Planting Day Our Flowering Hedge 🍃🌱

What an achievement! Many thanks to our friends in ALIS who provided two helpers and a machine to do the heavy ground work and Áine from Seedsavers who coordinated the planting.Thanks also goes to all the mammies and daddies who sorted out the muddy runners. Hopefully our pollinator friends will love it!

 A VISIT FROM MORLEY'S GARDEN CENTRE

We had a visit from Morley's garden centre in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo today. Paul talked to us about all the pollinator friendly plants we can grow at our school. He told us about the various spring bulbs we can plant in the garden and which pollinator friendly plants are suitable for window boxes. 

They also talked to us about the importance of organic gardening. At Morley's Garden Centre they grow the majority of plants themselves organically in poly tunnels. They do not use any harmful pesticides or insecticides and opt for natural ways to combat garden nemesis like encouraging frogs to come in to deal with the slugs. They even have a bee hive and pet alpacas you can visit. 

As we had learned from Áine ní Fhlatharta (Irish Seedsavers) chemicals like Glyphosate (Roundup) and Neonicotinoid insecticides are deadly to pollinators and unfortunately commonly used in large scale nurseries and garden centres. The chemicals contaminate the soil for months and sometimes years. They accumulate in the plants that grow in the contaminated soil. Even the seeds the plants make can still contain these harmful chemicals. Áine has therefore urged us to only plant organically grown plants. She warned us that most plants bought in Supermarkets are contaminated and by planting them in our garden we would inadvertently lure pollinators to their death. We were therefore very glad when Morley's Garden Centre presented us with a box of organically grown, pollinator friendly plants for our Centenary Garden. When buying plants for your garden please always check with your garden centre that they were organically grown and do not contain any neonicotinoids.

Burren Beo - Week 5

Burren Beo

By Meádbh Costello, 6th Class 

Gráinne from Burren Beo gave us a sheet with a family’s name on it from years ago. We were to pick a person from that family to act out as. After we picked our people we went outside to practice our role play. Then we acted out our plays.

The week after, we watched a video of people lilting and Irish dancing. Later on we got into groups and tried to lilt to a modern song and tried Irish dancing. When we went back inside we had a debate about whether you want Irish music to change, or to keep it as it is.
While we were debating, we stopped for a minute to listen to Irish music and Irish bands and instruments. For the debate, we passed a bean bag back and over so only one person at a time could talk. It was a very enjoyable workshop.

By Meádbh Costello

6th class

           

St. Gobnait's Day

St. Gobnait's Day

While celebrating St. Gobnait's Day on the 11th of February, we looked at beautiful stain glass windows by Harry Clark with our artist in residence, Veronika. St. Gobnait is the Patron Saint of Bees and she lived in the 7th century in Ireland. 

'St. Gobnait' by Ben

Legend tells that she was originally from County Clare. Fleeing from a family row, she sailed to live on Inisheer, one of Galway's Aran Islands. An angel appeared to her on the island and told her to go find a meadow with 9 white deer. This would be the place for her to start a convent. 

'St. Gobnait' by Ella

St. Gobnait travelled all over Ireland to find her 9 white deer. First she saw a meadow with 3 white deer, then she saw a meadow with 6 white deer so she knew she was getting closer. Finally, in Ballyvourney, County Cork, she saw her 9 white deer. This is where she settled to build her convent.

'St. Gobnait' by Emma

St. Gobnait was an avid beekeeper. She kept plagues away and cured sick people by using honey  as medicine. She could also talk to her bees. One day, when bandits came and stole all the village cattle, St. Gobnait set her bees on them. The bees chased the robbers and blinded them until all the cattle  were returned. 
St. Gobnait's Day is still celebrated in Ballyvourney to this day, where she is said to still cure the sick and injured with magic ribbons tied around her wooden statue. 

'St. Gobnait' by Amelia

Using colourful tissue paper, we made our own 'stain glass windows' of St. Gobnait. 

