pollution in Lough Corrib; increases in litter and illegal dumping in bogs, parks and woodlands; the almost complete disappearance of community tree plantings events; the attempts by officialdom to build a new road through the Terryland Forest Park; the failure to implement the Galway City Habitats Inventory (which agreed on a management plan and an annual monitoring process for 28 important natural habitats) by City Hall; the failure to develop 'ecological corridors'; the failure to appoint a City Biodiversity Officer; the loss of lands to an ever-expanding housing/roads construction a la urban sprawl; the ongoing destruction of hedgerows and drystone walls as field and roadside boundaries; the daily killing of native mammals such as hedgehogs, badgers and foxes by car traffic have all impacted negatively on wildlife.


But thankfully there has been a corresponding fightback by courageous individuals and organisations who consider it their duty and responsibility to educate people on the need for each of us and of humanity collectively to safeguard what is left of our natural environment before its disappearance leads to our own annihilation. Groups and organisations such as Atlantaquaria, An Taisce, Birdwatch Galway, Galway Bat Group, Inland Waterways Ireland, Galway City Community Forum, Castlegar Connect, Galway Education Centre, NUIG's Martin Ryan Institute and Applied Ecology Unit, Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden and concerned individuals such as Kay Synott, Tom Cuffe, Gordan D'Arcy and Caitriona Nic Mhuiris; politicians such as Catherine Connolly, Niall O'Brolchain, Derek Nolan and Cllr. Frank Fahy (FG) as well as city officials such as Sharon Carroll, Rosie Webb, James Harrold and Stephen Walsh deserve credit for their herculean efforts on behalf of the other species that live amongst us.
Their efforts have led to many eco-awareness programmes being adopted by schools and communities.

Our own NGO - has also played its part in changing public opinion.

For the last few weeks have witnessed significant progress in a number of key areas that the ‘Friends of the Galway Forests’ initiated or have been closely identified with since the group’s inception in late 2007. These successes include a local authority ‘Cash for Cans’ scheme, funding for a Community Garden Harvest Festival and the resurrection of the Terryland Forest Park Steering Committee.


1. ‘Cash for Cans’ Scheme Launched by City Council
Galway City Council this week officially launched Ireland's first pay-back scheme for drink cans. Well done to Councillor Catherine Connolly and to city officials for pushing this community proposal towards a successful conclusion.
The idea was initiated by the 'Friends of Galway Forests' in 2007, when we began lobbying the then Minister for the Environment to introduce a national ‘cash for beverage cans and bottles’ programme in order to clean up our parks, fields and natural habitats. When no favourable response was forthcoming from Minister Gormley, we re-focused our efforts in persuading city council to introduce a local scheme that hopefully the new government may ultimately roll out nationwide with a more significant cash payback for both cans and bottles. After all such a scheme exists in many other European countries and existed in Ireland for bottles until a few decades ago. Well done also to Community Forum reps Kieran Cunnane and Eleanor Hough for keeping the issue alive at SPC meetings and to Delo Collier and Michael Quinn at CDB meetings.

2. New Conservation Volunteers Group Agreed for Terryland Forest Park
After a series of correspondence, discussions and meetings with Stephen Walsh of Galway City Parks, it has been agreed to establish a new Conservation Volunteers group to organise a programme of on-site activities and projects for the Terryland Forest Park.
Nollaig McGuinness (Galway City Partnership), Michael Tiernan (Friends of Galway Forests), Paul Gillen (HSE), myself and Stepehn Walsh are presently compiling a programme of works for 2011/2012.

3. Resurrection!- Terryland Forest Park Steering Committee
After years of direct action as well as intense lobbying through a series of council sub-groups, a very workmanlike meeting between senior city director Ciaran Hayes and myself agreed on the terms of reference and membership of a Terryland Forest Steering Committee Mark 2.
The new committee will have representation from relevant groups such as HSE West, GMIT, NUIG, Community Forum, OPW, schools etc. who together will support and advise City Hall in its implementation of biodiversity policies, formulate an annual calendar of events, promote the park as an outdoor classroom, an outdoor laboratory and as a recreational resource.

