Students unveil Buggingham Palace – new five-star hotel

In normal circumstances, bugs would be the bane of hotel life – but not in Clonfert where a brand new five-star facility has opened ….specifically for the little mites.

And the boys and girls of St. Brendan’s N.S. are inviting every insect, bird, animal and organism in Connacht to their unique winter eco-lodge; the five-star bug hotel people are now calling Buggingham Palace.

BY BEN FLANAGAN
AND CIAN CASEY

This small village is making a big difference in biodiversity as a part of their Green Schools campaign for 2016.

The students, staff and parents of St. Brendan’s have put on their hard hats and thinking-caps and gathered enough recyclable materials like old carpets, pallets, clay pots, bamboos, bricks, twigs, leaves and pine cones to name a few and the Green Schools Committee along with their Green schools Co-ordinator Mr. Sean Corcoran have begun constructing the Bug Hotel.

We student reporters – Ben Flanagan and Cian Casey – went into the field to interview some locals for their thoughts on the matter.

Hotel Manager James Clancy from third class was well up for the challenge.

“I am looking forward to seeing many types of bees checking in, the honey bee and the solitary bee in particular, they will help to pollinate our flowers!” he said.

Parish priest Fr. Declan McInerney was full of praise for the project – mixed with a little apprehension.

“I am delighted to welcome all God’s creatures to Clonfert and I would have no problem blessing the bug hotel but I would not be staying overnight!” he admitted.

Principal Mrs. Déirdre Boyle was also delighted about all the potential new wildlife coming to her school garden.

“We have one big wildlife hotel but the children have made many mini bug hotels from plastic bottles, twigs, pine cones, tree bark and leaves, so everyone is getting on board with helping Biodiversity in any way they can at our school!” she said.

Ben and Cian also caught up with Jennifer Broderick in the school yard, who neither confirmed nor denied that they are expecting some very high profile celebrity guests – including the Beatles – to arrive any time in the coming weeks.

Green schools co-ordinator Sean Corcoran has been using his skills as a carpenter to construct the hotel, wanted to explain why Biodiversity was so important to St. Brendan’s N.S.

“Biodiversity is all life on our planet. It’s what keeps us alive so we should do our best keep it alive!

“I am delighted with the response from the pupils and parents, we have amounted plenty of recycled materials which have allowed us to construct a really colourful and diverse insect hotel.

“It is easy to construct, you just need recyclable materials, old pallets, and you can even reuse the old nails from the pallets, so that everything is recycled!

“This is just the first stage in our action plan, we have already planted a Hazel Tree for Tetra Pak Tree day on October 8, and we will be sewing lots of vegetables, fruit and flowers, building a hedgehog pit-stop and bird houses in the coming weeks and hopefully by Spring our garden will be bursting with life!” he added.

The Green Schools committee have decided upon the slogan ‘Respect and Protect All Nature’ to promote awareness in the Clonfert community.

There will be an official Green Schools opening day this Friday at 12 noon, when the hotel will be given its official name and the children will recite poems, read stories and perform their Green Schools song all under this year’s theme of ‘Biodiversity’.

And the pupils of St Brendan’s now hope that other schools will follow in their footsteps and build wildlife habitats so that Irish Schools can work together on their green theme