'St. Gobnait' made by Dylan

They really glow when the sun shines through our classroom window!

IF I WAS A SAINT, I WOULD...

Using our imagination we thought of ourselves as Saints, what we would do and whose Patron Saint we would like to be. Meet our little Saints here: 

If Fionn was a Saint ... he would be the Patron Saint of Lions. 'My miracle power is lightening. If hunters came to shoot the lions, I would strike them down with lightening'.

If Síofra was a Saint ... she would be the Patron Saint of Dogs. 'I would dedicate my life to rescue all the stray dogs'. 

If Keelyn was a Saint ... she would be the Patron Saint of Fish. 'With my miracle powers I would take all the plastic out of the sea and safe all the fish'. - and I can walk on water!

If Eanna was a Saint ... he would be the Patron Saint of Liverpool. 'I would play football with Liverpool and they would always win!'

If Emma was a Saint ... she would be the Patron Saint of Dogs ('obviously') and Snowflakes: 'because we need snow for the polar bears'.

If Ultan was a Saint ... he would be the Patron Saint of Fire and Darkness: 'because we need fire for heat and darkness to sleep.'

Burren Perfumery

A Visit from The Burren Perfumery 

 by Erin, 6th Class

On Thursday the 6th of February, we were delighted to get a visit from Patricia and Sandra who both work at The Burren Perfumery.

First of all, we watched a video about the beauty of the Burren. The video was really informative and had some beautiful photographs of flowers in the Burren. Some examples of the flowers you can find in the Burren are the honey suckle, oak moss, elderflower and the wild orchid. It's hard to believe but before mankind came to the Burren, it used to be covered in trees. I wasn't surprised to find out after seeing the beautiful photographs in the video that the Burren is referred to as the most unique floral landscape in the world! 

After watching the video, we learned about the origin of the Burren Perfumery. The Burren Perfumery was created in 1972 by a man named Brian Mooney. It all started when Mr. Mooney made perfumes using the flowers growing in his own back garden and now it has grown into what it is today! Of course, nowadays Patricia and Sandra and all the workers at the Burren Perfumery don’t take away the flowers from the Burren to make their products anymore because if they did, there would be no flowers left in the Burren!

Next, we learned how to make perfume. They use essential oils to make the lovely fragrance coming from their products. The scent is broken down into three parts; the top note, the heart note and the base note.

The top note is the first smell you get from the product that lasts up to ten minutes. The heart note is the second smell you get from the product you are using. This lasts up to four hours. Finally, there are the base notes. These last up to twenty-four hours.

Learning about our Sense of Smell…

I was really surprised to learn that coffee beans are the secret ingredient to neutralize any scent. We got to smell a lovely fragrance called Ilaun which is the old Irish spelling for Oileán/ Island. Afterwards we smelt the coffee beans to see if we could remember what the fragrance smelled like after a couple of minutes. We did this because the olfactory gland connects smells to your memory.

After that, we smelled Aran which was my personal favourite. I really liked it because it smelled quite tangy and citrusy. We then took a vote and Aran was the favoured scent although it was quite close between the two.

Then we found out the correct way to apply perfume to your wrists. It turned out I have been doing it incorrectly my whole life! When you apply perfume it is important that you do not rub your wrists together as this actually ruins the smell.

Then we tried on Atlantic Breeze lotion which was really nice and moisturising. Soon after we learnted how they make their candles. They make them by melting soya wax and adding essential oils to the mixture. They use a lemon wick in their candles. We were told that putting the wick into the candle as straight as possible is the hardest thing for a candle maker, when making a candle, which was very surprising to me.

Soap Making in the Perfumery

Then the conversation turned to soaps. They make around 10,000 soaps per year! They use various oils and shea butter to make their soaps. To mix it together they use a big whisk and mix it for fifteen minutes and then add the essential oils to make it smell really nice. It takes about six weeks to make one bar of soap.

