22 July 2024
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Free Creative Climate Action Gleann a Phúca Project events on Sunday July 28th
If you go down to the Glen on Sunday, you could be in for a big surprise! The Gleann a Phúca creative climate action project is hosting an educational, albeit potentially scary, River Monster Parade of giant human-sized replica water insects from 12pm – 1pm.
The parade, staged by the Friends of the Dripsey Rivers (FODR) community group, will showcase several ‘river monsters’ including a 6 metre long giant green monster or Péist, modelled on a specific green caddis fly larva found under the Dripsey Bridge one sunny summer day. Other slightly smaller replica river insects set to parade through the Glen on Sunday include the flattened mayfly larva and stonefly larva.
Chelley O’Donovan, WillowHerb Clinic and Apothecary.
Photo Joleen Cronin
Artists-Annie-Mar-and-Aaron-Ross-who-are-Spoon-and-Bloom
The Friends of the Dripsey Rivers group grew out of an on-line course run by IRD Duhallow during the Covid pandemic. Since then the members “who always meet in rivers” and even had their AGM knee-deep in water, according to one of their founders, have spent a lot of time kick-sampling under bridges to assess the water quality and examine populations of freshwater life in the Dripsey River catchment area. Due to the fact the insects found are so small and hard to examine, the group started making larger, wearable costume versions of some of the ‘monsters’ enlarged to human size, and capable of running about both educating and scaring people!
Sunday’s monster parade in the Glen River Park is the first stage of the group’s Péist Returns project. The project is based on the legend of St Finbarre who banished a troublesome monster from the lake at Gougane Barra. Its wriggling and writhing is said to have carved a channel through the land all the way from Gougane to the sea, thus forming the bed of the river Lee, as illustrated by the current Crawford exhibition ‘Source to Sea’.
The Friends of the Dripsey Rivers group said, “In St. Finbarre’s time, expelling monsters was a worthy activity, but now we understand the value of little monsters as being vital in the river’s life, as many bigger things eat them and get eaten in their turn, and so on, up the food chain to fish, kingfishers, otters and us!”
The giant Péist will commence its return journey from Cork City to the lake at Gougane Barra from the Glen on Sunday accompanied by its smaller replica insect friends. The FODR and Gleann a Phúca groups are encouraging participants young and old to come and join the parade and even don a monster costume!
After the parade, from 1pm – 2pm, attendees are invited to participate in citizen kick-sampling with the Gleann a Phúca volunteers, to examine the health and quality of the Glen River water. The group will also be testing the new Citizen Science Esker Box borrowed from the library and findings will be recorded for research purposes.
From 2pm – 4pm, participants are invited to go on a botanical Odyssey of the park with botanist Chelly O’Donovan and artists Spoon and Bloom. Chelley O’Donovan is a qualified Clinical Herbalist and founder of Willowherb Clinic in Cork. She teaches Introduction to Herbal Medicine courses, medicine making and leads foraging walks to share her deep love of nature and the wealth of healing properties that surround us. She aims to expand participants’ understanding of life in the park, on the walk.
Spoon and Bloom are a creative duo of illustrator and artist Annie Mar and motion graphic designer and animator Aaron Ross, who together create animations with an ecological focus. They invite participants to join them on the Odyssey with Chelly and to enjoy an inspiring afternoon of stories, drawing and discovery, exploring how the park’s rich nature enhances our lives and provides an environment for a myriad of other life forms in the heart of an urban neighbourhood. Drawings, memories and the minutiae of the neighbourhood will be captured on the odyssey.
Afterwards, participants will come together to collectively map the journey and their findings, recording and plotting distinctive species as well participants’ own special areas and treasures of the park.
Each of these Gleann a’ Phúca events is free to attend but participants are encouraged to reserve a space in advance on EventBrite. For more info on the events and Gleann a Phúca project or to book to attend visit gleannaphuca.ie