Mayor Helen Ogbu and councillors invited to Terryland Forest Park for a fact-finding mission this Saturday.

Text of letter below sent by the Tuatha volunteers of Terryland Forest Park earlier this month to city councillors:

"The purpose of this visit is to give councilors a guided walk through the park to outline the wonderful range of current and future green developments being planned for Ireland's original community-based Urban Native Woodland by both volunteers and city council working together but also to bring to your attention a number of serious problems that need to be tackled as a matter of urgency, including probably through the introduction of new bye-laws, if this wonderful green resource for Galway city is to fulfill its full potential in providing a safe nature park for the city's population fo all ages as well as a critical urban sanctuary for Ireland's native biodiversity.

Over the last few years the Terryland Forest Park has won local, national and international awards and accolades due to an active, visionary and respectful collaboration between city council and our volunteers, which has helped gain for Galway city a reputation for protecting its biodiversity and natural environment.

This recognition includes:

All-island of Ireland Pride of Place Award (Cities Creative Place category) in 2022
An Taisce Community Green Flag in 2024 and 2025
Galway City Mayor’s Award 2025 (Environmental & Sustainability category)
RDS Forest & Woodland Award 2026 (Community Woodland category).

As President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins praised the park many times, including during a visit last year (see photo) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its foundation, for its pioneering success in bringing nature back into an urban environment, and for acting as a template for other Irish cities to emulate.

Terryland Forest Park is proudly promoted by its supporters as an Outdoor Classroom, an Outdoor Lab, an Outdoor Gym, an Outdoor Arts space and a Biodiversity sanctuary in the heart of a busy city. It also regularly hosts events for the general public. For instance, on June 21st last, the Tuatha organised a highly successful Sunday Family Picnic Day that attracted over 360 participants and was part of Galway City Council’s Climate Action Week 2026 programme.

The Tuatha members willingly, freely and unselfishly have given their time, ideas and energies every week over many years to keep the park clean, provide guided tours for visiting groups and undertake an array of important conservation projects in partnership with Galway City Council including annual community tree/flower planting days.

Furthermore, we will over the next few weeks be bringing a new people-centric dimension to the park by launching an exciting 2026/2027 programme of events and activities for schools, communities, workplaces and the general public that includes educational and heritage trail walks, Sunday picnics, family days, community plantings, tree sapling harvesting, invasive species removal, farming, field trips, guided walks, art workshops, slow food days and citizen science initiatives. We are also having fruitful discussions with city council personnel about dedicating specific suitable meadows within the park for kite flying, tai chi exercises, old style wooden gaming for children, nature painting exhibitions as well as in the possibility of introducing boules.

All year round, our weekly volunteering days provide wonderful opportunities for university students, companies and tourists to engage in worthwhile conservation activities in a park which is, thanks to the combined efforts of volunteers and council staff, now home to thousands of flora, fauna, fungi and microorganisms.

Over its 26 years it has dramatically changed the physical landscape of the city and will hopefully in the not-too-distant future connect into the Connemara Greenway and a network of trails leading into east Galway.

Known officially as the 'Green Lungs of the City', it has also since its inception involved tens of thousands of citizens of all ages in tackling the interlinked Climate and Biodiversity Crises. Their voluntary work can be valued in millions of euro, as the park has acted as a major natural 'carbon sink' and in filtering out harmful airborne gases/particulates through the planting of trees and wildflowers. Volunteers have also saved the city tens of thousands of euro over the years through weekly activities such as litter-picking.

However we are gravely concerned at a number of issues that have been appearing recently in the park which are undermining public safety and the park's fragile biodiversity as well as sapping the morale of our fantastic volunteers. These include an upsurge in anti-social activity within certain areas of the park which is eliminating habitats, deliberately destroying public property such as fencing and in uprooting the trees that the people of Galway of all ages planted over the decades. There is also a dramatic rise in silt and vegetation across the Terryland River that is decreasing water flow and as a home for aquatic wildlife. We are also worried about the lack of progress in installing pedestrian road crossings connecting sections of the park."

