Flower Power: PJ Morrissey

Bloomin’ marvellous

t was whilst up covering the recent Kenmare Family Fun Day that we noticed just how beautiful the flowers surrounding the Dr James Ryan Community Centre were, and we thought, hey, time to kickstart this year’s Flower Power column again.

When we discovered that this incredible community garden – which also includes a thriving vegetable patch – was pretty much all the work of one man, well, bejiggers, we simply had to swing back up.

It’s got to be a real treat for not only everyone using the Kenmare HQ but all the kids on their way to St. Lawrence’s school next door to pass through all these wonderful flowers and plants.

Having started out only three years ago when a group of local citizens – led by Gerry Daly and his brother-in-law, Hughie Cochran – decided to brighten up the community centre in Kenmare, the initial idea of just one or two flower beds quickly grew. And grew. And grew.

As various voluntary gardeners found they no longer had the time to nurture all this busily blossoming nature, one man stayed the course. Pretty much every day, PJ Morrissey makes sure that this beautiful corner of Kenmare gets that little bit more beautiful.

We swung by this afternoon, to find out just how his mighty garden grows.

With nothing to gain other than other people’s delight – and the odd pensioner getting a few free vegetables for the pot – PJ is an inspiration to us all…

You can check out more of Greystones’ Flower Power children right here.