4. Men’s Skills Group Secure Workshop Premises
A Ballinfoile Mór Men’s Shed (Cumann na bhFearr) was established in early 2011 thanks to the herculean efforts of Michael McDonnell and Michael Tiernan supported by Caitriona Nic Mhuiris. Amongst its aims are the promotion/teaching of traditional Irish crafts and skills. Earlier this week it secured a one year lease from City Council for a large 2 storey workshop premises in the Sandy Road Business Park.
Since its inception, members have undertaken a range of activities in the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden that have included plumbing, electrics, carpentry and construction. A recruitment drive will commence in September for new members and to select appropriate built and natural heritage projects. Such a group could become a valuable long-term asset to the city, the local community, to the city's heritage and to the Terryland Forest Park in areas such as coppicing and hedgerow planting.

5. Community Harvest Festival
An important meeting will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday next (July 26th) in the Menlo Park Hotel to coordinate the planning of a Harvest Festival and Community Celebration on September 10th in the Ballinfoile Mór community organic garden at which all interested groups and agencies are being invited to attend. The structure of the meeting will be based around a series of tables where different topics (arts, plantings, construction, biodiversity) will be discussed and agreed upon. The Sept 10th Festival will promote the work of a number of community and eco groups, will host an intercultural food fair and will be a celebration of the modern urban version of the traditional rural Irish Meitheal. This Harvest Festival has the potential to become an important annual neighbourhood gathering and celebration of ‘community’ within the Ballinfoile Mór locality. Hence it would be vital that as many people and organisations as is possible make an effort to attend the July 26th meeting. For we need ideas and people involvement in order to make this festival an outstanding success and to become a showcase for all local eco-communities.
Funding has been secured from City Hall for the Festival whilst RAPID and the Galway City Partnership have supported the garden project since its inception.

6. New Castlegar-Ballindooley-Clooncauneen Castle Walking Route
A very productive on-site investigation by Brian Smyth, Brendan Smith and Councillor Frank Fahey took on Sunday June 26th to check out the possibility of developing/mapping out a walking/cycling route connecting the Headford Road to the Tuam Road near the castle of Cloonacauneen Castle. The scenic trail studied was characterised by quiet hedgerows/drystone lined botharins, passing bogs, castles, and pasture lands. But there was a noticeable high level of industrial-scale illegal dumping. A few days later Councillor Fahey held very productive talks with local landowners regarding issues of access, botharín repairs etc.
It is quite possible that this new walking/cycling route could become operational by summer 2012 and would compliment the now popular ‘Off the Beaten Track’ Ballinfoile-Castelgar-Menlo cycle heritage trail thus forming the basis for developing a local community-based eco-heritage tourism strategy for Galway city.
As an update, 44 cyclists took apart in the last ‘Off the Beaten Track’ tour on June 19th.

Disappointment with Galway City Mayor's U-Turn on 'Zoning & Vested Interests' Comments

Below is an article of mine the main elements of which appeared as a letter in the current edition of the Galway Advertiser:

In January, Fine Gael Councillor Hildegarde Naughton electrified the political landscape with a major revelation on the state of local politics in Galway city: “We’re either here to serve the public interests or vested interests. There is an elite in this city that has been pulling strings for the last 20 years and councillors are doing their bidding for them.” She felt that this relationship resulted in councillors re-zoning 150 hectares of land in contravention of the citizenry-consulted Galway City Development Plan and against the advice of planners, leading to a surplus of commerciall land that undermined other land requirements. She called on all councillors to have the courage to stand up, side with ordinary citizens and say enough is enough.

Consequence of Property Speculation

Her views echoed that of so many community activists who have seen the quality of life of neighbourhoods destroyed by an urban sprawl too often characterised by concrete jungles of overpriced houses in suburbs suffering from absentee landlord neglect and of ghost estates; that is starved of an natural heritage-recreational facility infrastructure and with an anti-pedestrian/anti cyclist/anti-public transport road system; where key industrial lands needed for the Smart Economy jobs are sacrificed to build rows of empty offices and retail outlets; where prime agricultural lands needed to feed the world’s growing population and to protect biodiversity are re-zoned to met the short-term unsustainable demands of greedy property speculators.