Don't Sully our Green Standing Now

Call for greater investment in green spaces after city park wins another major national environmental award

Many thanks to the Galway City Tribune for the extensive coverage earlier this month of the success of Terryland Forest Park in winning the RDS national Community Woodland Award, one of many accolades we have won which has helped earn Galway city a reputation for protecting its biodiversity and natural environment. See photo.

The Tuatha volunteers and the parks staff of City Hall working together have indeed a lot to be proud of in developing the forest park over many years as an Outdoor Classroom, Outdoor Lab, Outdoor Gym, as a eco-tourism destination, as a major 'carbon sink' and as an urban wildlife sanctuary.

But we had to use the opportunity of the media exposure to highlight our deep concerns over the deterioration now being experienced in biodiversity protection not just in Terryland but also in Shantalla and Merlin Woods.

It is not something that we ever expected to happen.

For in November our Tuatha volunteers along with other local environmental organisations were delighted to be part of the public launch by Galway City Council of the Galway City Biodiversity Action Plan. This plan included commitments “to protect, restore and celebrate the biodiversity that sustains us” especially through those “green and blue spaces that are not only home to a remarkable diversity of species but are essential to our health, our climate resilience and our shared sense of place.”

But the council now seems to be undermining these committments.

We have been expressing our frustrations- through meetings with Mayor Helen Ogbu and council staff from multiple departments as well as the River Basin Management Service over the last few months- on the lack of progress over problems that have been appearing recently in the Terryland Forest Park which are undermining public safety and the park's fragile biodiversity as well as sapping the morale of our fantastic volunteers. These include an upsurge in anti-social activity within certain areas of the park which is eliminating habitats, a deliberate destruction of public property such as fencing and in the uprooting the trees that the people of Galway of all ages planted over the decades. There is also a dramatic rise in silt and vegetation across the Terryland River that is decreasing water flow and as a home for aquatic wildlife. We are also worried about the lack of progress in installing pedestrian road crossings connecting sections of the park.

So we have written to all councillors requesting them to visit the Terryland Forest Park this month to review both the successes achieved and the issues that need to be faced up to and be solved including if necessary the passing of new byelaws.

In a time of a growing human-made interlinked global Climate and Biodiversity Crises, our woodlands and parks are needed more than ever.

 

Celebrating a long life together

Yet it feels like only yesterday that we got married on a hot August day surrounded by our families and by our friends in the little church in Ryehill, followed later by a lively reception at the Salthill Hotel.

The summer of 1984 was one of youthful artistic vibrancy, huge technological change and of political protest/unrest in Galway, nationwide and internationally. But that is a story for another day.

Suffice to say that on a personal level it was the happiest day of my life as I married the girl of my dreams. As the decades past we were privileged to become parents of two fine sons and now in 2026 to enjoy being proud grandparents to the lovely Grace.

God willing, may we both enjoy many more years together with lots of fun and excitement shared.

In a world of turmoil LOVE is all that matters, love expressed towards other individuals, towards other peoples and towards the planet

'Think Global, Act Local' in Galway city

 

There is a major exhibition presently on show in the Galway Museum entitled ‘Earth Action’, highlighting the importance of undertaking actions at a local level to tackle the interlinked global Climate/Biodiversity Crises. Terryland Forest Park features very prominently, a prime example of how people in Galway city made a difference and contributed to positive change. Well worth a visit!

So well done to all our present and past volunteers- their efforts have been publicly recognised! As always, we will continue our volunteering activities from 10am tomorrow (Saturday) morning at An Nead (park entrance on the Sandy Road).

Galway city stakeholders united in demand for Corrib Cycling & Pedestrian Bridge.

After a packed public meeting on the need for the long-overdue construction of a pedestrian-cycling bridge over the River Corrib, a multi-sectoral delegation was set up to meet with senior management in Galway City Council on the issue.

