Rosy outlook as garden festival grows better by year
Judy MurphyLifestyle
Lifestyle – Judy Murphy meets Eamonn O’Donoghue, castle renovator and garden festival founder
The group of men moving in various directions around the garden of Claregalway Castle exude a sense of purpose– some are sweeping and shovelling, one is carrying a candelabra and another is ferrying tables and chairs into a room off the main tower.
Inside another building, a woman is busy washing floors. She lifts her head in greeting as we enter, then returns to her work.
There’s an air of industry about the place and well there might be as the Castle is getting set to host Galway’s annual Garden Festival, held in aid of the Christian Blind Mission and the Galway Simon Community.
The Festival takes place this weekend and while the main focus is on gardening, this is also a family event with music, theatre performance and revelry for all ages. New events this year include a period-costume competition on Sunday.
The castle’s owner, Eamonn O’Donoghue looks after the entertainment aspect of the Festival, his sister Pádraigín, who lives in Cork and is a keen gardener, is responsible for the green-fingered section of the programme.
A series of talks will take place over the weekend and these kick off at 12.30pm this Saturday with organic gardener, vegetable expert and author, Klaus Laitenberger, who will give an overview of what’s involved in organic gardening. Later, Michael Kelly of the Grow it Yourself gardening movement will share his expertise.
“He is an amazing example of how someone who was a successful businessman reinvented himself as a vegetable gardener and made self-reliance a success story,” says Pádraigín of Michael Kelly.
Also speaking will be London based GP and herbalist Dr Dermot O’Flynn, who will talk on Common Herbs in General Practice.
This year’s Festival is dealing with issues of sustainability and climate change and, on Saturday evening, Met Éireann’s Deputy Head of Forecasting, Evelyn Cusack will speak on this as it relates to the West of Ireland.
While the message might be sombre, Evelyn Cusack is such a powerhouse of energy that there will be a definite high in the area following her talk, says Pádraigín.
Sunday’s speakers include gardener and author Fionnoula Fallon who will mark the year that’s in it by discussing Memorial Gardens of World War I
She will be followed by Oliver Schurmann of Dublin’s Mount Venus Nursery, which has won gold medals at Hampton Court Flower Show and at Bloom.
The talks, which have become a popular aspect of the Festival, are free but the capacity is limited so early booking is advised, says Eamonn.
He and Pádraigín hatched the idea of a Garden Festival a few years ago when Claregalway Castle, which Eamonn had bought as a ruin with the aim of restoring it, was still “a building site”.
The event was to be a fundraising venture for the Christian Blind Mission, a charity that’s not very well known in Ireland but which is close to Eamonn’s heart. This international group works to improve life for people in the developing world who are affected by extreme poverty and disability, whatever form that disability takes.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.