The Faith in Action Group in Ballineaspaig Parish has shared this report of their latest activities:
‘Seed Sunday’
After all the Masses on Saturday/ Sunday 19th /20th May, we distributed free seeds of easy to grow vegetables, herbs and flowering plants. As a follow up to this, parishioners will be invited to celebrate a special Harvest Thanksgiving Mass and Festival and to bring some of their homegrown produce to a Bring and Buy event on Sunday, 23rd September. All the proceeds from this will go to our sister parish in Turkwell.
Parish Walk
On the 7th June, Dr. Tom Kelly led our walk. Tom is a Zoologist based in University College Cork, who has a particular interest in everything to do with birds.
The walk is a public, but little-known and little-used pathway within our parish area, which runs, for about a mile, between the Curraheen River on one side and a steep, wooded escarpment on the other side. It is very peaceful, and it is hard to believe that the walk is situated between two extremely busy, built up roadways. We have been pursuing plans to make this lovely walk more widely known and appreciated, and we are in discussion with the City Council about our plans to erect information signs on the flora and fauna of the area.
It was a glorious evening, sunny and warm. Tom introduced us first to the concept and importance of the ecology of the “urban fringe”.
The bird nesting season was still in full swing, and the evening was peaceful and filled with birdsong. Identification of the birds, from sight or just from song, was accompanied with a flow of fascinating information from Tom about the different species – much of it from recent research.
There was great discussion and contribution from the participants as we strolled along. Overall it was hugely informative and a wonderful occasion which was greatly enjoyed by all.
Sustainable Energy Community
In our last update we reported that Faith in Action Ballineaspaig have joined the national ‘Sustainable Energy Community’ (SEC) Network as the first step in promoting energy efficiency and wider use of renewable energy.
We were delighted to receive a Letter of Offer from SEAI on Thursday, 21st June 2018 confirming approval for funding to develop our proposal to commission comprehensive Building Energy Ratings on a number of houses in the parish, to include recommendations for remediation, and a transport survey of current and future transport needs in the Western suburbs of Cork City.
