Skerries Annual Wild Bee Festival 2025

Skerries Mills Community Garden

Join the celebration of our pollinator pals with WALKS, TALKS, CREATIVE FUN and FRIDAY FILM SCREENING at Skerries Mills Community Garden.

Skerries Mills

The much loved annual Skerries Annual Wild Bee Festival is back for 2025!! We're excited and we know you will be too. We invite you to join a range of walks and talks again this year on Saturday &amp; Sunday 21st &amp; 22nd June. And for the first time we are hosting an opening night for the Festival on Friday 20th June from 7-9pm with a special screening of the documentary Plight of the Bumblebee by Brenda Castles with a live score. For this event you will need to purchase paid tickets. Follow this link to secure your tickets: <a href="https://plightofthebumblebee.eventbrite.com" title="https://plightofthebumblebee.eventbrite.com">plightofthebumblebee.eventbrite.com</a> We are very lucky this year to host AMBER at the Festival who will delivery scientific hands-on activities. Please see the schedule below for more information on this. What to expect:<ul><li>The Skerries Annual Wild Bee Festival is very family friendly and the talks and walks programme caters to the amateur gardeners as well as the experts.</li><li>It takes place outdoors for the most part at the site of our Community Garden - with stalls under marquees.</li><li>The ground is gravelly but relatively even and therefore accessible for buggies and wheelchairs.</li><li>There are bike stands for locking up your wheels.</li><li>The Mills Cafe offers breakfast and lunch menus.</li><li>Our stalls will have arts and craft activities for children and grown-ups.</li><li>You will be able to buy merchandise as a memento and support our community garden.</li><li>The walks and talks are bookable and free and donations are very welcome.</li><li>The weather is very unpredictable but the festival will go ahead in sunshine or rain!</li></ul>

Agenda

Documentary concerning the world of bees & their connection to Irish religion, folklore, and biodiversity with live traditional soundtrack. Purchase tickets at the following web address, which you can copy and paste into your browser: plightofthebumblebee.eventbrite.com


Friday 20th June 7-9pm Film Screening & Live Music - Plight of the Bumblebee

From climate change to personalised medicine, advanced materials and bioengineering are key to tackling the major challenges of the 21st century. Meet our scientists and discover how their research is driving innovation for a more sustainable future. Through engaging, hands-on activities, you’ll explore how these cutting-edge materials are being developed to improve health, protect the environment, and build a better, more resilient world for all. Each workshop will begin on the hour and you can just drop in. Bee inspired!

Saturday & Sunday: Scientific Hands-on Activities with AMBER: ambercenter.ie 

Jane Stout is Professor of Ecology in the School of Natural Sciences, and is the Vice-President for Biodiversity and Climate Action at Trinity College Dublin. Jane is an internationally renowned expert on pollinator and pollination ecology, and a prominent voice for biodiversity and its value. She co-founded the successful conservation initiative, the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan, and the not-for-profit company, Natural Capital Ireland.

Saturday: Jane Stout - Talk/Discussion: The All Ireland Pollinator Plan

Brian Seales trained as a botanist at Trinity College Dublin.  In recent years he has become very much interested in the effects of climate change and the introduction of non-native plant species on Ireland’s ecosystems.  Join Brian on a walk along the South Strand to discover its rich floral diversity.

Saturday: Brian Seales - South Strand Flora Walk 

Kate Harrington is a Skerries-based ecologist with over 20 years experience of working on ecological assessment and research projects.  She is currently researching pollinating insects as part of her PhD studies in Trinity College Dublin. 

Saturday: Kate Harrington - Talk/Demonstration: Identifying Common Pollinators

The talk will cover what the garden gap is, how to imagine different sustainable and equitable garden approaches, how environmental psychology can make a societal impact to close the gap by overcoming barriers through collective action.
Given the biodiversity & climate crises, the talk will explore the potential for Ireland’s 2 million domestic gardens as sites for climate action. It builds on a previous qualitative study conducted on potential pathways to promoting nature & furthering native biodiversity in domestic gardens by Mullan-Jensen et al (2024), and provides new quantitative data from a nationally representative sample of over 1000 respondents regarding domestic gardens and biodiversity in Ireland. The studies reveal the strength of bridges & barriers to biodiversity actions in terms of ‘force fields’ through a macropsychology & systems thinking approach. Dr Christine Mullan-Jensen is an environmental psychologist & qualitative researcher  through her consultancy Repsychable.

Sunday: Christine Mullan Jensen - Talk/Discussion: The Garden Gap

Charlie and Marion Heasman are best known locally as the driving force behind the Biodiversity Action Plan to save the rare Large Carder Bee in Skerries.  The plan is endorsed by the National Biodiversity Centre and AIPP and they are regularly invited to speak to communities across the Country. Charlie will be joined by ecologist - Kate Harrington.

Sunday: Kate Harrington & Charlie Heasman - Ballast Pit Walk

Kim McCall is a beef and sheep farmer and ambassador for Farming for Nature, with 70,000 trees and shrubs planted plus a string of wildlife pools on his own land he is also participating in a number of EIPs relating to pollinators. Kim farms 240 acres in County Kildare where he mostly breeds pedigree Aubrac cattle. He uses no insecticides, herbicides or artificial fertilizers and his farm is the most biodiversity rich we have ever seen, a sheer joy to behold.
Farmers need to turn a profit, so does Kim?  The answer is yes. "I could certainly make a higher gross return if I farmed using modern intensive methods" he says, "but on the other hand my inputs would be much higher.  As it is, they're practically non-existent so my net profit is the same, plus I can do my bit for the future of the planet."
So how does he do it?  Come along and find out.  In these days of doom and despair it's inspiring to learn what can and is being done.


Sunday: Kim McCall - Talk/Discussion: Farming for Profit and Biodiversity

Charlie and Marion Heasman are best known locally as the driving force behind the Biodiversity Action Plan to save the rare Large Carder Bee in Skerries.  The plan is endorsed by the National Biodiversity Centre and AIPP and they are regularly invited to speak to communities across the Country. We all know we must SaveThe Bees and Charlie and Marion are well known In Skerries and beyond for their work in this regard.  But there is an even wider issue: that of rapid and serious global decline of insects in general.
Why is this happening and why should we care?  If we do care, what can we do about it?
Come and join the discussion.

 Sunday: Charlie Heasman - Talk/Discussion: The Insect Apocalypse

Cathal Copeland is a prominent local member of Birdwatch Ireland and has an extensive knowledge of Fingal’s resident and migratory bird populations, which he regularly monitors.  He is delighted to speak at this event as conservation work on pollinators and other insects is of direct value to birdlife.

Saturday: Bird Walk with Cathal Copeland. Meet in Skerries Mills car park.

Dr. Sarah-Jane Cullinane is a facilitator, sustainability educator and mindfulness teacher. She is currently a facilitator of the Work that Reconnects and chair of the Mindfulness Teachers Association of Ireland. Prior to this Sarah-Jane acted as the lead Fellow of Education for Sustainable Development in Trinity College Dublin. Council of All Be(e)ings: An Experiential Workshop:

The Council of all Beings is a creative communal ritual suitable for adults and children. Participants will have the chance to step aside from their human identity and speak on behalf of another life form. It includes a brief outdoor practice where we are called by the non-human beings who wish to be represented at council. This is followed by mask making indoors, the interactive council ritual and finishing with a reading of Dr Seuss's The Lorax.