The day started out with a workshop with 5th and 6th class students from All Saints National School. An evening session was then held for all members of the public and we were delighted that over 50 people turned up on a bright sunny June evening. The event took place at Doohamlet Community Centre and Community Garden. Kick sampling was done in the river running through the Community Garden (known as Major Lough Stream) and a wide range of fish, insects and invertebrates were found, including stonefly and mayfly nymph, young trout, eels and evidence of large crayfish (and alas their predators, as what was found was some shell remnants!). Overall we are proud to have found that the species found indicated a water quality rating of 4.4 out of a possible 5.
The workshops were run by the friendly and knowledgable staff of the Coomhola Salmon Trust, based in Cork, We were also delighted to hear they had very positive feedback about Doohamlet, where they based themselves for their week long visit to Monaghan;
"'StreamScapes’ produces aquatic & biodiversity awareness initiatives as part of wider efforts to stimulate public engagement in water quality issues around Ireland.
Monaghan County Council and the Department of Environment produced a pilot project on public engagement on water, and invited ‘StreamScapes’ to be the delivery agent for this aspect of the project. As both Doohamlet National School and Community Association (Tidy Towns) were part of this project, the StreamScapes Team decided to base themselves in Doohamlet for the week.
This proved to be a delight...we stayed in Connolly’s Guesthouse (also B&B and nice Lounge Bar) in the village where our hosts Alexis and Marion Connolly provided us with a comfortable, bright and airy self-catering apartment for the week.
Doohamlet National School was the first stop for the project on Monday morning, 8 June, and the StreamScapes teaching staff (Stephanie & Aaron) took the enthusiastic students down to the local stream to learn about the biodiversity and the ‘bio-monitors’ which live in the stream.
In the evening a Field Trip was produced for a large group of Tidy Towns and Community Group members and local interested residents, followed by a meeting in the Doohamlet Community Centre. It was clear to see how active the local group is; a fantastic community centre and the group had taken an overgrown section of stream next to the centre, cleared it and replanted it with sensible plantings, provided stream-side path and benches and a very clever ‘Insect Hotel’.
We enjoyed our time in Doohamlet immensely and would recommend it to anyone for a great holiday base...in the heart of County Monaghan!"
Many thanks to Bernie O'Flaherty and Aileen Gavin and all at the Environment Section of Monaghan County Council for giving us the opportunity to run this very enjoyable and informative workshop in our community, and thanks to Mark Boydan and his team at Coomhola Salmon Trust.
Photo 1: Doohamlet National School students surveying and sampling their local stream. Note river walk, ‘Insect Hotel’, and community centre in background.
Photos 2 & 3: Doohamlet Community Association taking part in evening field trip and discussing local water quality issues.
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