(Fri 23rd May 2025) A talk given to Cuimhneamh…
An enjoyable talk was given by Micheál Mac Gearailt to Cuimhneamh an Chláir (https://clarememories.ie/) today at 4 pm. The rain held off for us and we had a lovely discussion of the flora and fauna led by Micheál, who also played some related recordings of people discussing how things were in the past.
From their Facebook page: “Thank you to all who came out to our Biodiversity Week event in Shannon Town Community Wetlands, led by our cuairteoir Micheál Mac Gearailt, who is part of the wetland restoration project.
We learned about wetland fauna, the importance of oft-forgotten plants such as alder, willow and red clover in ecosystem generation. We listened to the stories from the archive about traditional plant uses and old farming practices, including lichen to dye clothes and the disappearing birds of our farmlands.
We then got mucky and explored the recently-dug ponds, filled with macroinvertebrates such as dragonfly nymphs and whirlygig beetles, as well as nascent colonies of newts and tadpoles that attest to the success of this project.
And finally, there was a treasure hunt for the young ones, to identify wetland flowers – with goodies to boot!”
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