Horizons

By SYLVIA THOMPSON

Imagining the townscape

The future of Irish towns, in terms of planning, tourism, sport and the arts, is the theme of a two-day conference at Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow, next week on Friday, March 5th and Saturday, 6th. Speakers at the conference, titled Our Towns: A 20/20 Vision, include Irish TimesEnvironment Editor Frank McDonald, mayor of Würzburg (in Germany) Georg Rosenthal, and the manager of Galway's Town Hall Theatre, Fergal McGrath.

Billy Houlihan, the former Cork county architect, will also speak about the transformation of Kinsale and Clonakilty.

To book, telephone 01-2828248 or e-mail info@braychamber.ie.

The leprechaun’s new clothes?

The Cooley Peninsula will celebrate a reported EU designation as an area for the protection of “little people” in a ceremony in Carlingford, Co Louth tomorrow. It all started 20 years ago when a leprechaun’s suit was found near the wishing well on the Slieve Foy mountain. Soon, clever tourism officials started the Carlingford National Leprechaun Hunt, to which visitors flocked. While the search for a naked leprechaun continued, locals pushed for the area to be designated as a protected area for flora, fauna and those infamous little people.

Check out carlingfordleprechaun.ie if you don’t believe us.

Tree-planting for Ireland

More than 15,000 trees for planting will be distributed to a range of community groups by local authorities during National Tree Week, which starts next Sunday, March 7th, and continues until Saturday, 13th. The theme of this year’s event is Twenty Ten, Plant Again/Fiche is a Deich, Cuir Crainn Arís.

Despite increased efforts over the past 100 years, Ireland remains one of the least wooded countries in Europe. Only 10 per cent of the land here is planted with trees, compared to a European average of 40 per cent.

See treecouncil.ie for a full list of forest walks, workshops, tree-planting ceremonies, talks and competitions.