This group-comprising members with community, business, cycling, waterways, tourism, heritage and environmental interests- recently met with the council’s Director of Services Derek Pender and Project Engineer Micheál Cormican.
We were informed that, in spite of funding being withdrawn by the National Transport Authority (NTA) which had previously been committed and which could have meant the death knell for the construction of a bridge on top of the former Galway City-Clifden railway line, the council undertook immediate decisive action to secure the agreement of the national Urban Regeneration Development Fund (which was set up under the National Development Plan 2018-2027) for the local authority to progress the project through the relevant statutory planning process.

To continue with this process in a situation when there was no financial or policy support from the NTA, we were told that internally, the local authority has transferred the project from its NTA-funded office for Active Travel projects to the newly established office for Project Management and Capital Delivery.
We commend City Hall for taking this progressive course of action.

However it’s important for the general public to realise that the funding currently in place is to bring the project through the statutory planning consent process only and there is currently no funding model in place when this planning and design phase is completed. Therefore there is still a serious question mark over whether this bridge will ever become a reality.

Sadly we have been here before. In 1999 it was declared that this bridge, to be known as the Millennium Bridge, would be open to the public by December 2000 acting as a hub connecting to the newly opened Terryland Forest Park, to the nearby developing cultural district, and to a proposed series of recreational facilities and a network of paths along the River Corrib and canals. Through no fault of the council at the time the bridge did not come to pass.

Over a quarter of a century later though its importance as a vital piece of urban infrastructure has only grown in stature. For it would provide a safe active travel route connecting people on both sides of the River Corrib to their places of work (including the planned urban village to be built on what is now the Dyke Road carpark) and study as well as to hospitals, leisure facilities and areas rich in biodiversity. Futhermore it would, by directly connecting into the long overdue Connemara Greenway, dramatically boost sustainable tourism and bring huge economic benefits to the region west of the Corrib.

Support for the bridge includes Galway City Council, the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF) Section of Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the University of Galway, community organisations such as the Galway City Community Network in the city and the Connemara Greenway Alliance in the county, heritage waterways advocates such as Corrib Beo, and businesses such as Aerogen, as well as multiple schools and health advocates.

In order to ensure that the bridge is built, a newly formed multi-sectoral grouping will, amongst other actions, be writing to all national political representatives for Galway West as well as to all candidates in the upcoming by-elections requesting their public support and asking to state what actions they can undertake to ensure funding is secured at a national level once the statutory planning process is completed. We realise of course that there is wide political support. But after so many delays over so many decades, we need at this stage firm political action for the construction of what will become a icon and a symbol of a new sustainable Galway.

Photo shows attendees at Corrib Bridge meeting in City Hall (L-R): Micheal O Cinneide, Jen Cunningham, Justine Delaney, Brendan Smith, Brendan Mulligan, Freddy Valla, Micheál Cormican and Derek Pender. Not in photo- Bernadette Mullarkey.

AI Research for the Good of People & the Planet

 

Over 50 German students and their teachers from the Galway Business School (GBS) attended a special 'AI for Good' event in the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics at the Data Science Institute of the University of Galway where they learnt about some of our ground-breaking research projects designed to bring benefits to humanity and to the planet.
In a time when aspects of AI and science generally can and are being used to inflict death and destruction on planet Earth, it is critical that we increase our efforts to support STEM programmes that are life-giving.
At Insight we have for many years mapped our research against the United Nations 17 Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) and organise activities to make the public aware of our work especially by engaging with schools, communities, businesses and policy makers.
So a big thank you/Míle buíochas to my fellow colleagues at Insight DSI for giving presentations to the visiting German students and making themselves available for questions, namely Elizabeth Hunter on 'Computational Modelling to Predict the Spread of Infectious Diseases'; Bharathi Raja Chakravarthi on 'Inclusive AI'; Prateek Paul on 'Incentive Alignment in Data Sharing Ecosystems'; and Jefkine Kafunah on 'AI, Big Data and Data Analytics for the AgriFood sector'.
After the research talks, I gave the young people an overview of the history (with a Galway & Ireland flavour!) of computing and communications technologies before providing them with an immersive guided tour of the computer museum.