Corrosive Influence of Vested Interests on Irish Politics

Politicians cannot serve two masters. It is a matter of public record that developers have made donations to elected representatives in Galway city and across the country. Being good businessmen, they are probably looking for a return on their investments. Likewise it is well known that many politicians both here and elsewhere havestrong associations with the property sector.

Yet sadly we now find that this outspoken young female councillor who dared to speak the truth has been forced to grovel before her accusers by publicly apologising and retracting many of her previously strongly held statements in order to secure the position of Mayor.

No office of state is worth such a sacrifice.

It has brought the Mayorship into disrepute.

Mistake Not To Refuse Ultimatum

Councillor Naughton would have been wiser to have refused such an ultimatum, stood by her comments and to have sided with those of her fellow councillors who have consistently over the years stood up against vested interests. For in not so doing, she has disappointed those of us who were expecting her to be part of a new political landscape that would sweep away the unholy alliance of property speculators, bankers and compliant politicians who have destroyed Ireland’s sovereignty, ruined our countryside, reduced the nation to penury and forced unborn generations to financial enslavement by having to pay for their property gambling debts, greed, incompetency and mismanagement.

For the thrust of her earlier statements has been confirmed by experts and others right across the political spectrum.

Developer-driven Galway City

For instance the then acting Galway city manager Ciaran Hayes told councillors in late 2010 that rezoned lands were unsustainable and would only benefit developers.

An Bord Pleanála Chairman John O’Connell said recently that, “land zoning was the greatest failure in Irish planning and had brought the system into disrepute.”

At the same January meeting that our present mayor made her views first known, Brian Walsh (now TD) commented as he voted against commercial rezoning that, “(It is necessary for councillors)…to vote in accordance with what is right for the city rather than what appeases individuals with vested interests.” Yet the very issue that Councillors Naughton and Walsh were alluding too, namely the request from former Fianna Fail mayor Michéal Ó hUiginn for a rezoning of 9.5 acre lands in Shantalla, was voted through this week in contravention of government’s strategy on urban retail planning and against the advice of city planners. The city does not need more supermarkets, institutions that led to more job losses than they create, who have helped destroy farming in this country.

Fianna Fáil - "...party of bankers, builders and developers..."

Éamon Ó Cuív T.D., a politician who personifies many of the original egalitarian principles of Fianna Fáil, stated immediately after the last General Election that his party had to move away from the corrosive image of the Galway Tent with its associations with big builders and bankers by admitting that “we have to reposition the party away from the image of a party of bankers, builders and developers.” He hoped too that, “Those who affiliated to Fianna Fáil just because we were in power will move away from Fianna Fáil now we are not in power”.

No-one has asked Messer’s Walsh, Hayes or Ó Cuív to apologise for or retract these comments. So why has the present mayor done so?

Mayor Naughton must be praised though in admitting that she made a grave error of judgement this week in giving the casting vote to deny David Norris the opportunity to address Galway City Council which she promised to rectify. She should follow this brave decision by returning to and implementing her previously held conviction that the needs of ordinary people should take precedence over vested interests.

Irish in Africa

I am presently helping one of Ireland's great sporting heroes Alan Kerins develop further his organisation's Social Media elements to promote his work with schools & communities in Africa. It is an honour to be able to help such an visionary individual who brings hope to so many people in need in Zambia & who inspires so many others in Ireland to give their time, energies & funds for needy causes

We Need to Teach Our Children How to Programme!

I have just completed teaching a pilot series of Scratch programming courses in primary schools in Galway and Mayo. I found this work, both on a professional and personal level, extremely fulfilling. For I believe that I am part of a process that is helping to provide skills to children that could help them and the nation secure a long-term future.

This teaching complimented the pioneering work that my university Institute colleagues Laura Dragan and Pierre Ludwick were doing on C++ programming with second-level students.

