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!!

 

Families in action at the Terryland Forest Park 'Plantathon 2025'

A mother (Caitriona) and daughter, a father (Kevin) and son- two families united by a common cause of rewilding Galway city.
A great crowd of volunteers on a beautiful Saturday undertook important and wonderful conservation work in Terryland Forest Park as they planted a heritage orchard, a hedgerow and a woods adjacent to our developing wetlands.
So a big thank you to the 80 volunteers of all ages that continued a 25 year tradition of planting trees in Terryland Forest Parks.
Superstars everyone!

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

A Pheasant in Hare's Corner: A Good Omen for our Nature Restoration Plans!

 

As members of the Tuatha volunteers of Terryland Forest Park entered on Saturday a field designated for an exciting and ambitious rewilding project, I was somewhat taken aback when a startled cock pheasant rose up from the long grass at my feet and took flight into the sky.

Everyone of us present though considered it a good omen for plans towards a field recently purchased by City Council, after years of community lobbying, that has been absorbed into Terryland Forest Park.

Thanks to the collaborative approach and vision of City Council’s Biodiversity Officer Paula Kearney, City Parks’ Foreman Kevin Nally, Parks’ groundsman Edward Skehill and Deputy Parks’ Superintendent Lisa Smyth, a partnership with the Tuatha will transform the field into a large multi-layer pond and surrounding marsh with a viewing platform, a wet woodland, a native orchard, and an extensive hedgerow. The installation of a wooden bridge over the adjacent Terryland River will connect this site onto the Ogham Heritage Trail on the western side whilst the neighbouring fields to the north that also lie within Terryland Forest Park will become a major wildlife sanctuary (no human footfall).

An first step in making this ambitious plan become a reality was for members of our Tuatha of Terryland Forest Park volunteer group to meet onsite with the wonderful Rob Gandola, one of Ireland’s leading Pond Development Officers, to discuss our submission to Burren Beo under the Hare’s Corner initiative. Rob was so excited about our pond/wetlands proposal and feels that if successful it could become a gold standard and a case study for all Local Authorities. So fingers crossed that our Hare’s Corner submission will prove successful and will start the process in transforming a grassland into a significant nature restoration volunteer project.

Trees of Terryland Forest Park: Hawthorn (Irish = 'Sceach Gheal'). ‘The Fairy Tree’- Symbol of Magic and of Summer.

May is the month of the white blossom when hedgerows and field boundaries across rural Ireland are dotted with trees covered with what from a distance looks like snow but is instead the beautiful white flowers of the Hawthorn tree. Associated with the fairies, the hawthorn or whitethorn was oftentimes feared by Irish people and in many parts of the country was never brought inside a house. People of my generation were the last generation to truly believe in its connection with the Sí (sidhe) and my own wife for this reason stopped me planting hawthorns in our garden when we first got married!

The remains of prehistoric dwellings known as ‘fairy forts’ dot the Irish landscape and are usually evident by the presence of clumps of hawthorn bushes. Solitary hawthorn trees can also be seen in many farmed fields in rural Ireland. In both instances, local people in my time would never cut them down lest bad luck would befall them. This fear may also have something to do with the scent of the hawthorn flower. It is the chemical compound triethylamine, which is one of the first chemicals produced when a human body starts to decompose.

But triethylamine is also found in human semen and vaginal secretions. So no wonder the tree with its white blossom symbolised the lusty month of May, the arrival of summer as the season of fertility and growth. It was when a hawthorn branch on a tree would be decorated with ribbons, pieces of cloth and flowers requesting a good harvest. As with the ash, it was also associated with holy wells which were also linked to female fertility. By September, the pollinated flowers become lush red fruits known as haws. The April leaves were used as a green salad in sandwiches. Jelly was made from the red berries.

‘Nettle’ Cake & Nature’s Pantry

For the first ever in my life, I enjoyed the delicious taste of Nettle Cake courtesy of Pól Mac Raghnaill, a true guardian and lover of Terryland Forest Park.

As well as nettles sourced from the forest, it contained potatoes, flour, milk, salt and pepper. Thanks Pol!

The tradition of ‘foraging’ is making a comeback.

