As the Irish wool sector continues to fight back, the wool marquee will return today (Saturday, October 5) at Dingle Food Festival, and tomorrow (Sunday, October 6), following its successful participation last year.
Spearheaded by West Kerry Wool; the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) Kerry; and Kerry Lamb Co-Op, the wool marquee will host expert panel talks on the circular economy and its potential for developing opportunities for Irish grown wool.
Exhibitors will sell Irish grown wool products and there will be wool spinning demonstrations during the festival.
Dingle Food Festival is a celebration of flavours with a focus on zero waste.
Organised by local volunteers on a non-profit basis, the festival also includes the popular taste trail; market stalls; masterclasses; workshops; children’s events and street entertainment, Ceiliúradh Bídh Chorca Dhuibhne, to celebrate food, community and sustainability.
Over 10,000 visitors are expected over the weekend.
The Irish Grown Wool Council will be part of the wool marquee at the Dingle Food Festival, sharing innovations and discussions around Irish grown wool with visitors.
On display will be products and information with a sustainable focus for home and garden which use Irish grown wool, highlighting to consumers the potential of this sustainable biofibre.
Exhibitors in the wool marquee will include sustainable sleeping bedding from Dooley’s Wool; wool pellet organic fertiliser from Larkfield Pellet Products; Lorna McCormack from Wool In School with the recently launched Feirm VR, a virtual reality experience that enables students to interact with agricultural environments digitally; Donegal Yarns; Galway Wool Co-Op; Kerry Woollen Mills; Kerry Lamb Wool Co-Op; Fiadh Woven Design; Joe Kelleher, organic specialist, Teagasc and Munster Technological University (MTU.)
There will be wool spinning demonstrations over the weekend by Una Ní Shea and Lori Enright.
Members of the wool hub panel including Catriona Power; MTU and manager, circular bioeconomy cluster and Tim Yeomans, centre manager, Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre will join panel participants including Dinny Galvin, agriculture liaison office, Dingle Hub and Kevin Dooley, wool merchant.
The wool panel talk today will be moderated by Sari Houlihan, presenter of ‘Agritime’ for Radio Kerry and tomorrow by senior news journalist at Agriland, Aisling O’Brien.
An all-island initiative, the objective of the Irish Grown Wool Council is to transform Irish-grown wool, an underutilised and undervalued resource, into a branded value-added product for the benefit of farmers and the wider supply chain.
It is developing collaborations to apply innovative solutions to address current challenges and create pioneering innovation in bio-fibres and sustainable practices for the development of the Irish grown wool sector, which includes approximately 50,000 sheep farming families nationwide as stakeholders.
Meanwhile, MTU and Shannon ABC’s research project ‘Springwool’ which focuses on removing obstacles and providing a springboard for innovation in the Irish-grown wool sector, recently received €574,683 from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).