With Dr Catherine Keena, Teagasc Countryside Management Specialist

Look out for haws on whitethorn and note where they are occurring - on older wood.

Treeline hedges where whitethorn has grown into single stem trees with full canopies full of haws at this time of year.

Topped hedges with occasional whitethorn trees, which have been allowed grow within them provide haws on those trees.

At Hedgerow Week events on Teagasc farms in Ballyhaise, Athenry, Clonakilty, Curtins Moorepark and Kildalton at 11am on 2 – 6 September respectively – see where whitethorn saplings have been selected in recent years from within existing old hedges and allowed grow up and mature as individuals to flower and fruit – an easy way to increase our native Irish biodiversity in topped hedges.

Crotach Curlew

By Jackie Gorman, Athlone

Dinosaur blood flows through your veins

as you search for worms in the loosened soil

of the callows in Drumlosh. Looped cries

and bubbling notes float into the blue.

Your beak a sickle mowing through my mind.

In dreams I see you wading into the water,

bristling as swans ripple

from your reflection.

Suddenly, I am ten years old,

emptying my purse of conkers and furze,

treasure and talismans from

a long Sunday walk with my father

falling in love with wings

and all he knows of this muddy bank.

The male curlew is called a rooster

and the female is larger,

a group of curlews is a curfew

and isn’t that a good one now?

It is and I laugh when he says c’mon now

or we’ll be out after curfew and there’ll be no tea when we get home. All the way home I play with the words - curlew, curfew.

That night, I sickle through my dreams.

I find in the centre of my mind a nest

of four khaki green eggs

arranged in the shape of a star.

Wedding fever is about to hit Co Laois, as St Paul’s Church of Ireland in Mountmellick gets ready to celebrate the nuptials that have taken place there over the last century in a very special way.

A new exhibition ‘The Dresses of St Paul’s’ and a programme of events from 4 to 8 September will remember the 57 weddings in the venue over the last 100 years.

And organisers are keen to involve the whole community in the effort, with the official launch of the exhibition on 5 September with special guest Bishop Pat Storey.

The exhibition of dresses and wedding memorabilia/photos opens to the public on Friday, 6 September from 11am to 8pm.

There are 16 dresses featured, one of which was even sent from Australia for the showcase. Mountmellick Drama Group will renact an ecumenical wedding service followed by a reception in the The Hare’s Corner on 7 September.

"It also has knock-on effects for the wider community. If a child isn’t cared for in their locality, there’s a chance they won’t attend the small rural school nearest their home.” - Mairead Hurley, head of childminding services, Childminding Ireland.

For just three nights, and following on from its initial and successful run, Bright Umbrella presents an all-female rehearsed, abridged reading of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare in Belfast from 5 to 7 September.

A Government and industry-led event WorldSkills Ireland 2024 is taking place from 25 to 27 September at the RDS Simmonscourt aimed at encouraging more young people to consider a skillsbased career.

Over 24,000 students across 300 secondary schools are expected to see first-hand the wealth of career opportunities in the skills and trades sectors.