Food Forests Ireland – Circular by Nature
Caithriona McCarthy
Caithriona is the Founder and Programme Director for Food Forests Ireland. She combines her work as a lecturer in Sustainable Horticulture at MSLETB, with projects through Food Forests Ireland. Caithriona has an MSc. in Organic Farming from (SRUC) Aberdeen, a Postgraduate Certificate in Climate Entrepreneurship from Trinity College Dublin (TCD), and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Studies from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business (UCD).
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Una Donoghue
Una is part of the schools coordination team as the number of schools interested in participating has increased exponentially. Una has worked as an outdoor instructor for over 20 years and after retraining in Horticulture in 2021, Una now works in one of Ireland’s most historic gardens.
David Whelan
An engineer by background David has an MBA from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business (UCD), and an MSc in Circular Economy Leadership for the Built Environment (ATU), and a Postgraduate Certificate in the Management of Clean Technologies (DCU). He is the Food Forests Ireland innovation lead and is involved in ongoing collaborations with third level institutions, including Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and Munster Technological University (MTU) on food forest projects.
Patrick Fahy
Patrick Fahy is Biodiversity Officer for Westport Tidy Towns. Throughout 2024, Pat has been leading community food forest planting as Future Food Forest Community Coordinator - all part of the Food Forests Ireland and Tidy Towns collaboration to build food system resilience nationally.
Taragh Cosgrove
Taragh has been ELP Schools Coordinator since 2022. An expert at managing Future Food Forest and edible planting workshops with school groups, Taragh has been instrumental in the piloting and expansion of the schools project in Ireland. From Rush, Co. Dublin, which is well known for its market gardening, Taragh retrained in Horticulture in 2018. As well as working as Food Forests Ireland Schools Coordinator Taragh works in the Organic Garden in North Mayo Heritage Centre.