My Writings (I hope!) reflect my Guiding Principles: -'Enjoy Life to the Utmost but not at other people's expense'-'Think Global, Act Local'-'Variety is the Spice of Life'-'Use Technology & Wisdom to Make the World A Better Place for All God's Creatures'-'Do Not Accept Injustice No Matter Where You Find It'-'Laughter is the Best Medicine'
Do You Remember the great Volvo Ocean Race festival of 2012?
Lending a Helping ARM to the Forest Park
I was so happy to speak at their celebratory event today which also represented 10 years since they started in Galway city.
Over the last twelve months, their staff on a weekly basis have undertaking a range of meaningful projects in the park including monthly surveying of the water quality (solids, temperature, pH levels etc) at different sites along the Terryland River, planting trees, litter picking, bio-blitzing and cleaning heritage signage. we thank them so much for their wondering meaningful volunteering - ARM is making a valuable contribution to the natural environment of Galway city.
Creating a Temperate Rainforest in the Heart of the City
May I use the opportunity of #WorldEnvironmentDay
to thank the thousands upon thousands of volunteers of all ages who
have since March 2000 planted multiple tens of thousands of native trees
and flowers in Terryland Forest Park. All of these wonderful people
have helped create a Temperate Rainforest in the heart of an Irish city
and have left a unique legacy for future generations to benefit from.
Their battle to tackle the Climate and Biodiversity Crises has been going on for a quarter of a century!
Foraging: Discovering the Culinary & Medicinal Plants og Terryland Forest Park
A 113 year history of School Cycling in Galway along a combined Greenway and Blueway!
In spite of the heavy rainfall I really enjoyed it and from the feedback I got thankfully so did the students and teachers.
I gave the participants details on the fascinating history of the area with rock and flora features dating back millions of years before the arrival of the Dinosaurs; its archeological finds from the Iron Age; its buildings from the Norman, Jacobean, Cromwellian, Williamite and Victorian periods; its abandoned pre-Famine village and roads; its wonderful 19th century engineering works; its stories of Anglo Irish gentry shenanigans, native Irish resistance, and clerical power; its living farming traditions, Gaelic culture and Burrenesque landscapes; and on the environmental importance of Terryland Forest Park with the potential of the locality becoming the green and blue hub of international importance.
But the school has a proud tradition of cycling excursions to this locality going back 113 years.
Photo on the left was taken of the Jes students, teachers and myself on Monday with Menlo Castle in the background.
Photo on the right was taken in 1911 of Jes students on a school cycle excursion with the Menlo Castle once again in the background! It was originally a faded black and white image. Inspired by my renowned University of Galway colleague and friend John Breslin, I am presently colourising this and many other photos for my Irish BEO work project at the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics. Once I started to colourise it, I noticed that there were four boys at the back holding oars and standing in boats. So I feel that this group of Jes students cycled up to Dangan (on the site of the former Galway city to Clifden railway line and the future Connemara Greenwway) before rowing across the River Corrib in boats to the grounds of Menlo Castle to continue their bike journey back to the Jes College on Sea Road in Galway city!
So these students were laying the groundwork for a combined Greenway and a Blueway over 100 years ago!!
If you want to experience the delights of this locality and beyond, why not join my 7 Galway Castles Heritage Cycle Tour taking place this Sunday. Register at Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sli-na-gcaislean-aka-the-seven-galway-castles-heritage-cycle-trail-tickets-880079550627?aff=oddtdtcreator
From Romance & Sisterhood to War & Rebellion– An somewhat History of the Bike
On Tuesday May 14th, I will give what I hope is an interesting and somewhat eclectic overview of the history of a mode of transport invented in the latter half of the 19th century.
A Pheasant in Hare's Corner: A Good Omen for our Nature Restoration Plans!
Hard work pays off! The Before & After Look
The Bogs of Ireland, Past & Future exhibition
American Universities are becoming once again the conscience of their nation
Super Mario takes part in a St. Patrick's Day Parade in Connemara!
Remembering Mom & Dad on Mother’s Day.
When my dad Paddy Smith and my mom Bridget Agnew got engaged, they had this photo taken as a memento to a very special time in their lives. Dad was 21 years old, Mom was 19 years old,
Mom was born in Monaghan, my Dad in Offaly. They both met in Dublin at a dance club on Parnell Square not far from Drumcondra where my mom’s family had a grocery shop beside Croke Park. My dad was a bus conductor with Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ).
