Happily ever after with greener bites — staying sustainable on your big day doesn't have to be difficult
There are ways to avoid food waste and over-consumption, an especially pertinent topic during this National Food Waste Recycling Week.
A 2019 report, published by the Environmental Protection Agency, estimated that the annual cost of food waste (food wholesale, food retail, and food service) was €300m. Hotels have the highest level of food waste, and two-thirds of food waste from this sector can be avoided.
Reducing food waste is crucial in tackling climate change, and Ireland is committed to cutting food waste in half by 2030, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals..
The number of couples who consider sustainable practices when choosing a wedding venue is increasing, according to WedPro's annual industry report. One of the first places to start is to have a conversation with hotels and venue operators.
This eco-awareness is something that Michael O'Neill, manager and part-owner of the family-run Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens, in Clonakilty, has noticed in recent years.
'Customers are more aware now and they're looking for more sustainable weddings,' O'Neill says. 'It's much more common than 10 years ago. We've been doing it for ages, and no one cared. Now they're asking for the hotel's sustainable credentials, and the odd couple would even calculate their wedding carbon footprint.'
Eco-awareness is something that Michael O'Neill, manager and part-owner of the family-run Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens, in Clonakilty, has noticed in recent years. Picture: Andy Gibson.
The Georgian mansion house at Fernhill has been in the family since Michael's great-grandfather, butcher MJ O'Neill, bought it in 1946, with each generation improving what's on offer in this relaxed and comfortable space.
A walkable 2km from Clonakilty town centre, the hotel is set in a naturally landscaped garden developed by renowned designer Mary Reynolds, which encompasses a river valley with old woodland. The hotel has always drawn water from an on-site well, and its solar panels, as O'Neill says, have been 'hopping with the sunshine over the last month'.
This area of sustainability is something with which O'Neill is well acquainted. He is a former director of Sustainable Clonakilty, a community-led initiative formed in 2006 that promotes sustainability and energy independence through various initiatives, including energy efficiency and local food production.
He was also a board member of EDEN Ireland, an EU project that highlights sustainable tourism destinations. Clonakilty won Ireland's first EDEN sustainable tourism award for outstanding emerging rural destination in 2007.
The West Cork town has a long-standing record of community activism, much of it centred around food. In 2003, it became the first Fairtrade town in Ireland. Earlier this year, the Kids Food Revolution embarked on an ambitious drive to create a healthier food environment for children, locally and nationally.
Fernhill is one of five West Cork wedding destinations — including Dunmore House Hotel, Camus Farm, Celtic Ross Hotel and Dunowen House — that joined together last year to promote their Waste Not, Want Not sustainable wedding offerings.
The recently launched Waste Not, Want Not food waste campaign is a collaboration between Irish environmental charity VOICE, Clonakilty Tidy Towns, and Clonakilty Community Resource Centre. Not surprisingly, Fernhill House Hotel & Gardens was named as one of its Food Waste Champions.
Fernhill is one of five West Cork wedding destinations — including Dunmore House Hotel, Camus Farm, Celtic Ross Hotel and Dunowen House — that joined together last year to promote their Waste Not, Want Not sustainable wedding offerings.
The team at Fernhill keeps a close eye on food waste.
'The worst things for waste at weddings are vegetable bowls,' says O'Neill.
At Fernhill, they do silver service — where waiters serve food from large platters — which cuts down on discarded food. Similarly, the wine is also poured by staff.
O'Neill says that the hotel is keen to improve further. 'We brought new things in to try and take it to another level. We encourage couples to let us pick the canapés, vegetables, and desserts, so that we can use foods that are in season locally.
Fernhill has worked with local producers for many years: O'Neill still sources meats and black and white puddings from the butcher shop established by the man who bought Fernhill.
"You don't want something like broccoli in winter — that's not coming from Ireland. Then, in the summer, if there's a glut, we can use that up to reduce food waste.'
'We watch the bins ourselves,' says O'Neill. 'There's never been a wedding that my family hasn't been here for. We check food waste to see what's going out and always assess what happened. We're able to cut down on a lot of waste by retaining a well-experienced chef — head chef Lukasz Tomaszewicz has been here for 15 years.'
On the day of a wedding, understanding the number of main course portions between, for instance, beef and local cod can be difficult and wasteful. 'But,' according to O'Neill, 'Lukasz has it down to a fine art.'
Rather than sticking with traditional meat or fish as the two main-course options, it's possible to prioritise vegetarian dishes by having a vegetable dish as one of the main choices. 'Couples can also ask their guests to pre-order their main course. It's something that's common in other countries,' says O'Neill. 'No one is forced to do it, but it does cut down on waste.'
If you're planning for future nuptials, opting for a green wedding is more about picking good alternatives, rather than sacrificing ideals.
Local sourcing is also vital for sustainability: 'In Ireland, with our climate, we can get amazing vegetables, fish, and meat. Where we are in West Cork is like the craft food capital of Ireland. We're very lucky that it's so easy to work with local suppliers: Glenmar Shellfish in Union Hall for local fish; Clona dairy for our milk; Irish Yogurts Clonakilty, Clonakilty Free Range Eggs, and Mologa honey for breakfast in the morning; and, at this time of the year, we're full up to the brim with Bushby's strawberries.'