I have happy memories of me and my childhood friends collecting basket-loads of highly nutritious hazel nuts, nettles and blackberries from hedgerows, meadows and woodlands to bring home to their moms to make cakes, soups, jellies and jams.
Harvesting the wild flowers, fruits, herbs, fungi, roots and leaves of the forests has been integral to the fabric of humanity since our species first appeared on the planet.
It is only over the last fifty years that as a result of technology ‘development’, in the form of refrigeration, mechanised transport, chemical fertilisers, intensive agriculture, urbanisation and the growth in supermarket shopping, we in our consumer society have lost an understanding of the seasonality of food, of the importance of sourcing food locally and of the natural edible resources that exist in our local woods, hedgerows, seashores, rivers and meadows.
Disconnect with Nature leads inevitably to habitat destruction and the extinction of species.
However, there has been over the last decade increased involvement by the general public in growing food locally and organically, precipitated by a growing awareness of the dangers being brought about by man-made Climate Chaos. During COVID-19, it is so lovely the surge in people setting up organic vegetable gardens at their homes. It is cool now to be a gardener!

Over the last few weeks I have also come across a number of people out harvesting nettles in the Terryland Forest Park. Many are originally from countries where foraging is still a living tradition. Collecting wild foods is good for both the mind and body as well as putting us back in touch with the sights, sounds and smells of Nature. 

However a few principles need to govern those harvesting wild food:
1. Be moderate in what you take home as the berries and nuts that you are collecting are the natural food sources for much of the birds, insects and animals of the countryside and our urban natural areas.
2. Do not remove the whole plant; take only the edible parts that you require such as the fruits and leaves whilst leaving the roots and some of fruits and leaves so that it can grow again. 
3. Many fungi and fruits are poisonous. So if you are unsure, take someone with you that is familiar with the culinary aspects of plants and fungi.

Bluebell Woods: Celebrating Terryland Forest Park 2000-2020.

The photograph shows a beautiful bluebell woods in Terryland Forest Park.

Along with the trees, these wildflowers were some of the thousands planted by many volunteers over many years in Ireland's largest community-local government urban forest initiative. As COVID-19 amply shows, the health of people and of the planet depends on Nature. Post-COVID, the natural world and the environment generally have to take centre stage in all policies and decision making, from international agreements to neighbourhood development.

Nature in COVID-19: You Were Never Lovelier!

With humankind's hand and footprint so much reduced on the surface of the planet due to COVID-19, the rest of Nature is making a comeback.
The air is dramatically cleaner over China, the dolphins are reappearing in the canals of Venice, the cougars are walking the streets of Santiago and in Galway city, due to the absence of traffic noise pollution, we can actually hear the beautiful melodic sounds of the birds!
And Terryland River (photo) in Terryland Forest Park has never looked so pretty!
So post Covid-19, let's ensure that we learn the correct lessons from this pandemic and not adopt a 'Business as Usual' attitude with all of the mistakes that such a way of life was characterised by

Scoil Shéamais Naofa Bearna san Fhéile Eolaíochta!

Tá Rang 6 i Scoil Shéamais Naofa, Bearna ag obair do dian ar ábhair ag baint leis an téama Gníomhú Aeráide chun taipseántas a thabhairt ag Féile Eolaíochta in Ollscoil na Gaillimhe ar an Domhnach 24ú Samhain. Tá foirne difriúla sa rang ag fiosrú topaicí mar chumhacht athbheochain, cosaint bhitheagsúlacht, bealaí glasa, bia orgánach i mblialanna áitiúla, siopadóireacht ghlas agus ar thraidisiúin feirmeoireachta agus baile sna blianta caite a bhí níos fearr don talamh agus don saol inbhuanaithe. Roghnóigh an rang na topaicí is fearr leo chun iniúchadh níos doimhne a dhéanamh orthu agus a chur i dtaispeántas na scoile ag féile na míosa seo chugainn. 

-Ealaín álainn de nádúir an fhómhair ar bhallaí Scoil Shéamais Naofa!

Sixth class in Scoil Shéamais Naofa Barna is actively researching material based on the theme of Climate Action for their exhibit at the Science Fair on Sunday November 24th in NUI Galway. Teams of pupils are undertaking research into topics such as renewable energies, biodiversity protection, greenways, local organic foods in restaurants, green shopping and on traditions in farming and homelife in times past that were better for the soil and for creating a more sustainable lifestyle. The class will select their favourite topics to delve into more fully and display at the school stand at next month’s fair.

