St. Declan’s Way Pilgrims Path
In recent weeks waymarkers have been placed at certain points in Lismore town as part of the St. Declan’s Way Pilgrims Path. This ancient path links Cashel in Co. Tipperary with Ardmore in Co. Waterford and on its way passes through parts of Cahir, Ardfinnan, Goatenbridge, Cappoquin, Lismore and Aglish.
The St. Declan’s Way Pilgrim Path utilises the route of a number of ancient and medieval pilgrimage and trading routes. The tree covered Round Hill 2km from Lismore town is one of the sites on this pilgrim path. It overlooks a fording point on the river Blackwater and the ancient Rian Bo Phadraig - Track of St. Patrick’s Cow - crossed the river at this point. King
John and the Normans built a motte and bailey fortification here in the late 12th century but deserted it after a number of years.
A loop walk has now been developed along the Blackwater river and a new footpath at Ballyea is making it much safer for pilgrims and walkers using this walk. This is a great boost post Covid for tourism in Lismore town.
He was a fifth century saint who brought Christianity to the southern part of Ireland and was particularly associated with the Deise tribe in Waterford and South Tipperary. He established his monastery in Ardmore and his grave there remains an important part of pilgrimage. Cashel was the seat of the Kings of Munster in Declan’s lifetime and the St. Declan’s Way Pilgrims Path follows the route that St. Declan would have taken from Ardmore to Cashel.
Great to see the large street sweeper in town for a few days last week when the approach roads and streets in the town were swept. Thanks to John Foley, General Services Supervisor Waterford City & Co. Co. for organising this. Due to Covid-19 restrictions and with its CE workers also not working, Lismore Tidy Towns has not been able to get places swept for a long time. We now ask people reading this article who live adjacent to a footpath to regularly sweep outside the kerbing of the footpath at their property and to help with the Tidy Towns effort by keeping it clean and litter free. Hopefully during May the town will get a smaller sweeper to help keep the town’s footpaths debris free.
ECO TIP OF THE WEEK
Fast fashion is the topic again this week. A reminder of what fast fashion is? It is the mass production of cheap disposable clothing. Countless new collections make us feel constantly out of date and encourage us to keep buying. Cheaper pricing has allowed us to buy more and more clothes, but now people are realising that this is possible due to ongoing reductions in the costs of production, which have serious consequences for garment workers in poorer countries, planet earth and even our own health.
HOW CAN WE REDUCE OUR FASHION ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT?
Buy less - even the greenest garment uses resources for production and transport to your home, thus creating some environmental impact
Buy clothes from sustainable brands - more and more fashion brands are taking into account the environmental and social impact of their production. A Google search will give you all of the information that you require.
Buy better quality - if we stop buying poor quality it will push brands to improve the quality of their clothing.
It will also allow us to keep our clothes longer, which is good for the purse strings and the environment.