Documentaries on KCLR

In this first part of a four-part series, we'll hear from former Kilkenny GAA chairman Ned Quinn, hurlers Eddie Keher, Jim Treacy, and Tom Walsh along with sports writer Enda McEvoy on the buildup to 3 September 1967, the day that Kilkenny would beat Tipperary in an All-Ireland senior hurling final for the first time in 45 years.

There's no doubt about it, trees give us many things and over the course of this programme series we have heard about many of these benefits.  But probably one of the nicest things about trees is how they give us an avenue for our creativity, and they provide a beautiful space in which to walk.   Mick Power is National Estates Manager with Coillte with responsibility for biotic risk and we meet hi...

We all love nature but sometimes we don't consider just how much we are damaging it through our food and economic systems.  In this programme Maura Brennan who runs the Acorn Project in Kilkenny is trying to repair this contradiction by running workshops that engage communities to care for and grow trees in their locality. Through funding from the Woodland Support Project, the Acorn Project has co...

Engineered wood, is made, in the case of Orientated Strand Board, by taking the thinnings from softwood conifer plantations and putting it through a process whereby it is transformed into board that is as hard as any hardwood timber. This process takes place at Smartply located in Belview Co Kilkenny where Monica meets Neil Foot.  She is taken on a tour around the plant beginning first in the log...

First to the annual RDS Forest and Woodland Awards which Andrew O'Carroll won in 2018 in the Teagasc Farm Forestry Award category.  One of the secrets to his success, he believes, is that he planted the right tree in the right place.  Ballygorteen in on the side of the Castlecomer Plateau and the soil isn't very productive for grassland but it's great for growing Sitka Spruce.  Sitka Spruce to all...

The JFK Arboretum was conceived as a memorial to honour American President John F Kennedy following his assassination in 1963.  The site at New Ross Co Wexford was picked due to it's proximity to his ancestral homestead and due it's mild climate, diverse soil types and variations in elevation. Kevin Naughton is head gardener at the arboretum and he takes Monica around the park, stopping at interva...

The Bunburys have lived at Lisnavagh House for over 300 years.  Their home sits on 600 acres of which 200 acres is woodland, mainly native hardwoods.   Over the years storms have taken down some of the old trees.  William Bunbury of Lisnavagh, on looking at them being removed to the sawmill and seeing all the tonnes of wood in them, felt that he could add value to them.  Thus, he came up with the...

The Castlecomer Discovery Park is situated on the site of the former pleasure gardens of the Wandesforde Family, members of the landed gentry, who for 300 years, were central to the farming and coal mining activities in the area. Some of the trees that they brought back from their trips in Europe and elsewhere still stand at the park and a favourite among many people is the giant Redwood - with it...

Over the years humans observed and studied trees and this research continues in Teagasc where scientists explore the different aspects of trees to maximise their potential in relation to timber and biodiversity attributes.   This programme begins by using the Marteloscope Training plot to determine how the decisions a forestry owner makes during the thinning processes will impact on the objectives...

Agroforestry seems to be the answer to farmers worries in relation to trees and taking land out of use for 50 or 60 years - which is the case under the traditional grant aided forestry scheme.  With agroforestry the trees are planted at a lower density and the normal farm practises - like grazing and silage making are carried on as normal.   Jim McAdam pioneered the system in Northern Ireland and...

People are buying their Christmas Trees earlier than before.  That's according to Michael O'Gorman of Celtic Christmas Trees who has been working hard the past month harvesting, packing, delivering and selling his Christmas Trees. They are of the Nordmann Fir variety - rather than Nobel Fir, which is finnicky to grow and requires a particular soil type.  Nordmann Fir keep their needles but they do...

Ballintemple Tree Nursery is situated just outside Ardattin Co Carlow and it is here that Coillte process their seeds and rear trees from seed for planting out into the forest, In this programme we visit the nursery and meet Dermot O'Leary Nursery Manager and Monica Murphy, Seed and Veg Propagation Manager.  Monica explains the process of seed stratification where seeds are first extracted from th...

In this programme we meet Mick Power, National Estates Manager with Coillte with responsibility of biotic risk.  We meet in the beautiful Castlemorris Woods in Co Kilkenny where a mixture of lots of different trees flourish and grow.  In an area within the woods is an enclosed 2-hectare site which is the clonal bank for ash die bank resistant trees.  These trees were gathered from places all over...