Galway Science & Technology Festival 2025, Part 1: School Tours

We at the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics at the University of Galway were pleased to deliver a packed programme of activities for this year’s Galway Science & Technology Festival.

Happily returning to work after some time out due to a health issue, I helped coordinate busloads of children and teenagers from schools in visiting the Data Science Centre to experience coding workshops and the hands-on fun environment of the computer and communications museum. The secondary school student visitors also benefited from presentations delivered by our researchers highlighting their work which is mapped against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the delights of interactive sessions in our Virtual Reality Lab.

Such was the demand from schools in Mayo, Galway city and county that we had to put on extra visits after the festival ended!

We also collaborated with TCD and the UoG School of Computer Science to deliver a series of Pytch coding workshops at the Galway Science and Technology Festival Exhibition Day as well as with Róisín Birch and the team at the University of Galway Access Centre in our ongoing support for the critical DEIS schools based Uni4U initiative.

So a big thank you/Míle buíochas to the Insight volunteers who mentored and presented on their research, provided coding or VR workshops or guided tours of the computer & communications museum, namely Abdul Wahid, Carlos Tighe, Duc-Duy Nguyen, Janakkumar Kapuriya, Katarzyna Stasiewicz, Kashif Shaheed, Hoang Long, Prateek Paul, Simanta Sarkar, Tomas Grigas and Zeeshan Malik.

 

Margaretta D'Arcy- feminist, Irish republican, internationalist, socialist, artist, environmentalist, anti-war activist, anti-imperialist campaigner.

 

So many warm loving tributes have been paid by so many people to the great and unique Margaretta D'Arcy over the last week that I agree wholeheartedly with.

The last time I met this iconic inspirational woman was a few weeks ago at one of the weekly Thursday 'Campus Anti-Genocide' protests she regularly took part in which were held to highlight the University of Galway's unacceptable refusal to cut its research links with the Haifa-based Technion university that has strong links to the Israeli military industrial complex.

The first time I met her was in the late 1970s when I was a student union activist impressed by her and her late husband John Arden as they promoted the British "7:84" left wing political theatre group to the students of what was then the University College Galway (UCG). The group's name came from the fact that 7% of the population of Britain owned 84% of the country's wealth. She was then and always remained a fiery passionate left-wing idealist who stayed true to her radical beliefs.

Over the decades she was always on the front line standing up against oppression and for justice both in Ireland and elsewhere.

Galway and the world will be poorer for her departure.

A Transformation of Galway City that has captivated the heart of a President.

With so much hate, brutality, misogyny, racism, greed, nastiness, environmental destruction, conflict, war, ethnic cleansing and genocide taking place across the planet today, it is important more than ever to highlight and to celebrate 'good news' stories, especially when it involves individuals and communities in Ireland and elsewhere who are giving their time and energies to try to make a difference and by doing so bringing positive change to their societies and indeed the world.
Galway and Ireland as elsewhere is full of examples of such dedication and campaigning where what seems impossible can sometimes become possible as a result of individuals coming together to form active communities. "In Unity there is Strength" or as we say in Irish "Neart le chéile".
This has been the life long message of our President, Michael D. Higgins. He is one of those selfless visionary people who consistently speaks up for the oppressed, highlights injustice and applauds those who are trying to make a difference. He is an inspiration and is someone that regularly challenges us also to speak out and come together to do better for the greater good of society and indeed the planet. Unlike a growing number of political leaders internationally who preach hate, sow division, turn a blind eye to evil and who make personal profit and secure power out of what should be 'public service'. 