Parent Support

Note: Most schools that we worked with understandably did not have enough computers to allow the ideal ratio of one/two participants per computer for the Scratch sessions. So we asked schools to write to parents requesting that their child could each week have use of the family laptop (should they have one) in the classroom for the course days.

This initiative was in most cases surprisingly successful.

Scratch is a wonderful programming language developed by the MIT Media Lab in the United States that makes it easy for users to create their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, art and to share these creations on the web.

It has a simple structure that is based around snapping together visual blocks of computer code that control sound, music and images. Hence it is ideally suited for children as it compliments the artistic elements of the primary school curriculum allowing users to bring their artistic skills into a new digital dimension to create computer games, animations and stories.

The kids I taught were infatuated with Scratch and took to it like ducks to water, creating the most amazing animations and interactive games.

Computer Programming Should be a Life Skill for All Children

However it is unbelievable to realise that, when the basis of government economic policy is to create a Knowledge Society, computer coding is not part of the Irish primary or post-primary educational curriculum. Instead schools can only offer the official primitive low-level and out-of-date courses based around teaching students how to use office application software such as word processing and spreadsheets.

It would be funny if it was not so serious to the future of the nation. Of course progressive principals and teachers do offer coding modules. But a few far-sighted individuals in a few schools is not enough. Programming should be a life skill taught to all children. Not providing it in mainstream education is a fundamental flaw that will seriously undermine the chances of building a Smart Economy, which we need if we are to take on the challenges of the 21st century, when the shift of economic power in the Global Village is moving inexorably towards eastern Asia.

Of course, the schools will need extra staffing and resources to allow this to happen which means extra state investment. This may seem illogical to some in an era of financial constraints and when educational budgets are been cut.

But we have no choice if we are want to secure a future for our people.

The new Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, seems to have a more open attitude towards educational reform than his predecessors. So I intend to organise a cross party delegation of experts to meet with him on this issue of programming in schools.

Like Finland and other visionary countries, we need to invest and to exploit in a sustainable way our own natural resources (human as well as physical) that will allow us to create world class skill-sets and markets. In the case of Ireland, it could be renewable energies (wave and wind), organic agriculture and eco/heritage tourism.

Then there are the bio-medical and information technologies.

Building the Foundations of a Knowledge Economy in Ireland

Throughout the history of mankind, technology has defined our progress. Today Science and Technology research is more important than ever to the national interest. It is needed to attract in outside investment resulting in a growing demand for engineering and computer science graduates as leading IT companies from online gaming to social networking establish major operations in Ireland.

Already we have a number of important advantages. For instance, Ireland is second only to California's Silicon Valley as a world centre of influential technology companies (e.g. 7 of the top 10 Information Communications corporations such as Facebook, Google, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Alcatel are located here). Many of these businesses have major R & D operations here.

Galway - An Irish Silicon Valley

I work in the state-funded Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at Galway University (NUI Galway) which is one of the world's leading international Web Science research institutes, particularly in the area of the Semantic Web. DERI's vision is to lay the foundations for a Semantic Galway Bay, a world class technological powerhouse of businesses, built around the institute’s scientific expertise. It is aiding in the creation of critical new jobs, products and services needed for transforming Ireland into a competitive knowledge economy. It could therefore become the equivalent of a Stanford University providing the brainpower to an Irish version of Silicon Valley.

But there is a dire shortage of computer science graduates in the country. One reason is that until the demise of the Celtic Tiger, there was a tendency amongst young people to pursue careers within the ‘safe’ sectors (legal, accountancy, property, banking and administration) rather than go for the more demanding areas such as in science, engineering, crafts and agriculture.

As with the heavy labour jobs, we imported people to undertake these creative professions as we started to quickly lose the ability to make things.

In the short term, schools can call on mentors from the third level sector (such as DERI), from the private sector through companies such as Medtronic who operate ambitious corporate social responsibility charters and from educational bodies such as the Galway Education Centre who coordinate partnership science support programmes.

