04/10/2026
"If we were coal miners, we would be up to our knees in dead canaries."
President Michael D. Higgins, Ireland's first National Biodiversity Conference, 2019
What a night at the All-Ireland Sustainability Awards 2026
We're so proud the Burren Native Nursery was a finalist in its very first year. Huge thanks to head gardener Victoria de Angelis and volunteer Emily Coen for their work and representing the team.
The idea is simple: protect, save, propagate, regenerate. Native, local plant stock is scarce in Ireland, and imports risk diluting local genetics and offer less to pollinators.
Our answer took 30+ years to build:
🌱 1990s: Certified organic. Our limestone pavement, hazel woodland, orchid meadow and wetland have never seen chemicals.
🌱 2012: Mary and Roy Bermingham gift their 50-acre farm in Kinvara to nature. Eddie Dee becomes head plantsman.
🌱 2013: Eddie creates the Living Collection of Burren Flora in the Burren Botany Bubble (supported by Galway Rural Development LEADER). Glasnevin's advice and plant labels grow into an official partnership under Dr Noeleen Smyth, now Director.
🏆 Geopark Visitor Interpretation Gold
🏆 2014–2017: Geopark Leave No Trace Gold, SCCUL Enterprise, Irish Responsible Tourism Silver, Green Hospitality Eco, JCI Friendly Business
🌱 2018: Training with Eddie at Sóller Botanic Garden, Mallorca, in seed banking and propagation.
🌱 2019: The first ever seed in Ireland's national seed bank: a bee orchid from Burren Nature Sanctuary.
🏆 Business for Biodiversity Award
🏆 Energia Sustainable Business of the Year, Silver
🏆 2021: Nature Podcast of the Year for Nature Magic
🌱 2022: University of Galway brings DigiLeGo, an EU Erasmus+ project, here to film a virtual field trip for students across Europe. Dr Karen Bacon's botany students have visited every year since.
🏆 2023: Nature Attraction of the Year, Ireland, European Travel Awards
🌱 2025: Victoria, under Eddie, starts our pilot propagation project.
🏆 SEAI Sustainable Energy Awards finalist
🌱 Winter 2025–26: The Burren Native Nursery is set up.
🌱 2026: Our first harvest:→ 500+ native plants, including Bloody Cranesbill, Dropwort and Burnet Rose→ Every one donated, not sold, to Tidy Towns groups, community biodiversity projects and ACRES farmers
🏆 All-Ireland Sustainability Awards finalist
Collect, conserve, propagate, plant. A model any Irish community with species-rich land could copy.
Thank you to Eddie and our small, brilliant team, Kinvara Tidy Towns, the University of Galway Plant Sciences Department and the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin.
Next up: our 2027 goal is to double our gardener hours so we can double the plants we give away. If your business would like to help, email Nature Sanctuary & Botanical Collection
Thank you Michael D for keeping us motivated through a pandemic and an economic crisis for small businessesGalway County Biodiversity Office
