Tag Archives: Africa

ADVENTURER Declan McEvoy is back on home ground for Christmas after completing the gruelling sixth stage of his round-the-world motorcycle odyssey.   In September, the Quin native set out from Lusaka in Zambia, with the aim of travelling along the West of the African continent, all the way to Dakar in Senegal. Last month, he reached Banjul in Gambia, after a marathon motorcycle trek. Throughout the epic African journey of more than 10,000km, Declan had been keeping friends, family and followers updated on WhatsApp. “Reaching Banjul could only be described as a surreal experience and if I’m to be honest I felt somewhat emotional on my arrival,” he said. “There had been times throughout this trip that I wondered if I’m ever going to make my planned destination, but for some reason it seems I just did. It takes more than determination and stubbornness, the latter apparently of which I have in abundance, to make such a journey through Africa …

SCHOOLCHILDREN from over 20 Clare national schools have joined a campaign that’s planting more than a million trees in Ireland and Africa this year. In the lead up to Christmas, close to 160 class groups at national schools across the county will hold tree planting ceremonies on school grounds, local parks and public land, and will lend their backing to communities who will be planting tens of thousands of new trees in Uganda, Kenya, Senegal and Malawi before the end of the year. The schools initiative is part of the One Million Trees campaign, which will see Self Help Africa plant over a million trees this year.  The campaign is being coordinated by Clare native Sean McMahon, the former principal of Mullagh National School and a former President of the INTO teachers union. The campaign is being backed by the INTO,  and will see native Irish seedlings being distributed for planting by each participating class group. Workshops, collections and other …

QUIN adventurer Declan McEvoy is back home now, having finished his African expedition a few weeks early, with problems at various border crossings leading to him cutting it a little short. Declan, who described himself as being on the fifth stage of a ‘Round the World by Motorbike’ adventure arrived in South Africa in early October, and began working his way north. Ultimately he would reach Zambia, not as far as he had hoped for as bureaucracy was very difficult to negotitate, but he is in a good position for when he gets back to his trusty bike. “I normally do these motorcycle trips over about ten weeks but I just came up against a lot of border closures and was finding it difficult to move. I finished up in Zambia and decided to store the motorcylce with the Irish embassy there. “Where Zambia is positioned, next year I could come up along the east coast, or maybe the west …

FOTA Wildlife Park in Cork have just unveiled their latest arrivals, the yet to be named, 5ft tall male and female giraffes born at the end of January. The first born was the female calf on January 25 to mother, Bláithín and father, Walder.Two days later, a male calf was born to mother, Sapphire and father Tadhg. They now become the youngest of a herd of Rothschild giraffe at Fota, which are one of nine races of giraffe found in Africa. To celebrate the births Fota Wildlife Park has set up a competition inviting the public and schools to come up with an Irish name for the calves, which has become a tradition The competition to name the giraffe calves is open to everyone via the education section on Fotawildlife.ie. The winning name suggestion by a class will result in a class tour behind the scenes at the park, including some of the giraffes inside their house.