Then we smelled lots more scents that go into their perfumes. First of all we smelled bergamot which was really nice. After bergamot we smelled grapefruit-which I loved! The next scent was a mystery scent-one we had to guess. Only a few people guessed it right. The fragrance turned out to be lime. Lemongrass was next which was really nice but quite strong for my taste. Next was Patricia’s favourite which was Neroli. Neroli comes from orange blossom. Although it smells great, it costs €10,000 for just one kilogram! Last of all we smelled Lavender which was very nice. We then got to smell all of them together which smelled like… heaven!

by Erin 6^th Class

A Visit from The Burren Perfumery

- written by Ellie, 6th class

Yesterday Sandra and Patricia came from the Burren Perfumery to teach us about what they do. To start, they showed us a ten-minute video about the Burren and about all the species of flowers and plants used in perfume-making which live there. 

They told us about Brian Mooney, the man who started the perfumery in 1972. They still work in the same place that he did. They next explained to us the science of making the perfume. They told us about Sadie, their perfumer. 

They explained to us that you smell things with your olfactory gland, which is located at the top of your nose. Next we got to smell some samples of their perfumes. We got to smell ‘Ilaun’ and ‘Aran’. They smelled really good!

After that, they told us about how they make their lotions. We got to use some of it on our hands.

Then they explained to us the process of making their candles. Patricia passed around some of the soya wax that they use to make their candles. They also passed around their lime and grapefruit candle. It smelled so good.

They went on to explain to us about their soaps. They us a very unique process to make their soaps. They mix together essential oils and shea butter. We got to feel some shea butter. We also got to smell some of their essential oils. We got to smell lemongrass, lime, bergamot and grapefruit. After that we got to smell lime and lavender ones and guess what they were. Then we got to smell them all together. In between these, we got to smell coffee beans, to refresh our noses and make sure our olfactory gland didn’t get tired. 

Then we got to smell neroli, which is a very precious oil that comes from the neroli flower that costs €10,000 for just 1kg! It did smell very nice. Sandra told us that when she went to Grasse-the home of perfume-she got to pick some neroli herself. They used to only sell neroli to Chanel.

To finish, we all got 3 samples of their perfumes to bring home.

Things we said about the visit in our room…

Sophia says “I liked that we got to smell all the perfume and sample the hand cream.” 

Caoimhe 5th Class: “I thought the visit was very good because we learned all about the flowers in the Burren, the exotic species and how smelling coffee beans refreshes your nose!”

Eoan, 6th Class: “I liked getting the three samples and comparing them”

Sarah, 4th Class: “I liked experiencing the different scents and perfumes and the different ingredients in perfume- like kelp and seaweed!”

Seán, 5th Class: “The way I experienced the visit was that it was so calm and relaxing- like when you smelled all the different scents and that the lemon scent stood out”

Mark, 6th Class: "I enjoyed the visit because we could interact with all the perfumes and use the hand creams. I didn’t know that organic flowers were used to make perfumes before today!”

And as for me? I really enjoyed the Burren Perfumery visit and I would definitely say it’s worth a visit.

By Ellie, 6th Class

Burren Beo - Week 4

Burren Beo Week 4

By Ellie Leyden
6th Class

For the 4th week of our Burren Beo project, we examined a census for 1901 of the Kiltiernan area. We saw a census of the Costello family. The father Patrick was a farmer and the mother Kate was a teacher. They had six boys. We got to see their handwriting and it was very hard to read. On some of the censuses it showed that some of the people could not read or write.

Next, we got to organize and perform a play about the family in the census. We got split into groups and were given a setting. Our group was at the market. Our play was about Patrick, the father, who told Willie, his son, to mind the cow while he goes to talk to Mikey, an old man. Then the cow runs away from Willie, and knocks over two rich English landlords. Then, the rich landlords sue the Costello family.

Patrick was played by Iarla, Willie was played by Lauren, Orlaith and Diarmuid were the rich landlords and I was the cow and the judge in court.

It was cool to see how people lived back then and it was very fun to do the play.