 
June 6th was one of the proudest days of my long life. It was when my good friend and our great President with his equally inspirational wife Sabina came to Galway to celebrate 25 years of the community-local authority partnership success story that is Terryland Forest Park. In the mid 1990s, the park was a dream that become a reality because of individuals demanding better, and then coming together as campaigning communities to convince local government and others of what was needed in urban Galway.
Thanks to the Connacht Tribune - Galway City Tribune for publishing my article on the celebratory day itself, and on the history, the present and future of what was labelled the"Green Lungs of the City" and the "People's Park" when it opened in the year 2000. As I state in the news piece, there are challenges and so much more has to be done to fulfill the hopes and dreams of its founders and its army of present volunteers.
But there has been so much which has been achieved that the people of Galway city of all ages should be proud of and their role in creating something that is truly beautiful and important- As the opening paragraph of the article states:
"The President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins was beaming with pride last week as he looked around at a landscape totally transformed in the heart of Galway City. “This is the Galway we want,” he enthused to a large crowd gathered in Terryland Forest Park. Where once he remembered there were barren fields, rubble and a litter-strewn river surrounded by barbed wire fencing, he now witnessed a wonderful mosaic of woods, meadows, wetlands, pasture, orchards and karst limestone outcrops populated by a diverse range of native fauna, flora and fungi. A green oasis in an urban environment serving as an ‘ecological corridor’ for wildlife connecting the vast Corrib waterways on its western boundaries through the city to farmlands on its eastern side."

 
So may I give a heartfelt 'Bualadh Bos' (round of applause) to those that made June 6th such a morale boosting event- including all in Galway City Council, Claire Power and all the team at Áras an Uachtaráin, those from the schools, the universities, the workplaces, the arts, the community and voluntary sector, the park founders and of course the hardworking members of the 'Green Army' (aka Tuatha volunteers of Terryland Forest Park).

Here's to the next 25 years!!

 

May-Jun: Educating Teenagers on the Good & Bad sides of Web Technologies.

The school year ended on a very busy note for my colleagues and myself at the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics in the University of Galway as we continued to introduce teenagers to our pioneering research and in upskilling them on the positive benefits of web technologies through workshops on creative coding and hands-on smart tools such as Virtual Reality, environmental sensors and citizen apps.

But once again I devoted a lot of time in making our young people aware and prepared, through Internet Safety sessions, of the dangers that exist in social media and gaming by educating them on cyberbullying, online misogyny, porn, hate, violence, racism, fake news and addiction.

In May, I spent multiple days giving Internet Safety sessions to the first and second year students of the BISH in Galway city and to those in both the junior and senior cycles of Coláiste Cholmcille in Connemara. These presentations always include insights into using social media/gaming positively, and Wellbeing elements such as on the importance of a good night’s sleep, spending time in the real world with friends, getting out into a natural environment or undertaking outdoor sports.

As always these presentations are two-way, for I also learn a lot from the young people themselves as they make me aware of problems or sites that they encounter which I personally may not have yet come across. So I always come away better informed allowing me to constantly update my content.

In a time of AI which brings huge benefits but also dangers, regulation of the Web is now needed more than ever before. Governments have to stand up to the mega tech giants and protect their citizenry. People come first.

A Wonderful Focus on grassroots Climate Action projects in Galway City

I was honoured to be one of the presenters at the recent 'Giob Geab'/Chit Chat evening hosted in the Mick Lally Theatre.
Organised by a great proactive team of Tiaran McCusker, Paula Kearney and Fergal Cushen in Galway City Council and with actor/musician Andrias de Staic doing superb as MC, the event had 16 presentations on a selection of sustainability projects happening across Galway city & environs, primarily being led or involving community volunteering or local enterprise groups.
The project themes covered the full spectrum- ranging from native honey beekeeping, beach cleanups, youth climate assemblies, a nature-based solutions innovation hub, urban labs, the setting up of a Green Market, campaigning to protect a rural landscape in the suburb of Knocknacarra, to home energy retrofitting.
I myself gave a presentation entitled "Creating a Rainforest in the Heart of the City", on the community campaign origins in the 1990s and ongoing development of Terryland Forest Park.
Photo (L-R). your truly(!), Tiarnan McCusker (Galway City Council's Community Climate Officer), Aindrias de Staic (MC) and councillor Eibhlín Seoighthe

Help Create a new Wetland in the heart of Galway City

 

On Saturday next (Oct 5th) we need volunteers to help bring a whole new dimension to the multi-habitat Terryland Forest Park in the lead-up to its 25th birthday celebrations in 2025.