-Beautiful paintings of Nature on the walls of Scoil Sheamais Naofa.

Yellow is the Colour of Springtime

Ever notice how many of the flowers that bloom in Spring are yellow in colour?
The photo shows celandine flowers covering the floor of a woodland in Terryland Forest Park, a nature reserve that is also populated in this season with yellow gorse, primroses, dandelions, daffodils and cowslips.
With 125 million years of experimenting and engineering with flowers Nature has come up with some amazing ways to ensure the survival of all of its species of flora. With a natural background foliage of green, bright colours such as yellow are easily spotted by the small number of pollinators that are flying around in the cooler weather of early Springtime.
The colour yellow also soaks up the warmth from a weaker sun during winter and early spring better than the foliage and the darker coloured flowers that generally bloom in late spring and summer. This allows these plants to develop better even in colder temperatures.

Storms & Snow - Rediscovering a Sense of Personal Worth & of Togetherness

Spurred on by my son Dáire, Cepta and myself helped him build a lovely beehive Igloo in the back garden that as you can see from the photograph became a home for an owl, a hedgehog and a squirrel! 
The forced closure of schools, colleges and workplaces over the last two days was a reality check for many of us as it presented a rare opportunity in our fast-paced lives to reconnect with family members and close friends. It was a blessing in disguise. Confined to our homes and localities, we got the chance to do things together such as take a walk in the local woodlands, play cards and build snow people. 
Rather than being stuck at a computer, trying to get reports completed and met business targets in sterile air-conditioned offices, we managed to get outside and take advantage of Mother Nature's gift of snow. With so few cars on the roads, we could hear again the wonderful melodic sounds of the birds in the trees. We became caring concerned community people again as we called to our older neighbours to ensure that they were safe. We became Nature lovers again as we left out food for the birds. We learnt to use our hands again, to rediscover the art of our childhood and to collaborate as a family or as a group of friends in creating the most creative sculptures out of snow. 

Have you ever seen the countryside look more beautiful, have you ever seen so many smiles and heard so much joyous laughter as experienced in the last few days as you watched others or participated with others in the construction of snow people and snow animals?
Maybe these types of storms should come more often!

Characteristics of a Future City – Wilderness, Farms & Smart.

Thanks to Darragh O'Connor and Cormac Staunton, I recently fulfilled a cherished ambition of mine by getting the opportunity to give a TED talk. 
My TEDx Galway presentation was entitled Characteristics of a Future City – Wilderness, Farms & Smart.
Click here to view it.
 
The talk is based on my personal experiences of living and working in Galway. It is about the urgent need for humanity especially urban dwellers to bring the rest of Nature back into our everyday lives. We have allowed 'civilisation', urbanisation, industrial farming, mineral extraction, consumerism and technology to scar the planet and to destroy so much of its species and their habitats. 
But even now in a time of accelerating destructive man-made climate change, I see hope in what ordinary individuals and communities in Galway and elsewhere are doing in order to bring the 'Jungle' into the Cities. 

For the first time in our history we should judge and develop technologies primarily on how they improve the Earth, its countless fascinating lifeforms, our own wellbeing and not on such requirements as 'efficiency', 'speed' and 'profit'. Nature is in our genes, and for 99% of our species existence on this planet we were more or less a benign planetary force. It is only relatively recently when we became 'civilised', circa 10,000 years ago with the development of urban settlements, that we started to become a self-centred malign phenomena. 

But if used wisely our human intellect can undo the great harm we have caused.
I hope that my talk will go some way to inspiring people to ensure that the Cities of the Future will not only be Smart but will also contain forests, wetlands, rivers, lakes, wildflower meadows and organic farms.

TEDx Talk - I survived!

What an experience! Having done the 'walk' so many times, I now had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do the 'talk'.
To say that I wasn't nervous having to take part in such a prestigious event and summarise such an important topic as I had in 18 minutes would be untrue. To be honest, I was a nervous kitten in the lead-up to the event. So unlike me!

