Archive for category: Local News

Halloween is coming!

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Din, din, din… *Cue scary music… The weather this year has been great for the garden, lots of our plants have thrived with the mix of sun and rain but alas some have come along too much. It all started with a distinct lack of slugs, nobody knew why. Then somebody mentioned that they hadn’t seen the resident cat for a while. The local dogs seemed to be barking at nothing when they dared to come near the garden. And of course there was the mysterious bite mark one of the Tuesday gardeners seemed to have recieved while trying to cut back some particularly nasty looking brambles. It’s, it’s almost as if the plants have evolved in some way…
As always we’re in bad need of some extra helpers to bring the garden alive for the community on Halloween night. If you can spare even an hour or two between now and the 31st please get in touch.
Thanks to Breda Jackson for yet another brilliant poster

Vote for the Repair Café !

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Mud Island’s monthly Repair Cafe, which is entirely volunteer run, has been in existence since May 2023, thanks to the inspiration, leadership and coordination of Mud Island committee’s chairperson Nathalie Cazaux Crowley. We think she’s a perfect candidate for the Rediscovery Centre’s Full Circle Award. They’ve a few different awards but the Community Circular Champion (which honours people who lead or support community initiatives like sharing libraries, swap events, food waste solutions, or local repair cafés) seems a good fit. If you’d like to do the same, here’s the link! https://www.circular.ie/full-circle-awards – closing date is Friday 25th July

Emergency Meitheal and what happened in 2024?

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The garden is always full of activities and we are grateful of all we have achieved throughout the years (see all the events posters and help we got in 2024!)

This week we are calling an Emergency Meitheal on Saturday!

We need lots of help to prepare for our annual Open Day and to catch up with lots of planting. If you could commit to an hour or so tomorrow it would really help us. Activities will include:

– Preparing beds for planting.
– Planting out our abundance of seedlings. Painting (but not the artistic kind!).
– Labelling plants & making labels.
– A bit of DIY.
– Weeding pathways.
– Watering thirsty plants and trees.
– Enjoying our fecund garden ; )

Thanks from Mud Island!

 

 

Launch of “Why Wouldn’t You?”

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What a morning at the launch of “Why Wouldn’t You?” — a powerful 12-minute short film shot in parts during the latest Christmas Fair 2014 in Mud Island Community Garden!

Here you can view ‘Why Wouldn’t You?’

The film, created by DCU’s Irish Refugee Integration Network (IRIN) and Sanctuary, shines a light on solidarity, inclusion, and what it really means to build welcoming communities. It’s a moving, visually rich portrait of people coming together across difference to support those who have been forcibly displaced.

Alongside the film, a brilliant companion manual has also been launched — a practical resource packed with tools, real stories, and creative approaches for educators and community groups across Ireland.

We also got to hear the beautiful voice of Liam Ó Maonlaí acapella!

‘Let’s keep building solidarity, one song and one story at a time’ – Mudislander Dee (who wrote this piece and also took the photo!)

Féile Na Láibe / Mudstock Festival

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Hello!

This weekend come along to Mudisland Community Garden for our first ever Féile Na Láibe. It is free to attend and packed with music, stories, stalls, food, drink and entertainment as Bearla & Gaeilge!

🐶 Dog friendly
🐣 Family friendly
🇮🇪 Loads Irish crafts and gifts to buy on Sunday at our  Christmas market
🍲 Delicious homemade food brought by mudislanders
☕ Hot & cold drink available for fundraising
,🎶 Traditional music
💃 Irish dancing
🧶 Painting & Craft workshops
🥙 Bric à brac
🗣️ Story telling
⚾ GAA demo
🔥Fire show
🎄 Safe for all ages

Musical entertainment is provided by DJ Gav from Solar Sound, Ceoltóirí Chluain Tarbh, Mud island Céilí Band, The Tolka Hot Club Band and more! Discover and support local artists and businesses.

Saturday 2nd of December

Caravan stage:

3 pm intro and part 1 of story, singer on stage.

3.30 part 2 of story dancer on stage.

4 pm part 3 of story musicians on stage .

5.15 fire show

6 DJ Gav (Solar Sound)

Hacienda: 

4pm Traditional music

Forecourt:

GAA demo / arts & crafts for kiddos / bric a brac

Thanks to #Forasnagaeilge, we have some goodies to give away, we also will be making some soup so bring your own brown bread to share!