To complement the park’s native woodlands, native wildflower meadows, waterways, and karst limestone outcrops, we need as many volunteers as possible to help lay down the surface of a 1000 square metre pond as the first step in an ambitious new wetland project, by a partnership between the Tuatha volunteers and Galway City Parks department, that will over the coming year encompass a wet woodland and marshes as part of a major nature restoration project for Galway city. This work will be also include the installation of a viewing platform, a bridge over the nearby Terryland River and the creation of an adjacent wildlife sanctuary (free of human footfall).

 

Register on Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/1034679533337?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

Rendezvous

Time: 10am - 1pm

Location: ‘An Nead’ (Irish for ‘Nest’ & volunteer HQ), Terryland Forest Park entrance, Sandy Road, Galway City. Google Maps Link-

https://maps.app.goo.gl/vhkRyq7htZe9SM3f6

Requirements: Wear suitable clothing and boots for wet and outdoor conditions.

 

Volunteer Tasks

Volunteers tasks will include jumping up and down (to music!) on the recently excavated pond (thanks to Paula Kearney, Lisa Smyth and Kevin Nally of Galway City Council Parks Department) in order to compress the soil base as well as plant locally sourced flora on its raised banks. Last Saturday international students from the Just 3 initiative in the University of Galway were introduced to Galway as they began the pond-making process, by happily foot stomping to world music ranging from American hip-hop to Irish trad to Punjabi disco!

The photo shows some of the students jumping up and down on what looks like a sandy beach in Terryland Forest Park but is in actual fact the remains of ancient aquatic wildlife that lived in what was once a large lake or marine environment.

Restoring a lost Wetland

In the early 1840s, an ambitious plan to build a long dyke wall to increase the water flow into the city to power mills and distilleries in Galway city was carried out. The result was the Dyke Road and the gradual draining of wetlands that existed between Terryland Castle and Castlegar Castle which transformed over time into farm pasture. A large part of this area was zoned in the mid 1990s for a future forest park either side of the remnant of a much larger Corrib catchment, namely the Terryland River.

The work of volunteers next Saturday will help restore some of a once extensive wetland and bring back a population of aquatic flora and fauna into the community-driven publicly owned forest park managed by Galway City Council.

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!

Next year we will be celebrating 25 years of Ireland's first urban community native woodland with its myriad of habitats providing home to an amazing array of flora, fungi and fauna.

In the lead up to this very important birthday, lots of great additions and improvements will be put in place to greatly enhance what has been referred to since its inception as the Green Lungs of the City.

 

Foraging: Discovering the Culinary & Medicinal Plants og Terryland Forest Park

Biodiversity Week in Galway city opened with a fully booked-out guided tour of Terryland Forest Park by medical herbalist and master tea-blender Jorg Muller.

This man is an unbelievable fount of knowledge on the food and medicinal value of plantlife. With each step he took along the guided walk through the forest, Jorg showed participants the value of so many common Irish plants that we see everyday during the summer months. All of us were amazed and delighted at the enormous benefits revealed to us of ribwort plantain, herb robert, hawthorn, cleavers, horsetail and so much more.

The walk was an eyeopener, truly a wonderful voyage of discovery.

But we recognised too that nature's food larder is not just for humankind, but also to be shared with the rest of Nature. 

 

Finally thanks to Paula Kearney, the brilliant hardworking Biodiversity Officer of Galway City Council, who organised the visit of Jorg Muller to Terryland Forest Park.

 

A 113 year history of School Cycling in Galway along a combined Greenway and Blueway!

