Céad Míle Fáilte, Welcome
The Story Behind Voices for Ash
Many people here in Ireland share a real love and appreciation for the land, and for the unique expression of culture, ecology and community that has been present here for generations.
One of the symbols of Ireland’s culture is the hurley. The hurley is the stick we use to play our native Irish sporting games of hurling and camogie at home, and around the world.
Ash has given us her body for the making of our hurley and camogie sticks for generations – possibly since before Cú Chulainn’s time!
Ash is now a very endangered species worldwide on account of Ash die back disease, and it is looking like we will need to replace our ‘Noble of the Wood’ – our Ash Tree – for the making of our hurleys in the times ahead.
Before we do, we are people who are uniting our hearts and voices together to share our love and appreciation for Ash who has given Ireland’s culture, community, ecology, mythology, and people so much enjoyment, nourishment, and beauty for centuries.
At this time of real loss for hundreds of millions of Ash Trees, we feel our a call present in our hearts, stirring our ancient role – as guardians of the earth and lovers of Ireland’s cultural soul.
Song – Raise the Ash
Being released very soon! Watch this space 🙂
A massive thank you to John Broderick, one of Ireland’s prolific songwriters who has penned songs for Delores Keane, Seán Keane, Ger O Donnell, Celtic Woman, and more. So grateful to John for the opportunity to collaborate on writing the lyrics, together with myself and James Walsh.
Poem: Caomhe’s Mindful Pause
In 2021 I wrote and shared this poem, along with presentation slides, with our leaders in the GAA headquarters in Dublin as a creative way to present my vision for a native tree planting and peacemaking initiative – and offered our GAA leaders an invitation for us to collaborate on it together.
I’m very grateful and humbled to have been granted an opportunity to collaborate voluntarily with the GAA’s exemplary Green Clubs Programme, and that we successfully secured the greatly appreciated funding for 10,000 native trees from the Irish Government Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine which I proposed from the outset we apply for to fund this initiative.
I was very grateful to have been given the opportunity to introduce two peacemaking initiatives into the Green Club Programmes’ wider 100,000 native tree planting projects in a way that aligned with the United Nations Resolution of “Harmony with Nature”. The poem and full story is here: Caoimhe’s Mindful Pause/