Sunday 3rd of December

12-5pm Market stalls with delicious food and beverages to buy for our garden fundraiser!

The Tolka Hot Club Band will be performing at the market and we’ll finish of the weekend with DJ Gav from Solar Sound!

What’s new?!

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We garden every Tuesday and Saturday afternoon 2 to 5 pm and new gardeners are always welcome.

We do an introduction to the garden and planting plan on the first Saturday of each month as and when needed. When it gets warmer and the garden needs more watering we’ll hopefully open up again on Thursday afternoons for gardening, and on Sundays for recreation – we’re all volunteers so it’s dependent on people’s availability.

The Muddy Craft & Crochet Circle meets in the Cottage on Friday afternoons (3-5pm) and our new Repair Cafe was launched on the last Sunday of March, 2.30 to 5.30 pm.  Bicycles were fixed, clothes repaired, crockery mended the Kintsuki way and knives & garden tools sharpened!  The Repair Cafe will continue on the last Sunday of every month. Next one is Sunday 30th of April (same time!).

Repair Café – every last Sunday of the month!

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On Sundays, from 2:30 to 5:30, join us for our Repair Café. Bring your bike, buggy, clothes, jewelry and garden tools to be fixed (hopefully!). You can learn, you can share skills and you will meet a lot of people!

(No ELECTRICAL)

The idea: We throw away vast amounts of stuff – stuff which could get a new lease of life after a simple repair. Lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how. Repair Cafés are free meeting places where people come together to repair things together. In a local Repair Café, you’ll find tools and materials to help you make any repairs you need on clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, appliances, toys, etc. You’ll also find expert volunteers, with repair skills in all kinds of fields. Visitors bring their broken items from home and in the Repair Café, they start making their repairs with the specialists. It’s an ongoing learning process.

Repair Cafés help people in the community whose skills may not always be valued to get involved again. It helps neighbours from different backgrounds connect with each other and allows valuable practical knowledge to be shared. Repairing things at a Repair Cafe means things are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products.

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Five Lamps Arts Festival + Spring Market = day of fun at Mudisland!!

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This year, Mud Island’s popular Spring Fair will be on Saturday 25th March from 12 to 6 pm- we’ll have a wonderful array of local Arts & Crafts, Artisan Products and Mud Island Merc for sale and it will be a perfect opportunity to support the garden and local producers. The Cottage Cafe, also a great source of income for the garden, will be selling teas, coffees and delicious home baked treats. If you’d like to volunteer an hour or two of your time to help out in the cafe, please let us know at mudislandcommunitygarden@gmail.com and we will be in touch.
We’re also delighted to be collaborating again with the Five Lamps Arts Festival – they’ll be hosting events in the garden from 10 am!
10 to 2 pm – Imagination Playground – for 3 to 12 year olds (or anyone who wants to nourish their inner child!). It’s a ‘breakthrough play space concept designed to encourage child-directed free play, using large blue foam blocks of various shapes, chutes, balls, connectors and more“.
2 to 3 pm – Ceoltoiri Cluain Tarbh band – traditional Irish music
3 to 4 pm – Cikada Circus – two acrobats welcome you into a world that yo-yos between harmonious and the absurd, where lines are blurred between humans and nature…
We look forward to seeing you in the garden on the 25th!

Why not can check out the rest of the Five Lamps Arts Festival?

HERE

Mud Island Open Day, June 11th 2022

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After a two year absence, we’re delighted to be able to hold our usual annual Open Day.  This year it will be on Saturday 11th June from 2 to 5 pm.  Expect live music, arts & crafts, Wooly Farm animals, refreshments and lots more!  It’ll be a chance to see all the developments in your local community garden, enjoy some refreshments from the newly renovated cottage on site and catch up with friends and neighbours.

We’ll circulate more details as well as a poster for the Open Day shortly. In the meantime, as always, we’re looking for volunteers to help run the Cottage Cafe which is a great fund-raiser for the garden.  We’re also looking for donations of sweet and savoury treats to sell.  If you’d like to commit an hour of your time for the fun of working in the cafe, or would like to bake something for it, please let us know.

See some of you in the garden on the 11th June!