Fernhill has worked with local producers for many years: O'Neill still sources meats and black and white puddings from the butcher shop established by the man who bought Fernhill.
MJ O'Neill Butchers is now run by Haulie O'Neill, a first cousin of Michael's father. 'It's natural to us. Our great-grandfather had his own butcher shop, and he founded our food philosophy here, keeping it local and keeping down the food miles.'
If you're planning for future nuptials, opting for a green wedding is more about picking good alternatives, rather than sacrificing ideals. 'It's a nice way to start your married life,' says O'Neill, 'consciously choosing to be more sustainable.'
www.fernhillhousehotel.com
National Food Waste Recycling Week runs until 8 June. More information at mywaste.ie
Read More
Eat your way to the best results — nutritious food to help exam students succeed
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
3 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
‘Really amazing' – The huge playground in heart of Dublin city with swings set and slides – with food market once a week
And there is an art exhibit that happens once a week too FUN-TASTIC 'Really amazing' – The huge playground in heart of Dublin city with swings set and slides – with food market once a week TAKE a look at the popular Irish playground with a swing set, basket swings, a huge slide and an obstacle course - and it's smack right in the heart of the bustling capital. Located at Merrion Square in Dublin City, it is one of the finest Georgian garden parks in the area, surrounded by several notable buildings within the square. 6 Merrion Square Park is the ideal spot for a family day out 6 It has many beautiful flowerbeds Credit: Alamy 6 The locals widely love the play areas in the park Credit: Alamy Just a short walk from Pearse train station, which is frequently used by the DART and Rosslare Europort services, the playground and the surrounding area are the ideal day out spot for the family. The highlight for visitors is the large, restored play area with wooden and secured equipment - and it's open for the majority of the day all year round. The underrated spot has been praised as one of the best in Dublin by the locals, and it is based on the famous Oscar Wilde story The Selfish Giant. Oscar spent most of his life on Merrion Square, which sparked the council to dedicate the restored play area in his honour. Within the park, the equipment is wooden and there are two play areas for older kids and one for tots, ensuring that all kids won't be left out of the fun. For toddlers, the play area has two baby swings, a basket swing, a small slide and a balancing unit. While the older kids can enjoy using the two normal swings and the gigantic multiplay unit that symbolises the Giant of the garden. Parents can enjoy a lovely walk in the park that is full of gorgeous flower beds and sculptures, including the colourful statue of Oscar Wilde, after the kids are done playing at the play area. Throughout the park, there are loads of benches and picnic areas for the family to relax and eat their meals before moving on. Every Thursday, there is a lunchtime market in the park that runs from 11.30 to 2pm, offering a vast selection of delicious treats and lunches. And on Sundays, the park railings turn into an Open Air Art Gallery where several artists exhibit and sell their own works. In the area, there is the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery of Ireland, ensuring the visitors won't be stuck for things to do. And the best thing is that the history museum is free of entry, meaning you wouldn't have to pay a single dime for your little excursion with the family. RAVING REVIEWS Locals and visitors took to TripAdvisor and shared their thoughts on Merrion Square Park, with one person raving that adults can even have some fun as well. One person wrote: "Great park! Lots of natural beauty, landscape, sculptures, etc. "Very nice paths for walking and definitely a quiet place in the city. Very well maintained." Another person added: "Merrion Square and the park is a really great area. "The playground is by any standard really amazing. Well laid out and sizeable. Adults could have fun!" The third person said: "This playground fits in well to its surroundings as most of the fixtures are made from wood and it is placed in a spot in the park that is at its lowest so it's well protected. "It is covered in wood chippings so it's also environmentally friendly too." 6 The park is a dedication to Oscar Wilde 6 The play areas are inspired by the story The Selfish Giant Credit: Alamy
Irish Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Things for teens to do in Dublin city centre during the holidays
We're past the halfway point of the school summer holidays and boredom is setting in. The annual sun getaway abroad is behind many of us and most parents have to work full-time. Kids can do summer camps, but teens can be tricky - and costly - to keep entertained. These spirited youngsters want to do stuff on their own, which is handy; but it's also nice to join them occasionally, when time allows. Surprisingly, one of the best places for family activities to suit teens is Dublin city centre. With a number of new attractions, it's become a teen-friendly capital. It's now home to some brand-new top entertainment options. These attractions - all opened this year - have positioned Dublin as a great city for family fun. I went out with my son Luc, 15, and his pals, to try them out. Here's what we thought of them. (L-R Sarah Clancy, CEO Little Museum of Dublin, Mary Stack of Fáilte Ireland, Emma Blain, Lord Mayor and First Citizen of Dublin) Little Museum of Dublin The capital's quirkiest museum has just re-opened after a €4million renovation that took a year to complete. It's a new-look, modernised refit that brings the museum - located in a Georgian mansion on iconic St Stephen's Green - into the 21st century. However it has retained its ethos as a 'hospitable, historic and humorous welcome to Dublin.' Visitors are first brought into a special screening room for a fully immersive introduction video, which features a cheeky Molly Malone. The tour is a crash course in