Throughout their lives, they like so many of their era strived to be good people with good values, taught their children to respect others, to love God, to practice a strong Christian (though not servile) faith and to work hard in order to earn an honest wage but to always realise that money was not everything and there were more important things in life.
Dad exemplified these values. Likewise with Mom who was for much of her early adult life one of a rare breed, a business woman in an overwhelmingly male-dominated retail sector.
But the Ireland they were born into and grew up in was a different country than today. It was poor, patriarchal, socially repressive in many ways, its economy rural centric characterised by small subsistence family farming with our biggest export being our young people. Both my parents endured difficult teenage years and came from families that suffered for awhile as a consequence of years of revolutionary struggle and being on the losing side at the end of the Irish Civil War.
But it was not all doom and gloom in this Irish society. For it possessed a strong local community ethos; crime was almost non-existent; most products could be recycled, repaired and reused; raw materials were sourced locally; children immersed themselves in Nature almost daily; and young people regularly went to sports matches, played music, danced, fell in love and got married; and many families took annual holidays or enjoyed weekend excursions to seaside resorts.
I consider myself so fortunate as a child to have had wonderful family summer holidays enjoying the amusements, beaches and candy floss of the seaside tourist towns of Bundoran, Bangor and Tramore; experiencing exciting working holidays with the 'country' cousins in Carrickmacross and Cloghan amongst the pastures, hayfields and bogs; picnics in the countryside; helping on my dad's garden allotment and working daily behind the counter in the family shop. My parents always allowed me to earn my own pocket money and to spend it on DC, Marvel and Thunderbirds/Stingray comics (I was always a big science fiction fan!), Action Men and Airfix aeroplane models.
Whilst physical (corporeal) punishment was all too commonly practiced by adults against children in families and in schools in those days, I cannot ever remember being slapped or beaten by Mom or Dad for misbehaving even though I was a strong-willed often argumentative child not afraid to express opinions that were contrary to those of my parents.
On Mother’s Day, I pay homage to my mom for being a feisty inspirational woman who overcame the most severe difficulties as a young teenage girl to successfully run a small business and raise a family; to my maternal grandmother Mary Ward who as the only daughter in her family spent much of early adult years feeding, clothing and supporting her 7 brothers many of whom were often ‘on the run’ as IRA volunteers during the War of Independence and the Civil War; and to my maternal great-grandmother Eliza Eccles who spent over 2 years in Armagh Prison for resisting Anglo-Irish landlord oppression during the Land Wars.
I am proud that these women in my family’s lineage kept alive the feminist ideals of a Celtic Pagan and early Christian Ireland where women often held prominent leadership roles exemplified by the fact that our country is the only country in the world (the island of St. Lucia does not count as it was named by invaders not the indigenous peoples!) called after a female.
Beir bua!
A beautiful 19th century Drystone Wall restored
Research is presently going on to find out its origins. But it is felt that it was constructed as early as the late 19th century if not before.
The Tuatha volunteers are presently actively working
with the parks department of Galway City Council in developing and implementing
what they feel is an exciting innovative programme of initiatives that will
bring a whole new array of features to Terryland Forest Park over the next year
which will enhance its importance as an example of the temperate rainforests
that once covered Ireland before the colonial period, as a native wildlife
sanctuary, an outdoor classroom, a repository of rural heritage, a major force
within the city in tackling the Climate Crisis, and in the provision of artistic
walking trails and cycling routes.
Next year we want to be fully prepared in helping the people of Galway celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of a park that was born out of a wonderfully proactive collaboration between Galway Corporation (now Galway City Council) and the wider community. When it came into existence it was Ireland’s largest urban native woodland and was officially known as the ‘Lungs of the City’. Its founders drawn from the local government, community, state, educational, scientific and artistic sectors were in reality visionary pioneering advocates in developing within an urban environment a response to what they recognised as a looming climate and biodiversity crises. It is only now in the last few years that the public are realising the huge significance of what was happening in Galway city in the year 2000.
Early Virtual Reality - the 1-Racer Nascar from 1999.
Well done Helen Caird for a wonderfully inspiring "Nature in Art" exhibition
Everyone involved in the Tuatha volunteers of Terryland Forest Park wishes the very best to our very own Helen Caird, our artist in residence, for her exhibition entitled "Roots, Vessels and Gold" which was launched last Friday in the Oughterard Courthouse and will be open to the public until next Sunday. Well worth a visit!
Citizens of the World Unite & Celebrate the Beauty of "Difference".