Due to popular demand and with special thanks to Muireann at indymedia Ireland here’s the result of Sundays event which attracted over 1500 people. Muireann also suggested that this website should be checked out when it is updated later today. – I don’t usually edit my blogs – but it had to happen for this one!The original article is attached below.
Hopefully this will highlight a mild flaw in ‘our system’. First the purchase of land for the new prison, then tara and now, you guessed it, make another shambles out of something pretty in this island – a superdump – and then think later? Rugby aside, I know The French wouldn’t take this lying down [pardon my sense of humour?!]
Create a Human Harp???!!
Help Stuart Townsend, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and internationally renowned Aerial Artist, John Quigley create the world’s first GIANT HUMAN HARP at TARA HERITAGE DAY.Hundreds of people are needed to gather at the Hill of Tara on this Sunday September 23rd from 1:30pm to 3:30pm to form the human ‘aerial art’ image of a giant harp and a Tara heritage preservation message. Many of Ireland’s top harpists will accompany the performance. The event will be directed by internationally renowned Aerial Artist John Quigley and participants include Irish born international film stars Stuart Townsend and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as well as musicians, historians and scholars. The image will be photographed from an aircraft at 3 pm. Families are encouraged to bring a picnic lunch.Spectral Q and the Save Tara Campaign are hosting Tara Heritage Day. Spectral Q has created similar human ‘aerial art’ images around the world including the Arctic, Antarctica, the Amazon Rainforest, London, New York, Los Angeles, Geneva, Miami,Toronto, Washington D.C., Copenhagen, New Orleans and others. To see images please check: www.SpectralQ.com The Save Tara campaign is seeking to reroute the M3 motorway to preserve the ancient sites of the sacred Tara Valley. For more information please check: www..savetara.com Directions to Tara from Dublin: M50 to N3 north-go past Dunshaughlin and take left at the Tara sign (about half way to Navan)– follow signs to Tara car park.
Buses depart from Bus Aras, Dublin at 10:30am and 11:30am. Travel time is approximately 45 minutes. Get off at Grogans in Dunshaughlin where a shuttle bus will transport you to Tara.
Buses return to Bus Aras, Dublin from Dunshaughlin at 5:25pm and 5:35pm.
This was my first ever article written for The Farmers Journal. Originally entitled ‘easier gardening’ it was published under the title Garden Nirvana October 23rd 2004. The great Dr David Robinson had passed sometime before and I remeber via email noting to my Editor Matt Dempsey that having gone through such an amazing life, knowing Dr. Robinson had left a void in so many a persons rather than having simply passed through. Amazing, wonderful and always remembered.
I am not suggesting that ‘no maintenance’ is attainable through using ‘The Four Universal Energies’ as a theorem principle for garden design. No maintenance is only achievable through Mr Macadam’s ingenious invention, or concrete. I am proposing that there is a balance. The rear of your home does not necessarily need to be a car park nor does it wish to be a compacted version of the rain forests.
When we decide to invest in a boundary shrub like the Leyland – not for our fruit farm in Co. Kilkenny – but for our two-bedroom townhouse in the city, surely we only have ourselves to blame. Would it not be better to invest in a garden concept that requires only one day’s labour per six months? It’s a simple theory. The longer a plant takes to become a saleable product – the more it costs – more important, the slower it grows and therefore the lower the maintenance. This is mainly due to the amount of pruning required and the amount of debris removed. The cheaper quotation in landscaping is therefore not always the answer, at least not long term.
On average spending 3% of the value of your house (wisely) should add approximately 8% – 13% to the value of your home. We generally choose for it to be the last of our agenda when ‘doing up’ the house and usually we have little money left to spend.
The garden should be a place for the heart to unwind. A simple complexion of nature is easier than complex warrants on a tight fiscal policy. The use of select stone with a simple choice of a few slow growing semi mature plants will be a higher initial investment on your property but with no grass to cut, some serenity has been inscribed in today’s diary.
I am a plant lover. I do not wish to blight my green friends with coloured stones. The truth is, sometimes it is necessary to substitute what some may consider to be hard work and an expensive (albeit rewarding) hobby for a cup of tea and a nice view from afar.
This article is not my personal epitaph or biblical manuscript that I wish to impose upon others in any way. Should the scenario be that one has a piece of land, a patch, a rented house or just does not totally enjoy (what is my equivalent to ironing and drying dishes ambidextrously) ‘the chore’ whilst breaking their spine; I believe there is a way to come up trumps and not have to breakdown on each occasion the curtains are opened and you realise koala bears have nested in your prehistoric grounds. You wont be avoiding work, just intelligently reducing your work output.
