Author: Fairy Council of Ireland

Wolves for the Woods

Council Project

The Gaelic Woodland Project and Wolf Academy joined forces in a 30+ hours hiking challenge to raise funds for a new Irish woodland.

The Wolf Academy, founded by brothers Daryl and Cormac Noonan, organised a challenge of extreme endurance to raise awareness about the state of Ireland’s woodlands, as well as to raise funds for the Gaelic Woodland Project, a registered charity that is working to create a community-powered new native woodland in Ireland. The Noonan brothers were joined by Eoghain Connaughton (founder of GWP) and a small team of warriors and supporting fairies to walk the full length of the Wicklow Way (almost 130 kms.) with only a few stops for rest along the way.

This epic hike took place on December 4th, starting at 6 AM in Clonegal, Co. Carlow, and ended in the afteroon ofDecember 5th in Marlay Park, Co. Dublin.

There was 4 checkpoints along the route for a brief rest, where the Fairy Council of Ireland provided meals, a fire beacon and other kinds of moral, physical and emotional support.

Trembling with the cold but burning with purpose, the lads managed to reach Marlay Park and complete this feat of endurance.

During the walk, €2,500 were raised out of the €5,000 fundraising aim. Donations are still coming in, so please feel free to contribute:

Enagh Farrell Illustration

Uncategorized

Enagh Farrell is an illustrator based in Dublin. She grew up in rural Ireland surrounded by fields, fairy tales and a love for nature and mythology. Enagh studied Fine Art Print in NCAD.

Illustration was a calling as she found she works best with text and visual narrative. Her work explores nature and its magic such as the seasonal changes, trees, stars and indigenous wisdom. Apart from drawing and creating micro texts, Enagh loves to walk in the mountains or any nature space, drinking tea, chatting with friends, learning more about biodiversity, meditation and studying texts from great mystical teachers, wearing wolly jumpers, her allotment, her cat, local community planting projects and being a parent to her two beautiful kids. 

Danu’s Irish Herb Garden

Eolas Ársa

Danu’s Irish Herb Garden is a Garden of Healing, Magic, Plant Wisdom and practical living.  Here I work to create a beautiful garden dedicated to the Goddess Danu.  I grow healing herbs, trees, shrubs, flowers, fruits and vegetables organically and attempt to provide for myself and others.

I am a Herbalist, growing and foraging for the plant medicine  that I use to make tinctures, teas, salves and lotions and potions. I only use plants that I have grown or foraged myself so that I know exactly where the medicine comes from.  I believe that plant medicine is a radical way to personal empowerment and health on all levels – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.  Working with plants also enables us to connect closely to the Planet, our Mother Earth, en route to good health.

Perhaps you are feeling out of balance or out of sync with the world; you know you need something but you can’t put your finger on it?   You may need stress relief, self-confidence boosts or help with grief. Perhaps you would like to reconnect with the Earth, with Nature? You feel that somehow there should be more to life. Maybe you are suffering with digestive issues such as bloating, acid reflux  or food sensitivities. Do you have sleep issues, pain or inflammation, for example arthritis? I can also help with hormonal imbalances, learning difficulties and many other physical, mental or emotional complaints.

Do get in touch  – I am so looking forward to meeting you and helping you to enjoy radiant health and well-being! I’m here to help you take a first step to feeling truly wonderful, truly connected and truly balanced.

True Harvest Seeds

Tallamh

TRUE HARVEST SEEDS IS A PLANT CONSERVATION CHARITY

At True Harvest Seeds we collect seeds from native origin plants growing in the wild. We preserve the collections in the Seed Bank at Kilclief, County Down. The seed is available for the restoration of plants back into the wild.

A gene bank for Ireland’s wild plants

Established as a charity, so that the collections stay in the public domain, True Harvest Seeds is conserving Ireland’s indigenous seed-bearing plants by securely storing their seeds. Through the generous donations of seeds from local public and private landowners we are populating a seed bank. The seeds and associated material are cared for at our Seed Centre, Kilclief, Co Down. Associated material includes a herbarium specimen, a DNA sample photographs of plant and seed and last but by no means least data, without which the collection would be of little value.
This work will ensure the security of our natural capital into the future. Seed and access to material and data may be requested by bona fide individuals and organisations.

Our planned expeditions to make the high quality scientific seed collections take us the length and breadth of the island. We talk to local people, land owners and managers to find out as much as possible about target populations and if there is any doubt about their origin we choose a different population to make a collection from.

Bia Don Dia

Eolas Ársa

Bia Don Dia is Gaelic for ‘food for the God’, God the creator, our own creator…our mother. I offer the mother a sacred safe space during pregnancy, birth and postpartum, to unfold & transition from maiden to motherhood. I nourish them & nurture them with traditional postpartum meals & rituals, with the intention of a smooth recovery, emotional support, gentle guidance & creating a loving relationship with their new child.

Bia Don Dia was created for radical Mothers. It is here to play an important role in our community, supporting the mother & her family during this transition.

My intention is to deepen the mothers’ connection with Mother Earth as she journeys into her role as a guardian to a new special being, to nurture & nourish her as her body heals from birth, and to create a sacred space for her to bond with her baby.

This is done by eating healing foods, bathing in medicinal herbs and moving through the postpartum period with gentle sustainable living practices.