Oak accounts for only 2.7% of our Irish forests which is low compared to Sitka Spruce which accounts for 51.1% of the trees in Ireland.  In this programme we meet farmer Ger Daly who, in 1999 planted an Oak Forest with the help of Coillte.  Ger talks about the process of getting the oaks established, the Scots Pine as nurse trees, and the pruning that he did on them to help them grow straight with...

Trees and water courses have evolved together over thousands of years to their mutual benefit.  As humans, we benefit from trees near water courses because they hold the rainwater and have a huge role to play in the slowing down of flood waters.  Protection forests are big in some European countries says Michael Somers, Forestry Advisor with Teagasc Kilkenny - trees could be our flood protectors,...

Other European countries are blessed with a long tradition of planting trees.  We lost this tradition somewhere along the line and the Irish state is now trying to encourage private landowners to plant trees.  For some farmers and landowners this is a big decision to make, and, in this programme, we speak with retired forester from Coillte Barry Comiskey. He used to go around and visit farmers and...

This programme series 'Trees: From Seed to Sawdust' looks at the value of trees, not just from an economic perspective but also in relation to their ability to store carbon.  This is becoming more and more important as we try to reduce the amount of carbon going into the atmosphere and prevent further global warming.   In this programme Monica Hayes meets the Irish Wood Producers at their wood chi...

For thousands of years the wood from the trees has been a source of material from which music can be made.  In fact the oldest musical instrument ever to be found in Ireland is made from the wood of a yew tree and was found in Wicklow in 2003.  Simon O'Dwyer, from Ancient Music Ireland joins us on the programme to talk about the reproduction he made of these 4,150-year-old set of pipes that have b...

The programme beings on the border between Kilkenny and Laois at a forest which is being thinned by Paddy Bruton's company Forestry Services Ltd.  The different lengths of wood being cut from the trees are mostly being processed locally to be used as stakes or in the construction industry, in pulp or made into pallets.  All the timber is cut to exact lengths for the sawmills The programme then mov...

Rod and Julie Calder Potts grow apple trees at Highbank Orchard just off the Callan Road Kilkenny.  Rod inherited the orchard from his parents and in 1986 he decided that he would stop spraying his trees and go completely organic. The transition to organic was terrible though.  All his trees died.  So, he started from scratch again and though it took a while to get going he now has a wonderful cro...

In the first programme in this series we hear from Kevin Black, a scientist who specialises in trees and climate change but first we visit the Blackstairs Eco Centre and join their Celtic Tree Trail in order to put into the context our long and productive relationship with trees.    Trees:  From Seed to Sawdust is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as part of the Woodland...

The final programme in our Nore Vision Series, for the past 2 months we have been bringing you programmes about the Nore Vision project which is a Kilkenny Leader Partnership initiative. It’s all about creating community engagement with the River Nore with the ultimate aim of establishing a long term Trust that looks after the community’s interests in the river. This is the final programme in the...

In Programme 8 we explore how industry has moulded itself around the geological landscape of the River Nore in the form of mining, milling, brewing and more. This programme features Taly Williams hydrogeologist with the Geological Survey of Ireland, Rick McGrath engineer, Brett’s Sawmills Kilkenny, Paddy Neary historian and Lisa Maher from the EPA. Funded by Kilkenny LEADER Partnership CLG through...

The River Nore provides a great space for outdoor activities and in this programme we feature some of the people who swim, fish, walk and boat on the river. Featuring Denis Drennan, Paddy Dunne, Tommy Hoyne, Aidan Brennan, Donnachadh Brennan and the Thomastown Paddlers, Cliff Reid and finally Maura Brennan of the Acorn Project who is involved in educating young people about their environment. Fund...

In the 6th programme in the Nore Vision radio series we visit the uplands of the River Nore, talk about the farm walks organised by Nore Vision, discuss farm ecology and explore the role of the farmer and farm policy in improving the water quality of the River Nore. It features Michael Costigan from Clonakenny, Bredan McSorley, Field Officer for the Farm Walks and Mags Morrissey Ecologist on the F...