Tidy Towns Collects Willow

Helena O’Connor of Boherbue Tidy Towns brought her skills to the fore for two weekends. Saturday 13th and 20th saw volunteers learning to harvest willow for use in projects. This Meitheal is a key exchange of community knowledge, and the days extended into learning how basketry willow is planted, how it grows, and how best to harvest it. The groups were free to take home cuttings or rods for community based projects.

Meitheal is the perfect word for such a day - while not often used anymore, it is the old Irish word for when neighbours come together to assist one another with crops and other such projects.

Willow basketry has picked up in popularity in recent years, and we hope to see more events such as this to promote language and tradition, as well as community learning.