At the request of my good friend Reg Turner, on Monday I acted as tour guide for a National Bike Week looped heritage cycle by the Transition Year students and teachers of Coláiste Iognáid (the Jes) that started at Woodquay, went through Terryland, onto Coolough and to Menlo Castle before returning to the centre of Galway city.

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

Hard work pays off! The Before & After Look

 The hard consistent work of our Tuatha volunteers is paying off.

The riverbanks and lands around the Sandy Bridge are now almost completely devoid of the alien species known as Chinese Bramble/Rubus Tricolor.

I actually felt sorry in some ways for removing this pretty invasive plant, admiring it for how its roots and stems held on tenaciously for dear life in the gaps between the blocks of limestone of the bridge and river bank walls as we fought to pull it out.

However the battle to protect our native flora and fauna will be lost if the very invasive species that we are removing are openly and legally for sale in garden centres. There needs to be better joined-up thinking between government and other stakeholders.

A beautiful 19th century Drystone Wall restored

A team of Tuatha volunteers were involved last weekend on restoring a traditional stone wall made from local limestone that served as a rural field boundary when much of the high lands of Terryland Forest Park were primarily pasture.

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.

The Aliens have landed!

Winter heliotrope, one of the invasive species within Terryland Forest

Tomorrow (Tuesday) volunteers are tackling the alien species that have invaded Terryland Forest Park and which are colonising large areas within the park forcing out the native plant life.

As part of Invasive Species Week 15th – 21st May, Galway City Council, LAWPRO and Tuatha (volunteers) of Terryland Forest Park are conducting a walk through Terryland Forest Park tomorrow May 16th to areas infested with terrestrial and aquatic non-native Invasive Alien Species (IAS). IAS are extremely difficult and costly to control and eradicate, and their ecological effects can be irreversible.

All are welcome.

We will look at the identifying the species, risks to the environment and infrastructure, management measures and best practice such as the ’Check Clean Dry’ protocol for water users to minimise the spread of aquatic invasives. Working with volunteers, we will trial a herbicide free method of controlling winter heliotrope (see photo) within the woodland.

The invasive species being discussed include Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica), Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) and Canadian Waterweed (Elodea canadensis).

 

Invasive Species Week is an annual national event to raise awareness of the impacts of invasive species and to celebrate action being taken to prevent their spread. Organisations across the UK, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, and Isle of Man join together to lead activities and share information on the simple things that everyone can do to help prevent the spread of invasive species. Each day will involve focusing on a different theme: https://invasives.ie/what.../invasive-species-week/2023-may/

 

The walk will commence at 11am Tuesday 16th May at the Sandy Road entrance to Terryland Forest https://maps.app.goo.gl/hnW2gB4gQi1LLuUX8

Goodbye dear Friend

With the passing of Michael Tiernan, Galway has lost one of its truest gentlemen and I have lost a dear friend.

Michael was full of wit and charm, was kind and considerate, helpful to all, a lover of Nature, a strong advocate of community, had a grá(love) for the Irish language, and was a true custodian and teacher of traditional Irish heritage skills and crafts. 

 

For many years, Michael Tiarnan, Michael McDonnell and myself aided by Caitriona Nic Mhuiris of the Galway City Partnership worked closely together to rejuvenate the heritage of our area of Ballinfoile Mor, which was until a few decades ago a rural parish but was now an urbanised suburb of Galway city. We established Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden in 2010 followed soon after by setting up Cumann na bhFear (Men's Shed), the latter being a training centre for metal work, beekeeping, woodturning and other hands-on traditions.

 

We also worked closely together in the regular planting of trees and wildflowers in the ongoing transformation of pasture land into what is now Terryland Forest Park. Whenever there was a woodland clean-up, a group walk along the boreens(country lanes), a 7 Galway Castles Heritage Cycle tour, a removal of litter from woods, a sowing of vegetable seeds, or a mass planting of trees and wildflowers, the ever-smiling Michael Tiernan was one of the first to arrive and to offer his services.

 

Dearest Michael, mo chara, you will always be in our hearts and your legacy to your city and locality will last for decades to come