At part one, Jennifer Brady talked about the ‘regatta’ held in Shannon Harbour recently. Shannon Harbour is a beautiful harbour, but like many places has suffered from the recession and is prone to flooding. But the regatta is a fine celebration of the river Shannon and Ireland’s waterways.

Pegah (an intern with Forest Friends) who is a native of Canada and students from Italy, Melissa and Valeria (also interns with Forest Friends) talked about their first impressions of Ireland. They liked the greenery of the land and houses but found the weather very cold compared with Italy.

The participants listed some cycling issues, safety, cycling facilities, investment percentage of total transport investment, bias in the media in favor of vehicular transport, and educational aspects. It was pointed out that the number of cycling fatalities was rising. It was also pointed out that the new cycleway along Bull Island had no trees and the extension of this cycleway proposed to fell a large number of mature trees which the participants felt was unacceptable. The view was expressed that the walkway could be located at the sea side of the wall which would afford the opportunity to plant a lot of trees in the present walkway.

In part two, we interviewed Paula O’Regan about her book ‘Healing with Herbs’ first published by Primrose Press in 1997 and reprinted four times. We talked about several herbs and their properties.

Presenter: John Haughton

Panellists: Joseph Dunne and Jennifer Brady

Guests: Charlie Kinch, Paula O’Regan

Student guests: Pegah, Melisa and Valeria