Chairman hosts reception for St Mary’s, Brollagh Parents’ Council
27th June 2018
On Friday 22 June, Chairman of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Councillor Howard Thornton hosted a reception to honour the members of the Parents’ Council of St Mary’s High School, Brollagh.
Speaking at the reception, Councillor Howard said “As Chairman of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, I am delighted to welcome you all to Fermanagh County Museum this afternoon. I would like to extend a particularly warm welcome to the members of the Parents’ Council of St Mary’s High School, Brollagh, in whose honour this afternoon’s reception is being hosted.
The school is, I understand, situated within the confines of the Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geopark, the only such park to straddle two countries in the world.
Inspired by this location, you submitted an application for funding from the world renowned Royal Botanical Kew Gardens in London under their Grow Wild project, which, I believe, is an outreach programme of Kew Gardens. The objective of the programme is to encourage communities to educate, change lives and transform spaces through native wildflowers and fungi.
Your funding application was one of only 50 successful applications across the UK and one of only 6 in Northern Ireland such was the strength of your application. It was also the only successful application in the Fermanagh and Omagh district this year and only the second such successful application from the district. The cross community and cross border element certainly reflects the title of the project and by using arts and crafts and species of wildflowers native to the area to highlight the beauty of the border region you are demonstrating that nature and beauty do not have any boundaries.
I am delighted that Fermanagh and Omagh District Council is one of your partner organisations in the project. I understand our Biodiversity team will be attending the Summer Scheme to plant flowers for bees and to explore the biodiversity of the local area.
On behalf of the Council and on my own behalf, I wish to convey my congratulations to you for being successful with your funding application for such a prestigious initiative and wish you every success with the “Beautiful Border” project.”