Meet 75-year-old Séamus Mooney. He is potentially the oldest person with Down Syndrome in Ireland - but he, his family, and his friends at Down Syndrome Limerick are trying to find out for sure. Read his amazing story over on their website. 

Welcome to the July issue of the We Act Good News Gazette.

It might be summer holiday season for many of us, but charities and community groups around Ireland are still hard at work. They're providing essential social services, saving lives on our lakes and beaches, creating fabulous arts festivals and preserving habitats for future generations - as well as lots of other amazing work in-between.  

If you're new around here, We Act is a campaign to celebrate Ireland's charities and community groups. And if there was just one thing we want you to learn about our non-profit sector, it's how broad and diverse it is. It covers everything from LGBTQ+ advocacy and overseas development, to summer camps and community circuses. Yet everyone who works and volunteers within it, has one common goal - to make the world more equitable and enjoyable for all of us. 

So with that in mind, enjoy July's helping of the Good News Gazette, our happy digest of brilliant things happening in Irish communities this month. 

A child getting their hands mucky at Sligo Children's Community Garden

Sligo Children's Community Garden was set up in 2020 as a space where families could connect outdoors safely. Kylie is a mother of two, and one of the co-founders - this is her story...

“The practice of putting a seed in the earth and seeing something grow from it - it’s quite magical really. We didn’t have a massive amount of gardening experience between us when we started, we all knew bits and pieces. But gardening is something that you learn as you grow so we’re constantly learning new things.  

There are five of us running the garden. We were inspired to start the garden by the space itself, it almost felt like it invited us to create this. My heart felt lighter, my head felt clearer when I was here.

Next door to us is the Sligo Woodland School, which is run by Trisha, one of our founding members. All of our children had been to the school and a few of us were talking about getting a space here, so we said, let’s come together and share this beautiful space where the kids can be outside, where they can play and learn and we can talk about biodiversity and growing food.

It’s kind of organically taken its own shape and direction.  

A snapshot of activity at Sligo Children's Community Garden

.We started a parent and toddler group and I think people really needed it. You feel isolated when you’re a new parent. And you can see that, with a lot of the first-time parents that come along, they just really needed to connect with other people, we didn’t have that over the last couple of years.

We also run events from time to time, we’ve had musicians, we’re working on an intergenerational project to encourage older people out of isolation after the pandemic and get them to share their stories with the kids, we’re working on a story book project - sometimes people approach us with ideas and something beautiful comes from it. 

There’s a lot of work involved manually. Gardens don’t take a break, so there needs to be somebody coming up every day to do weeding and watering. There’s one mum who said to me, “I really just love being in the space, so I don’t mind coming to water every day.” And that made me a bit emotional because I thought, that’s exactly what we wanted to hear from people, that we’ve created this space that brings joy, that it’s not a chore to come to. 

The polytunnel at Sligo Children's Community Garden is full of life

The kids love to dig and they love to water. If I pick up the watering can or the hose, within minutes I’ve got kids running towards me with their own watering can to fill it up, they want to be involved. It is trickier getting stuff done when there’s kids around, it probably triples the time, but we’re not a market garden here to sell produce, it’s ok that things take time. 

Sometimes I look around and think, “There’s so many jobs to do”, but you have to take a step back and see how much has changed since our first day. I’m standing here at the moment and everything is in flower, there’s green everywhere and there’s life in it.

At the beginning, we had the polytunnel and the surrounding area but now we’ve built a firepit circle, and we’ve got willow growing to make a willow dome. We’ve planted fruit trees so hopefully in the next few years we’ll have a blossoming orchard. We’ve put in bee boxes as well. We’re so lucky with the site that we’ve got and we really want to respect it and nurture the biodiversity of this beautiful place. 

Families at work at Sligo Children's Community Garden

For me personally, for my mental health, it’s been amazing. You come up here, you take a breath, you get your hands dirty, you move your body and you just feel better.

And for my kids, they have this magical place where they can run around and get dirty and play with frogs - all those things kids should be doing!"

We Act is a national, collaborative campaign to celebrate the value and impact of the charities and community groups in Ireland. It is supported by the Department of Rural and Community Development. 

Got a story? Email info@WeAct.ie

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