On Saturday last, a very special celebration was held in Tubber Village Hall, on the Galway Clare border.
Ten years to the day since the official launch of local landscape charity Burrenbeo Trust, founding directors, members, volunteers and Burrenbeo Trust supporters gathered to mark the amazing achievements of the past ten years.
Over the past decade Burrenbeo Trust have worked to engage people with their local places, primarily focused on the world famous Burren landscape. Burrenbeo has delivered programmes in the area for local schools such as Ecobeo and Áitbheo, coordinated a heritage walk the first Sunday of each month (only cancelling twice due to weather!), brought communities together for the Winter tea talks series, facilitated the Burren in Bloom and Winterage Weekend celebrations, provided support for the Burrenbeo Conservation Volunteers, hosted visitors from far and wide including Princess Irene of the Netherlands and Britain’s Prince Charles and much more besides.
Speaking in the led up to the recent anniversary, Burrenbeo Trust co-founder Brendan Dunford remarked, “It is with a mixture of great pride and gratitude that we reflect on the past decade. Pride for all that has been achieved – thousands of Áitbheo graduates, hundreds of educational walks, talks and conservation volunteer events, wonderful Winterage Weekends, Learning Landscape Symposia and Burren in Bloom festivals, to list but a few.
Gratitude to all those who made it happen: people like Ann O’Connor whose vision for Burrenbeo inspired us all; Brigid Barry, our co-ordinator for most of the decade, who did so much to make this vision a reality; sterling volunteers like Richard Morrison and Stephen Ward who dedicated countless voluntary hours; our amazing staff, Annalisa, Kate and Áine, and our members”.
The organisation now looks to the next ten years, hoping to continue delivering programmes on the ground in the Burren, while also looking to share the lessons learned in this area with other interested communities. To find out more about Burrenbeo Trust or become a member visit www.burrenbeo.com.