On Saturday 26th April 2025, we were delighted to hold our online Spring Gathering! This is an event that takes place each spring and is the fourth year of this event and marks the first event we have organised in 2025.

This event was made possible by a grant from Community Foundation for Ireland, and this event marks the first event to bring networks together from all over the island of Ireland.

The theme for 2025 was Growing Community – we’re stronger together through regional networks, local supports and national representation and we were delighted to hear from existing networks of community growers from across Ireland.

The event started with an introduction by Co-Chairs Molly Garvey and Dónal McCormack. Following this introduction, a letter from President Michael D Higgins was read out at the Community Gardens Ireland Spring Gathering to all attendees. Community Gardens Ireland committee wish to thank President Higgins for giving the time to issue this letter.

Letter from President Higgins for the Community Gardens Ireland Spring Gathering, 26th April 2025. See here for a copy of the letter.

Attendees held a virtual round of applause for President Higgins.

Next, the meeting moved on to presentations from local community growing networks throughout Ireland.

Dublin: First up, Ciarán Conneely of Dublin Community Growers discussed the Dublin organisation’s role in bringing together growers from across 4 different local authorities:

Donegal: Joanne Butler of Donegal Community Garden Network (and former chairperson of Community Gardens Ireland) highlighted the history of DCGN, how it operates and the scale of activities throughout Donegal:

Leitrim: Caillin Reynolds of the Leitrim Community Garden Network discussed the amazing progress made in a short period of time in County Leitrim:

Galway: Faozia Moqbel of Get Galway Growing then went through several community gardens located in Galway, detailing the number of active members involved with each, and also specified the benefits associated with their local network:

Cork: In Cork, Maria Young of Cork Community Garden Network (and Community Gardens Ireland Committee Member) presented a map detailing the location of several community growing projects in Cork City, gave background on how the group set about, and how the group has been supported by Cork City Council:

Carlow: Dee Sewell of Carlow County Council, a Community Gardens Ireland Founding Member and Committee Member presented on recent projects that have taken place in Carlow supporting community growing, the recent climate action plans that local authorities completed, and the creation of a guide for the design and implementation of community gardens and allotments for County Carlow:

Laura Kelly, keynote speaker from Carlow County Council, then gave an address on the exciting work taking place on a new Community Gardens and Allotments Policy to be launched by Carlow County Council. The policy recommends good governance, gives clear direction for definitions for community gardens and allotments, and details guidelines to help community groups. All of these items help with the delivery of this vision for Carlow County Council.

Finally, we heard from Conor O’Kane and Miriam Turley of Community Garden Support, which is a new group set up to continue to support community growers in the north of Ireland. The group was providing support as part of the spring gathering with Community Gardens Ireland, and Community Gardens Ireland wishes to thank Community Gardens Support for their help.

Community Gardens Ireland also wishes the team of Conor, Miriam and Patricia all the best on their new endeavour.

The gathering then proceeded to go into break out groups, where attendees discussed local networks, their involvement with them, what challenges are involved with them, what opportunities are present, and what benefits individuals see from the local networks. This session was then completed by the groups returning to the meeting and discussing the outcomes from the individual groups.

The meeting was then concluded by Molly Garvey, Co-Chair of Community Gardens Ireland, and the meeting then proceeded to the AGM of Community Gardens Ireland from 1pm to 1:30pm.

Community Gardens Ireland wish to thank everyone who contributed to making this event such a success. The details in each of the screenshots above show the level of preparation and local knowledge shared from the leaders at the forefront of helping encourage community growing projects throughout the island of Ireland. We also wish to thank President Higgins for his time, all of our committee members for contributing to working on this event for the last number of months, and everyone who attended the event.

The YouTube recording of the event is below – for more details, please contact info@cgireland.org