Author: webadmin

The Wicklow summer fête takes place in the grounds of East Glendalough School on Saturday 1st June from 11am to 4pm. This promises to be a great day out with bouncy castles and games, hot food and refreshments, cakes, clothes and toy stalls, as well as plants and country produce. New this year is a dog show. Classes will include: Best rescue rehomed dog, Best dog led by a child, Best puppy, Best fancy dress dog, Supreme champion. The judges will come from Sharpeshill WSPCA . Admission is €2 with children under 12 free. Parking is also free.

Ecumenical Bible Week is now in its sixth year. The week’s key verse is “Always be ready to give an answer for the hope which you possess (1 Peter 3: 15). It starts with a 7am breakfast on the day after Pentecost Sunday (10th June) and continues to Trinity Sunday (16th June).

Archbishop Jackson will host a symposium on Thursday 13th at 2pm in Holy Cross Diocesan Centre, Clonliffe. The topic is “How can we be Christian in Ireland today? Voices of Hope in a secularised Ireland”. Revd Paddy McGlinchey is one of the presenters and it is hoped that Rt Hon Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP will also be available. That evening at 7.30pm in the same venue there will be a discussion on “What does it mean to you to be a Christian in Ireland today?” Panellists include the Most Revd Pat Storey, Bishop of Meath and Kildare, Julie Wisdom McKinley of the National Bible Society of Ireland and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. There will be an opportunity for audience participation.

During the week there will be talks in 10 different places. The Church of Ireland venues are: Whitechurch Parish Old School (Monday 10th); St Mary’s Howth (Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th); St John the Baptist (Wednesday 12th) and Rathfarnham (Wednesday 12th). All talks commence at 7.30pm.

The closing service takes place at St Finian’s Lutheran Church, Adelaide Road, Dublin 2 at 7.30pm. This takes the form of sung Lutheran Vespers at 7.30pm at which the speaker will be Rev Sam Mawhinney of Adelaide Road Presbyterian Church.

A full programme of events may be seen at www.bibleweek.ie or go to Facebook https://www.facebook.com/bibleweekie

Anyone who has travelled along Wicklow’s rural roads this spring must have noticed the hedgerows, with their glorious floral display, first of blackthorn and then of hawthorn. Breathtaking. Beautiful. Uplifting. But also good for nature, with the flowers providing food for foraging bees and other insects, which in turn provide food for birds. In the autumn the berries with provide further food. Roadside verges and field boundaries, if left wild, also are a vital source of both cover and food for wildlife. There is a need to increase the extent of native plants (both trees and wildflowers) to help biodiversity and reduce the rate of species extinction. Anyone with a garden can let a corner go wild, sow a wildflower meadow, no matter how small, leave odd patches of nettles, let a few thistles and dandelions go to seed etc., as all are great food sources for wildlife.

A friendship group has been formed for people who are retired and for those who aren’t able to get out to meet people as regularly as they would like. The next get together will be for afternoon tea on Monday 17th June in the Wicklow Methodist Hall. All welcome! Further information available from Linda Walsh: 086 8228378.

A friendship group has been formed for people who are retired and for those who aren’t able to get out to meet people as regularly as they would like. The next get together will be for afternoon tea on Monday 20th May in the Wicklow Methodist Hall. All welcome! Further information available from Linda Walsh: 086 8228378.

The 16th Annual Display of Wicklow Girls’ Brigade takes place in Fatima Hall, Dominican Convent, Wicklow Town on Saturday, 11th May at 7pm. It will be well worth supporting!

There is so much conflicting advice about the food we should eat and where we should buy it. One thing is certain, both have changed dramatically in the last 75 years. The first supermarket reportedly appeared in America in 1946. That is not very long ago. Until then, where was all the food? ”Dear folks, the food was in homes, gardens, local fields, and forests. It was near kitchens, near tables, near bedsides. It was in the pantry, the cellar, the backyard.” (Joel Salatin, Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World). While we clearly cannot all revert to that situation, owing to the massive increase in the world’s population, we can all try to buy more local food – this both supports local farmers / market gardeners and also reduces “food miles” (the distance food has to travel and the fuel used in transport). We can eat food that is in season, as our forebears did, rather than wanting strawberries, for example, all year round. Organically grown food clearly has less environmental impact so is a good option if affordability and availability allow. Try growing some fruit or vegetables yourselves, even a jar of bean sprouts! Ethically produced food is another issue altogether…

It is provisionally planned to hold an early morning outdoor service with Ashford Parish and the Unity Gospel Choir at the Bel-Air Hotel on 26th May, followed by optional breakfast at cost of €10 each (please advise Ken if staying for breakfast). This is subject to the choir’s availability.