Below is an article of mine on this subject that appeared recently in the Galway City Tribune newspaper:

A science institute at NUI Galway is helping to lay a key foundation stone in constructing Ireland’s future Smart Economy by introducing computer programming classes into Irish primary and post-primary schools.

“Volunteer mentors at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), an internationally acclaimed centre of web science research, have just completed tutoring on a three month after-school pilot programming course at St. Mary’s College Galway city”, according to its Outreach Officer, Brendan Smith. “The institute is also providing similar courses to primary schools in counties Mayo and Galway. The young participants in our classes are enjoying the fact they are able for the first time to write their very own games and other programmes. They are becoming creators rather than just users of software. Whilst these activities are outside the Irish educational curriculum, nevertheless, we feel this type of learning is essential and must become mainstream if Ireland is to carve out for itself a sustainable technology niche that will hold onto existing internationally renowned software manufacturing enterprises, attract in even more global leaders in this sector as well as in fostering a self-perpetuating indigenous Irish corps of innovators, entrepreneurs, engineers and companies in such areas as ‘Cloud Technology’ and online ents gaming.

Our Young People Need to Learn how to Make Things

rather than just Use Things

“When microcomputers such as Sinclairs, BBCs and Apple 11s were first introduced into Irish schools during the nineteenth eighties, children had to write their own programmes as there were few affordable applications available. Sadly this ability to be taught how to make things in IT classes has

been replaced in the intervening decades by a policy of teaching pupils to use applications such as word-processing and databases. Whilst this is a laudable exercise, nevertheless we must re-educate our young people in the lost art of computer coding.

In literary parlance, we have become a nation of readers rather than of writers.

“We are very happy with the way that the primary and post primary students and teachers have responded to our introductory classes over the last few months. In partnership with the Galway Education Centre and other stakeholders, we intend to roll out courses in programming to twenty schools over the next year. We will also be promoting the setting up of an inter-schools’ Computer Students’ Club and encouraging participants to draw inspiration from visits to Ireland’s only Communications and Computer Museum that is based at DERI and co-organised with eGalway.”

Huges Casinos, racetracks & a White House replica for rural Ireland?! Has the descredited Michael Lowry No Shame?!!

Destruction of 800 acres of agricultural lands to build casinos, huge racetracks & a replica of the White House in rural Ireland?!

So pathetic!
The Board of An Bord Pleanala went against the recommendations of their own on-site inspector's recommendations to refuse planning permission. Michael Lowry, the political backer for this madcap enterprise to bring Las Vegas casinos to rural Ireland, is a discredited politician whose shenanigans were exposed and condemned by the Moriarty Tribunal.

At least he is consistent in his love for gambling. For he has a track record of gambling away taxpayers monies to look after his celebrity business backers and friends Denis O'Brien & Ben Dunne. If the new government is to show that it has broken away from the past & is no longer there to serve the interests of property speculators, it has to oppose this crazy scheme.

Casinos in places such as Atlantic City & Las Vegas have only fueled poverty, gangsterism, gambling, drug and alcoholic addiction.

There is no sustainable future going down this road.

Finally, it is time to prosecute Lowry for his abuse of public office. Click here

'Off the Beaten Track' Heritage Cycle Routes & 'Greenways' for Galway city

'Off the Beaten Track' Cycle Route through the rural landscapes of north eastern Galway city

Every cloud has a silver lining. The sudden but inevitable demise of the building boom-based Celtic Tiger has meant that the greedy property speculators and so-called 'developers', supported by friends amongst the banking, political and civil service hierarchy, thankfully did not have the time required to bulldoze all of the Irish countryside and cover it with tarmac and concrete! Hence there is still much to enjoy in our legendary natural heritage even in the urban sprawl suburbia of Galway city.So once again, I am organising, as a joint Galway City Council/ Galway City Community Forum venture, a cycle tour of the stunning beautiful rural countryside of Galway City as part of Ireland's National Cycle Week.

Entitled 'Off the Beaten Path' it will commence at 11am sharp on Sunday June 20th from the Centra Foodstore on Bóthar na Choiste, Headford Road.

