Biodiversity and history unite

There will be fairies and folklore galore over the coming days at one of Cork city’s most iconic outdoor spaces.

To mark National Biodiversity Week, which runs until Tuesday, a variety of free creative climate action events will be held in the Glen River Park.

Organised as part of the ongoing Gleann a’ Phúca project, the series kicks off today, Thursday, with All About Rain Gardens at the Glen Community Garden from 11am-12.30pm where attendees can learn how to build rain gardens from basic materials. Rain gardens or rainwater planters are plant boxes that use roof runoff rainwater rather than having to be manually watered. They can provide food for pollinators such as butterflies, bees, and hoverflies, and can help to clean rainwater as debris, chemicals, dirt and other pollutants are filtered out through layers of sand, soil, compost, and gravel.

Information will be shared on the day by Julie Forrester, initiator and Creative Director of the Gleann a’ Phúca Project, and Barry Hickey from the Glen Community Garden. A short film about Bí Urban’s award-winning Rain Garden Project in Dublin will be shown during the event and attendees will be encouraged to talk about and explore the potential for building rain gardens in their local community.

On Sunday, two further events celebrating biodiversity, fairies, and folklore will take place in the Glen River Park. From 10am-1pm, Gleann a’ Phúca invites the public to get up close and personal with plant life with Spoon and Bloom artists Aaron Ross and Annie Mar, and botanist, Jo Goodyear, for an inspiring afternoon of stories, drawing and discovery. The second half of the workshop will involve a walk through the park with botanist Jo Goodyear.

In the afternoon, visitors can join Dr Jenny Butler, folklorist, scholar, and UCC Study of Religions Department lecturer, for a magical walk in The Glen from 2-4pm.

Each of the Gleann a’ Phúca events is free to attend but attendees are encouraged to book in advance on EventBrite. For more info on the events and project or to register to attend, visit gleannaphuca.ie.