Meet our team of Volunteer Biodiversity Advisors
In relation to biodiversity, I have always had a keen interest in all aspects of nature, and studied the RHS course in Horticulture with the Dublin School of Horticulture.
Working as a volunteer gardener in Mount Usher, one of Ireland’s best known gardens, has given me a deeper understanding of the whole process of gardening without pesticides.
I have a reasonable knowledge of Irish Birdlife having been a supporter of Birdwatch Ireland for many years, and was also a keen beekeeper with a good knowledge of bees and honey harvesting.
I am also a member of Irish Gardening, and The Irish Plant Identification Forum, both on Facebook
During a stint as a resource teacher at St Brigid’s National School, Stillorgan, I began ‘St Brigid’s Community Garden’ in 2009 – initially for children with special needs. I now run an after school club for the primary schoolchildren where I pass on my love of gardening and nature – we had just started beekeeping skills for the schoolchildren when Covid put a stop to our activities. The garden has won many awards for biodiversity and has appeared on RTE. We have bat boxes, a pond, composting bays, a native hedgerow and hibernation areas that are set aside for mini beasts and hedgehogs. A lot of our planting is done with an eye to encourage wildlife – at the time of writing I am making a ‘rain garden’ inspired by Juanita Browne’s wonderful book.
I have done nature courses with Paddy Madden ( author of The Outdoor Classroom), Eanna Ni Lamhna and Richard Collins. I have also complete a course with THRIVE – how to use nature as therapy and rehabilitation. My hobbies are birdwatching, foraging and gardening. I am a member of Birdwatch Ireland, Ireland Wildlife Trust, Community Gardens Ireland and GIY ( Grow it Yourself).
I have 25 years’ experience of active involvement with environmental organisations, projects and initiatives at local, county and national level. At a practical level, I am involved in biodiversity projects, initiatives, field surveying and monitoring schemes and have been involved in many related committees. A regular contributor of species sighting reports to the National Biodiversity Data Centre, I received an Outstanding Achievement award from them for helping to record and track changes in Ireland’s biodiversity.
I take a keen interest in environmental education and outreach (including delivery of workshops, guided walks), wildlife photography and writing about biodiversity and environmental topics and issues for newspapers and on social media.
Some words of encouragement from the team
“It’s wonderful to be part of a positive project during this difficult time, I hope that you will be encouraged and inspired to ‘make a difference’. Creating corridors of safe biodiverse habitats throughout urban areas will allow many species to arrive and thrive.
Don’t be intimidated into thinking creating a biodiverse habitat is a huge undertaking – there are really simple ideas that anyone can do at home, no matter how small your ‘patch’…”