The event will be a 4 hour leisurely cycle stroll through some of the most interesting historical scenic landscapes on the east side of the city. It will hopefully be a journey of discovery for many of its participants.We will ignore the hustle and bustle of housing estates, shopping centres and highways.Instead we will travel along secondary roads to enjoy the sights and sounds of an increasingly threatened but none-the-less vibrant countryside dominated by small farms and natural features such as lakes and bogs.
Commencing on Bóthar an Choiste (Irish = Coach Road), I will bring participants through townlands whose ancient names reveal hidden landscapes and reflect the respect that Irish people once had for Nature -Ballinfoile (Town of the ridge), Ballindooley (Town of the black lake), Killoughter (High Wood), Menlo (Small Lake), Coolough (Hollow at the base of the cliff)...
We will journey over hills, along botharins, past abandoned farm buildings, ruined castles, karst outcrops, bogs, lakes, dykes, turloughs and meadows.
We will stop off in Menlo to enjoy a picnic along the banks of the River Corrib.
To liven the journey up, I will recount tales of headless horsemen, ancient battles, haunted ruins, tragic drownings, lost gardens and of the great forests and the majestic wolves that once roamed the area.

Though I have ongoing battles with City Hall over a myriad of community and environmental issues, nevertheless I can only heap praise on the city officials who contributed to the success of this event, particularly Cathy Joyce.

So I hope that Galwegians will take to their bicycles on Sun June 19th and enjoy the remaining vestiges of our once glorious natural environment, with its rich native flora and fauna.
For further information, email me at speediecelt@gmail.com

Developing an Online Mapping Network of
Cycle & Walking Greenways for Galway city

Finally, the event is part of an ambitious programme by the Friends of Galway's Forests NGO and associated community environmental groups such as Castlegar Connect and Birdwatch Galway to map out over the next few months exciting new walking and cycling leisure routes through areas of rural ambiance and outstanding beauty that are located on the periphery of Galway city. It is hoped that this process will re-engage Irish people once again with Nature, protect biodiversity and ultimately ourselves as a species. Click here for further information on the development of eco-tourism in Galway city

Obama in Ireland. Truly Inspiring Speech. Pity He Displays Political & Morale Cowardice on the Palestinian Queston

"Is feidir linn!"

A truly Inspiring speech by Barack O'Bama that must have put a smile on the faces and a steely determination into the hearts of every person in the the huge crowds that came to see him in Dublin.

"...Ireland, if anyone ever says otherwise, if anybody ever tells you that your problems are too big, or your challenges are too great, that we can't do something, that we shouldn't even try - think about all that we've done together. Remember that whatever hardships the winter may bring, springtime is always just around the corner. And if they keep on arguing with you, just respond with a simple creed: Is féidir linn. Yes, we can

He reminded us that Ireland's centuries-long fight against occupation, tyranny and for the cause of liberty inspired peoples and nations across the world, none more so than in the USA.

"..When we strove to blot out the stain of slavery and advance the rights of man, we found common cause with your struggles against oppression. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and our great abolitionist, forged an unlikely friendship right here in Dublin with your great liberator, Daniel O'Connell...".

He helped us realise as we face the despondency brought about by economic and political crisis of today's Ireland, that the darkest hour is just before the dawn "..Remember that whatever hardships the winter may bring, springtime is always just around the corner. And if they keep on arguing with you, just respond with a simple creed: Is féidir linn. Yes, we can...." .

Sadly Obama in the last few days has failed to live up to his own words, caving into tyranny as he demonstrated political cowardice and dashed the hopes of millions in the Middle East and elsewhere when he backtracked on his public statement of Thursday last when he said that Israel must withdraw from the West Bank to its 1967 borders to allow for a final peace settlement. On Sunday though he stated the 1967 borders are a starting block for negotiations, that land swaps can occur, that Israel is a Jewish state, that USA will block attempts by the Palestinians to secure recognition at the United Nations for an independent Palestine. Obama, as with other US Presidents over the last five decades, is under the powerful and anti-democratic financial and political influence of the US pro-Israeli Jewish lobby