Future Forests

Crainn

We are a family run business with a passion for growing and our environment, and one of the leading mail order plant providers in Ireland. With our roots firmly planted in the wilds of West Cork we have been inspired to work alongside our unique environmental heritage to evolve an ethical business where our values and ethos lead the way.

From humble beginnings 30 years ago we have been pioneering the gardens, orchards and woodlands of the future, developing to a committed, experienced team who are here to help you find what to grow and how best to grow it.

We love plants and aim to bring you the best quality and range to meet your specific needs. From beginner gardeners to seasoned growers we can help you to select the most suitable plants for your garden as well as your budget.

With years of business expertise behind us we have established strong relationships with growers and suppliers in Ireland and beyond to bring you the best possible range of high quality plants.

As our name suggests, the future is important to us. As growers, educators and innovators we believe we have the responsibility to protect and ensure the future of our diverse landscape and environment. Our intention is to leave a legacy that our future ancestors will be proud of. We’d love to support you to do so too.

What we do

At Future Forests we are passionate about sourcing and supplying some of the best plants in Europe. We are one of Ireland’s leading mail order plant suppliers and we have a nursery and garden centre in West Cork.

We pride ourselves on the diversity of the plants we offer. From native trees & hedging to perennial flowers and alpines our huge range caters for the new garden owner to the seasoned grower.  

We are engaged in the community

We also work with schools, community groups, country estates, landscapers and the farming community helping to source and select the right plants for all locations and situations. 

We offer plants for every site and situation

Live on a windy, coastal or shady site? We offer plants for challenging conditions too! 

We are experts in packing and shipping plants

We supply bareroot plants from November to April and a large variety of potted plants all year around. 

Caoivín Music

Imbas

Caoivín is an Irish neo-traditional musician currently based in Dublin. Born into a musical family, he began playing traditional Irish music at the tender age of 5 and spent the majority of his early childhood summers travelling to and from various different fleadhs and music weeks. In his late teens and early twenties, Caoivín began to develop an interest in a number of genres outside of the traditional Irish music realm, in particular various forms of dance and electronic music. Caoivín’s creations are influenced by the range of styles which he has been exploring from that point up until now, while being rooted at the same time to the long unbroken lineage of traditional music on which he was reared.

M•R•YOGA

Eolas Ársa

Michael Ryan

Michael teaches a form of Mindful Movement, interweaving meditation and philosophy with a biomechanical process called The Bowspring that supports each student in moving safely toward accessing a feeling of strength and spacious freedom.

His teachings draw from a wide experience of yoga, meditation, philosophy and a love of poetry and prose. HIs skill lies in his heartfelt articulation of the spiritual dimension of life through the practice of meditation and yoga while staying grounded in safe and harmonious postural alignment. His teachings speak to the soul and journey into the many different layers of the Self. He guides and encourages each student to explore and open to their fullest potential with care and compassion. Michael is the yoga and meditation teacher to the Irish President, Michael D. Higgins. 

Wild Acre Farm

Tallamh

Claire Templar has been living at Wild Acre Farm, near Ballyhaunis since 2015.

Originally from the UK she moved to Ireland in order to live closer to the land and explore self sufficiency and living more lightly on the earth, with food production and vegetable growing always a core part of this. Production has increased year on year as her skills and experience of growing in this challenging climate increased.

Wild Acre Farm has a one acre garden, designed using Permaculture Principles, including orchard and perennial systems with a 1/3 acre no dig vegetable garden and 2 polytunnels which house tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, courgettes, aubergines and herbs in the summer, and are used for salad growing through the winter.

Claire has always gardened here using ‘more than organic’ no-dig methods and has a keen interest in Permaculture design and regenerative agriculture to rebuild soil and grow nutrient and mineral dense, healthy, abundant fresh vegetables, fruits and salads.

She has also been teaching Permaculture, gardening and practical skills here since 2017.

Before moving to Ireland, Claire was a systems designer, project manager, business process engineer, computer programmer, IT trainer, chef, horse riding instructor, kindergarten teacher, clothes designer and multiple business owner. Not all at the same time obviously… but she doesn’t really like to sit still…

SeaSquared

Uisce

We’re Cillian and Colm, the SeaSquared duo. Born in the same year, in the same hospital, on the same day, this friendship goes way back. March 2020 put a halt to our busy lives in London and Dublin. Remote working brought us back home to West Cork. Here, our eyes were opened, we saw West Cork in a way we had never seen before. The rugged landscape, the intricate coastline, bays, inlets, harbours. The roar of the surf and the beauty, how had it taken us so long to appreciate the surroundings in which we grew up? And an even bigger question that got us talking, how are we going to play our part to protect this beauty, this planet? ​

A combination of passion for design & a love for clothing led us on this exciting adventure. 

Our vision is not only to build a sustainable clothing brand but to build a community focused around sustainable living. From areas such as cleaning the ocean plastic, to reducing packaging waste, we want to play our part in improving the world we live in and have fun whilst doing it.

Join us today to make a change, one square at a time!

Our products are made in small batches from 100%  organic, vegan materials and embroidered here in West Cork. You can rest assured that we take full responsibility for your product and aim to be fully transparent in our design and production processes.