It is my strong suggestion that if you want a survey done on your house, you do call a civil engineer or architect. If you want advice, or a design for your grounds, pay for the services of a qualified horticulturalist and specify the amount of time you actually will (be honest!) spend in your garden or get an annual cost to maintenance based on their proposal.
The main ‘chore’ or cost is the lawn. Cutting it. Use a mulching mower if you must. Ride on and push (with or without gears are available). With not stopping or starting to empty the grass box at the ‘heap’ you have at the bottom of the garden – this will (by my experience and analysis) reduce your cutting time by three if not four. With a good thick edge to your lawn, which allows you to put the wheel of the mower upon it and reduces the amount of edging you need to do you are now nearing that cup of tea a little quicker. Even better, try sowing a lawn with a dwarf seed or if the area is large enough use a dwarfing agent, which is applied using a calibrated sprayer. Should the lawn be able to go? Turn the entire area to plants and bark much or plants and pebble with a black plastic beneath. Do be careful. Cheaper isn’t always the best and some maintenance will be required no matter what you do.
Don’t curse the thoughts of what should be relaxation. Reconsider and redesign. The whole key to enjoying the life outside your four walls is to make it suit your lifestyle.
‘Dublin City Council has finally decided to do the right thing when it comes to regulations about the minimum size of apartments in the capital. Last week councillors voted to introduce new guidelines that will mean apartment developments will not get planning permission unless they have 25 per cent more floor space.’ Richard Curran goes on to note that ‘We already have thousands of family unfriendly apartments in Dublin’ and further tells us that ‘it is extraordinary to think that with the simple stroke of a pen and a vote they could have changed the quality of life and options available to people several years ago.’
I like Richard. I like his honesty and that he has an opinion. I like how he predicts that the governments ‘misguided’ guidlines ‘will ultimately in time be seen for the massive mess that they are.’ Somebody finally said it, in writing.
The funny thing is, that nobody has concerns over is ‘the immediate idea is to make apartment living more attractive for young families’ and also ‘that about 90% of new homes in the city will be apartmets’; where do all the people, nee the young families go when their not in their apartments ? Where is the increased green space per apartment? Where’s the grass going to go? or will the families be arrested for loitering whilst wondering where the nearest piece of grass is? Answers on a postcard to Dublin City Council.
Our new website is now fully accessible. To be honest, before meeting the gentlemen from Segala, I didn’t really know what accessibility was all about and why I should build a new website. It wasn’t until Adrian turned off the screen and told me to read my own web that I understood the point he was making. I felt I like I had been unfair to some of my fellow Irish [and International] populus.
Funnily enough, this all started some time ago when we were awarded the honour of joining Barr 50, the top 50 companies to operate through use of the irish language [Credit to Forais na Gaeilge here]. I guess I wanted to take this ‘accessibility’ to a new level and now we’re all blogged up!
This article was published by the farmers journal early august 07 which I [peter donegan] wrote as a result of my mild sense of humour. It turns out I know the guy through a friend and he now has a copy of the article hanging in his bathroom. It turns out his father spotted it and not so much recognised the name but moreso the picture of the garden! Everybody was happy.
Garden n 1 brit an area of land usually next to a house, for growing flowers, fruit, or vegetables. 2 Also: gardens a cultivated area of land open to the public: Kensington Gardens. 3 lead someone up the garden path Informal to mislead or deceive someone
Green adj 1 of a colour between yellow and blue; of the colour of grass. 2 covered with grass, plants, or trees: green fields. 3 of or concerned with the conservation and improvement of the environment
Joke n 1 something that is said or done to amuse people. 2 someone or something that is ridiculous: the countries inexperienced leaders are regarded as something of a joke
This has to be the oddest article I have ever written and I have really struggled to find myself in what is usually a free flowing movement of the mind from the heart to my weekly FJ piece. The reason I feel this way is that usually I understand the message I wish to convey and hope that you the reader will enjoy the end result as I did and that somewhere through this journey of life you will find that my piece by reading or realising has made you or someone else smile. Sometime ago I wrote a piece about a customer who threatened legal action against a contractor because he had asked for a ‘no maintenance garden’. Naturally and of course this was not given to by the contractor. It was sometime later in another article that I wrote ‘no maintenance is only achievable through Mr Macadam’s ingenious invention, or concrete’. I was wrong. I could not believe my eyes when this photograph was emailed to me. It could not be a ‘green’ space and it definitely could not be a ‘garden’. I did not know what to call it by any definition. As a last resort I found one that I believed suited and Collins Dictionaries have thrown in an extra added cliché for an extra added smile. Enjoy!
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