But surrounded by professional speakers all experts in their own field in such a prestigious venue as the Town Hall Theatre in front of a sell-out audience who I knew would scan a critical eye over word I spoke and every gesture that I made, weighed heavily on me.
Anyway, I gave it my best shot on the night; thankfully I did not freeze or forget my words and so hopefully I gave justice to the hard work of all community campaigners, environmentalists and the socially aware Web/Internet of Things technologists of  Galway city and beyond.

My theme was on the urgent need for cities to be Green and Smart.
My advanced preamble was:
“As the Earth is being transformed into an Urban Planet characterised by an unprecedented growth in human population, energy consumption, technology revolutions, depletion of finite resources, huge mega settlements and climate change, the future of the human species is under threat.  So cities, the new abode of our race, have to radically transform in the areas of energy, transport, health, water, food, environment, social, housing, governance and work if they are to accommodate huge numbers of inhabitants in a way that gives them a beneficial quality of life that is sustainable.
Brendan Smith looks at the need to bring nature back into our everyday urban lives. Using Galway as an example he makes the case that, as well as relying on smart technologies, cities have to be characterised by organic farms, community gardens, rooftop/exterior building vegetation, woodlands, waterways, outdoor classrooms, Greenways and local community stakeholdership. “
The Galway TEDx talks will be up on YouTube in the next few months. In the meantime I will publish a longer written version of my talk in late October (when my travels to Africa and the Middle East are completed for this year).

Finally I would like to give a big public thank you and a traditional Irish ‘Bualadh Bos’ to two brilliant hard working creative gentlemen, namely Darragh O'Connor​
and Cormac Staunton who were the brains and brawn behind TEDx Galway. With a wonderful range of international, national and local speakers and an eclectic mix of subjects, they did a superb job. Darragh- you have a wonderful future ahead of you as a 'Master of Ceremonies' extraordinaire.

Making Homes for Bats

Photograph shows participants from Men's Sheds of Oughterard and Galway city at the recent bat making workshop mentored by Peter Finnegan at the Cumann na bhFear premises.

Twenty of these bat boxes will be installed by volunteers on Saturday (May 27th) in the Terryland Forest Park under the auspices of Caitriona Carlin and Kate Mc Aney.
Meet up will be at 11am in the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden.

Native Tree Detective Walk on Culture Night (Sept. 20th)

Discover the characteristics and cultural aspects of the native trees of Ireland.

 As part of National Culture Night (Sept 20), botantist Matthew O’Toole, from Conservation Volunteers Terryland Forest Park, will take participants on what promises to be an exciting investigative guided nature walk through the Terryland Forest Park.

So become an arboreal detective by studying the bark, shape and form of the Oak, Alder, Hazel, Ash and other native flora. Find out why such trees were so important in the lives and beliefs of the peoples of Celtic Ireland.

Time: 5.00pm-7.00pm, Friday, September 20th 2013
Rendezvous: Terryland Castle, Dyke Road, Galway city

 For further informaton, contact Brendan at speediecelt@gmail.com

First Galway City Honey of 2013

Our first honey of 2013 was harvested last night from the beehives of Cumann na bhFear (aka Men's Shed) and the Ballinfoile Mór Community Organic Garden in Galway city.
Over the next few days it will be placed in jars, ready for selling at the Ballinfoile Mór Garden Harvest Festival (Sat Aug 31st). 

Tonight, the first large amount of Honey produced by the hives of Cumann na bhFear will be placed in jars, ready for selling at the harvest festival. Well done to Michael McDonnell and Michael Tiernan, the group's chief beekeepers for their dedication.  Earlier this week, many hours were spent washing and sterilising dozens of recycled glass jars.
Well done to Michael McDonnell, Michael Tiernan and the other beekeepers for their commitment and dedication in this great task.

Earlier this week I joined my wife Cepta and other volunteers in washing and sterilising dozens and dozens of recycled glass jars. It bought back happy memories of my childhood days, of collecting blackberries and raspberries from hedgerows along the roadsides; bringing baskets of fruits home for my granny to make jam after the enjoyable task of gathering up old jars from friends and neighbours alike.

Nature is the 99%, too - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Nature is the 99%, too - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

The 1% that control the politics and economies of so many countries are not only destroying the lives of  99% of the human populations in their immoral quest for power & profits but also the other 99% of species of planet Earth.

We must save our fellow creatures and in so doing save mankind from destroying itself. Science shows that all species are interdependent and part of Nature.