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."

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!!