Irish Thought for June 8...

Irish Poetry Mixed with the First Irish Fest News!!

I walked among the seven woods of Coole:

Shan-walla, where a willow-bordered pond 

Gathers the wild duck from the winter dawn;

Shady Kyle-dortha; sunnier Kyle-na-no,

Where many hundred squirrels are as happy

As though they had been hidden by green boughs

Where old age cannot find them; Pairc-na-lee, 

Where hazel and ash and privet blind the paths...

Extract from The Shadowy Waters by W.B. Yeats.

My first Irish Fest Kids News is that we have chosen the theme for the 2014 Kansas City Irish Fest Children's Area....IRISH WOODLANDS!  This is chosen yearly with the help of the Kansas City Irish Fest Kids' Club (thanks group!) and can be summed up as to why with the blurb below.  The Club is already enjoying each other's creativity in how this theme is going to be spotlighted throughout this years Irish Fest.

Woodlands and forests are places of 

great beauty and mystery. They are three 

dimensional at the human level: we can 

walk into a wood and be dwarfed by the 

trees in a way that is not possible in, for 

example, grasslands or bogs. They are 

places of fairytales and folklore, romance 

and poetry. Even within small woodlands 

it is possible to feel isolated as the trees 

reduce the view and cut off outside sights 

and sounds. Indeed, it is much easier to 

get lost in a relatively small wood than on 

a mountain! The trees themselves form 

the woodland habitat and at the same 

time provide habitats for other plants and 

animals which live in and on the trees. Even 

though Ireland is the least wooded country 

in Europe (apart from Iceland), forests and 

woodlands, especially our native woodlands, 

contain a great variety of plant and animal 

life or ‘biodiversity’ and are a very valuable 

part of our natural heritage.

Taken from Cross, J.r. (2012). Ireland’s Woodland Heritage. 

Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAWN ANNE!!!
(SHE RUNS THE KIDS' AREA EVERY YEAR)