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Had three wonderful speakers last night at a great venue, the Bunratty Room at The Treacys Oakwoods Hotel.

Olive first introduced those present to a brief history of the Shannon Town Community Wetlands and the work done by it’s volunteers to restore and maintain the wetlands here in the heart of Shannon Town.

She then explained we would next have three speakers: John O’Brien (STCW), Ruairí Ó Conchúir (LAWPRO) and Dr Pamela Bartley (from Hydro-G, Galway)

The talks were very engaging with the experts sharing the knowledge of past, present and future of our wetlands, bogs and water courses.

A great evening was had by all.

Finally, Tony Walsh (STCW) reminded people that we are always after content (stories, pictures, videos, etc.) concerning the Shannon Town Community Wetlands and reminded those present to engage with us on this website ShannonTownWetlands.ie and on our open Facebook Group

Here’s a few photos of the night. Enjoy 🙂

On Tues 4th Feb 2025 there will be a talk at The Oakwoods Hotel to celebrate World Wetlands Day 2025.

It was vert windy and rainy but the wetlands were looking better than when I last had a walk around a few months ago. That is, the two ponds had water and a lot of the grasslands had settled down. I also saw not sizeable amount of willows.

SENIOR 1 st Place – Jimmy Doyle – Native Flower taken in Shannon Wetlands. Prize sponsored by Shannon Airport Group. Presented by Arek Gdulinski of Shannon Airport Group.

SENIOR 1 st Runner Up – Roisín Russell – Canoes on Doon Lough- East Clare. Prize sponsored by Shannon Town Community Wetlands. Presented by Cllr. Donna McGettigan.

SENIOR 2 nd Runner Up – Shane Oakley – A tree by McNamara’s Lake. Prize sponsored by Shannon Town Community Wetlands. Presented by Cllr. Donna McGettigan.

JUNIOR 1 st Place – Jack Myers – A rainbow over Shannon Estuary. Prize sponsored by Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO). Presented by Cllr. Donna McGettigan.

JUNIOR 1 st Runner Up – Abbie O’Flaherty O’Brien – Red sky over Cratloe Woods. Prize sponsored by Shannon Town Community Wetlands. Presented by Cllr. Donna McGettigan.

JUNIOR 2 nd Runner Up – Alex Lunev – Sky and Water. Prize sponsored by Shannon Town Community Wetlands. Presented by Cllr. Donna McGettigan.

While it was gusty and prone to light rain we had a great turn out and fun time officially opening the new Wetlands sign. The marquis added a touch of style (and much needed shelter at times) and the biscuits/pecan cake and tea/coffee lovely.

Today at 2 pm we will officially open the new information board 🙂

“Thank you to Shannon Wetlands and Michaél for hosting a very interesting and exciting workshop with our 2nd year Science class for National

Biodiversity Week. They found frogs (or rather it found them) tadpoles, dragonfly larvae, cuckoo spit and many other invertebrates living in the ponds” – from their Facebook page 🙂

Wonderful turn out by SES (https://ses.aero/) to help in cleaning up the wetlands. Thank-you again! 🙂

Here are the competition details:

You can enter by clicking on this link Photo Competition

Ramud pulled the last line back on to the boat and surveyed his haul. 12 medium sized herrings, some still flopping, sat between his legs in the reed boat. He wanted to surprise his wife on her birthday with a celebration meal and the waters were kind today to provide such a catch.

He gutted the fish at the shore and brought the flesh in to their reed house to slowly cook on the central fire. Hazi was still washing clothes downstream with other village women and he looked forward to the smile on her face as she smelled the food on her return.

“Nice” the red curly haired, freckled faced, 20 year old said as the he returned the book to shelf in Shannon Town library. “That guy sure paints a picture”.

Sam’s Detroit flight home had been delayed 6 hours at Shannon Airport so he had grabbed a cab to explore the local town.

He then noticed a talk was starting up. A lady rose to her feet and addressed the 10 or so people seated around. My name is Olive and welcome to World Wetlands Day here at Seán Lemass Library in Shannon.

As she explained the origins of the yearly celebration in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea a shiver passed through Ramud the Marsh Arab’s great-great-grandson 100 times removed and Sam sat down to listen..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wetlands_Day

https://www.messynessychic.com/2014/11/12/the-floating-basket-homes-of-iraq-a-paradise-almost-lost-to-saddam