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Foróige Time Travel Gardens
project with us, contacted Bamboo Ireland and they donated all the material
we needed. Bamboo is a really interesting material and when working with
young people we couldn’t have made the structure out of traditional material
as the construction would be way to heavy for the young people to work with,’’
he explained.
“Bamboo lent itself to be flexible, light yet incredibly strong and it looks
amazing in all weather and looks so different when dry or wet.’’
“From conception to the actual build, the project took six weeks. We had
two meetings with Diarmuid Gavin and four of his team who became a mentor
to each of the projects. It was a very ambitious project and logistically it took
a lot of planning,’’ explained Mr Haughey.
“Each group worked on their own in their community halls on their projects.
The young people and the adult leaders and volunteers were incredible. They
worked really hard on making their gardens and the four groups arrived with
most of the central pieces built in pieces and were then put together after it
was transported to the Ploughing Championship.
“The Groups arrived the Saturday before the event opened and worked
on their gardens until late Monday evening. Working on the gardens during
the Ploughing wasn’t feasible as the amount of people there and the limited
access with vehicles meant we had to build it beforehand,’’ he added.
“The reaction to the project was incredible. Over 30,000 people visited the
gardens over the three days and we had so many people comment on the
standard of the Gardens. Even Diarmuid Gavin was amazed at the standard
and said any of the gardens would sit comfortably in any gardening exhibition.
“It was the first time Foróige were involved in the Ploughing Championships
and it was an unbelievable experience. This is the biggest outdoor event in
Europe and involves creating a small city in the middle of a very large field.
The team there were brilliant too and helped us with whatever we needed.
“We had limited space to work within so we couldn’t involve too many people
(Foróige groups). Each of the four gardens have been transported back to the
communities involved and will be re-buil \