Visions for the Future: Ballinahown schoolchildren have their say

Ballinahown Community Development has also assisted Ballinahown NS with its own projects this year, with the children showing great interest in community involvement and caring for the environment. Projects undertaken this year range from growing fruit, vegetables, and flowers in the community polytunnel, planting salad boxes in school, sowing a wildflower meadow in the school garden, and the installing bug hotels on the school grounds.

We asked several local kids about their favourite environmental projects in Ballinahown, and they were incredibly excited to talk about all their work!

“We've done a load of stuff about animals,” said Fionn Ryan. Their class in school helped to build bug hotels after their principal explained that Ireland's bug population was going down.

“We have four of them. You put loads of leaves and maybe pinecones so that bugs can gather around and eat and get food,” explained Thomas Webb.

The kids also played their part in making Ballinahown as beautiful as possible for the competition.

Hannah Corcoran explained how they “painted rocks and put the names of flowers on them and put them around the village”.

Lucas Webb chimed in: “We've even – and this was our own idea, for when we went outside – there is this area we found for building a city out of rocks! We built roads and a mayor's house. We've been building it a few weeks.”

“We were growing flowers in the polytunnel too!” Charlie Corcoran added.

The principal of Ballinahown NS, Tom Keena, said: “We were delighted to link in with Ballinahown Community Development on these projects. As a school, we are working on teaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and everything we do with Ballinahown Community Development supports this.

“The children have become so interested in community development that they spent several break times towards the end of the year creating a city made from stones in the schoolyard. They named it Brickville and central to their design were a park, walkways through the city, roads, a train track, a church, restaurants, a bank, a museum and a mayor’s house. It was fantastic to see their enthusiasm and I was so impressed with how they worked together that we provided additional stones for them to grow their city. While it might be considered imaginative play, I think it demonstrates how much they have learned about sustainable development. The future is safe with these aspirational town planners,” he added.

Cllr John Dolan said: “The future is certainly safe when you see the interest the children have in their surroundings and how little changes can have a big impact. The children are blessed to have such fabulous facilities beside their school – such as the polytunnel, the amphitheatre in Ballinahown Biodiversity Park, the woodlands and the Astro Turf – and we are always delighted to see them making use of these facilities.”

Both young and old have gotten involved in preparing Ballinahown for Entente Florale, not just the 75 residents who make up the village itself, but the hundreds of people who live around Ballinahown and who work and go to school there. As the competition date edges ever closer, Helen Conneely said: “We are so grateful to our volunteers who give selflessly of their time. Some people have helped us with one-off projects and others assist on an ongoing basis with things such as planting, weeding and watering our plants and flowers in the village.

“We have always maintained that people should work in areas that interest them and we are so grateful to anyone who can give their time to help in any way. It is what has made Ballinahown the success that it is, allowing us to build a sustainable village that truly meets the needs of the community,” she concluded.