Celebrating Glen River Park’s ‘ordinary gifts’

AN event, led by Cork artist Elinor Rivers, will be held in the city’s Glen River Park tomorrow to celebrate World Wetlands Day and St Brigid’s Day 2024.

The ‘Ordinary Gifts’ World Wetlands Day event is part of the Gleann a’ Phúca project and one of a series of participatory experiences exploring the life of the Glen River through walking, listening, water divining, and other playful, sensory activities and everyday ‘ordinary’ rituals.

The outdoor event takes place from 11am to 1pm tomorrow, and will feature activities designed to heighten awareness of the positive effects that water has on health and wellbeing while tuning in to the reality that rivers are living entities.

Ms Rivers said that there will be “a short walk to observe the river’s trees, plants and birds, leading to the playful creation of a web of life to better understand its wetlands ecosystem.”

“Participants will also undertake a deep listening exercise to tune in to the water’s music and we will use water divining to trace the river’s underground currents and electromagnetic aspects, and the event will conclude with a visit to the well to mark St Bridget’s Day,” she said.

Launched in September 2023, ‘Gleann a’ Phúca’ is a year-long Creative Climate Action project responding to the ecological, cultural, industrial and historical heritage of Cork’s Glen River Park. The project is being delivered in collaboration with the Glen Resource Centre and the Local Authority Water Programme.

It has received a combined €56,500 in funding from the Government’s Creative Climate Action Fund, Cork City Council, the Local Authority Water programme, and Cork Local Creative Youth Partnership.

The event is suitable for anyone who wishes to attend, and participants are invited to meet at the bridge at the bottom of the ‘zigzag’ (Ballyhooley Road Car Park) at 11am and walk through Glen River Park with Ms Rivers.