"When bog standard isn’t enough"

One local group’s determination to preserve and protect a stretch of ancient bogland has provided the spark for creating one of the area’s most dynamic and successful community action organisations.

The Glenullin & Agivey Conservations and Development Group was formed in 1993 with the objective of saving the Glenullin Raised bog from commercial extraction, protecting the Agivey River and its traditional salmon fishing.

• Project Co-Ordinator for Glenullin Resource Centre, Patsy Bradley, says “Campaigning just seemed to get into our blood and, once we discovered we could make a real difference as a community, there was no holding us!”

• The group realised at an early stage that Glenullin also needed a centre for community activities. The Glenullin Resource Centre opened in 2001 with fund raising from CBC, RDC, Leader II through Collage, Coleraine Borough Partnership, providing a meeting centre for local people

• Patsy says: “The social benefits of having somewhere to meet shouldn’t be underestimated in a rural community where isolation can be a serious issue, but we also have access to valuable training. Training and education are central to the survival of a rural community and we are proud that we now offer everything from yoga classes to IT training.”

• The Centre has just learned that it is to be boosted by an 111,000 Euros award to deliver a cross border youth training programme with partners in Sligo and Limavady.

•It is ironic that a group which started off with an environmental agenda should have ended up delivering such a broad range of tangible benefits, but Patsy and his colleagues feel that the blend is appropriate. “If we are to continue living and working in this area then we have to protect not only countryside but also the rural economy and our social structure. Everything is intertwined.”

•That love of the countryside is shown in such projects as its walking club which recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with a commemorative carn on top of Benbradagh.

•The group has also helped Coleraine Borough Council to establish two waymarked trails which have attracted additional funding this year for enlargement, to be undertaken with the support of the Conservation Volunteers. Glenullin’s success has been further rewarded with a three year funding package from the Council, designated to allow them to develop longer term plans instead of having to apply for funding every year.

• Patsy says they still have one outstanding issue on the community agenda however. “That of getting Glenullin Bog designated officially as a Site of Local Nature Conservation Importance (SLNCI). The bog deserves that accolade and the protection that goes with it- and we won’t rest until that is achieved.”