Dublin history, carried out with wit, wisdom, eccentricity and charm. It's an educational and entertaining activity for teens - a bit wacky and never boring. The tour is less than an hour, moves at pace and is easy to grasp, and explanations like how Dublin went from "Irish village, to Viking Town, to English city, to proud European capital." There's plenty of humour, and the teens were delighted by effervescent young guide Saul, a world-famous Irish dancer who treated us to a jig around the room. It's highly cultural, with plenty of mentions of some of the city's most impressive figures such as Brendan Behan, Oscar Wilde, Maureen O'Hara and Bono. It also reveals lesser-known tales of the city, such as how both the British and Irish sides in the 1916 Rising agreed to a ceasefire every day to allow the ducks to be fed in Stephen's Green. This one will amuse young culture vultures. I enjoyed the nostalgia of artefacts from the recent past, such as Callcards and Dublin Millennium milk bottles. Family tickets are €45; student entry is €16. Lane7 Stepping into Lane7 on Dublin's Clarendon Row is like stepping back into the 1980s. This is a bowling and gaming venue with a retro vibe, which the younger gang seem to find amusing. For me, it's nostalgia - for them, it's 'Leisureplex, but 80s' as they deemed it. Lane7 is far more swish than Leisureplex and is definitely set up for a night out, or a place to bring a date, or just a cool hangout. It's all graffiti walls and neon lights and funky bar areas. All the old-skool games are here, and many have an American flavour. There's a slick bowling lane, a photo booth called the Kissing Booth, and beer pong. There's also darts, which was the biggest hit with this competitive bunch, and it's interactive, so the board does the 'math' for you. Classic arcade games include Space Invaders and you can also shoot hoops in a basketball toss game or play ice hockey on a board. The bar serves food and drink - with a large cocktail menu - but has a very strict age policy for alcohol, so no worries there for younger visitors. The Dundrum venue is bigger and has more games such as pool and shuffleboard, but to have a place like this to go in the city centre is special. A great, budget-friendly place for young people to meet friends and have fun and more social teens in particular will love it. World of Illusion Dublin World of Illusion This is a place for young scientists, or those with curious minds. A trip to the World of Illusion at Dublin's Central Plaza will leave you fascinated by how our perceptions of the world can be changed by our environment - light, colour, patterns and movement. Up to 70 visual illusions and interactive exhibitions are here to experience, and some of them are mind-blowing. We all loved the Vortex Tunnel, which is simply a static bridge in a dark room. However, add swirling lights and it creates the illusion of movement. So those crossing it feel like they're being thrown about, even though nothing is moving. The infinity mirrors in the Infinity Room is mesmerising: you're in a room the size of a large cupboard, but it feels like it goes on forever. The large kaleidoscope allows you to see your face as a kaleidoscopic pattern, while in the Ames room, you appear to change size, depending on what position you're standing in. The gravity-defying exhibition makes it appear as though you're being blown vertically in the wind, while the head-on-a-platter installation makes it appear as though you're about to be eaten for dinner. The entire visit to the World of Illusion takes no more than an hour and a half, and there is plenty of wonder to discuss afterwards. Student entry is €18.70, while a family ticket is €63.75. For more information, see Sandbox VR It's amazing that a VR venue of such a size is in the city centre. Usually they're far out in the suburbs, involving a hike through traffic, so it's really convenient for it to be so accessible. But Sandbox is another level. It's not just some warehouse where you go to shoot up zombies, this is a social day out in the world's most advanced virtual reality experience. We played Red Light Green Light, based on the Netflix hit Squid Game, and it's all so hyper-real, it feels like you're inside the game. Teens who love tech and gaming adore this place. We were kitted out with the most high-tech VR headsets, 3-D precision body trackers, custom hardware, sensors and haptic vests. All you could hear from the room was the screams and shouts of six teenagers having the time of their lives. They hadn't even left the building when they were planning their next trip back. One of the big draws is Toni, Ireland's first robotic bartender. After the game, players can head for the comfortable bar area for a few cocktails and mocktails. As we drank them, we got to watch footage of our game, showing us both in the real world and the VR alternative universe. With a total capacity of 150 people, Sandbox occupies 11,000 square feet of the new development, Grafton Place, at 39 Nassau Street, just steps away from Grafton Street. Prices vary from €30 to €50 per person, depending on whether the visit is peak or off-peak. Sandbox VR opens from 10am until 11pm to 12pm, seven days a week. For more of the latest breaking news from the Irish Mirror check out our homepage by clicking here.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Irish Times
We all need to consume less if we are to save our environment from catastrophe
The focus on solving the triple crises of climate change , biodiversity loss and pollution is often on how to reduce harmful emissions by reaching targets for agriculture, transport and energy use. According to the latest Environmental Protection Agency report , Ireland will only achieve a reduction of 23 per cent in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 instead of the national target of 51 per cent with current measures. But what if we broadened our focus and added other ways to dealing with these crises? What if we took a sharper look at consumption patterns and resource use as a way of holding on to existing value rather than just focusing on reducing emissions from what is already used and sometimes even wasted? Experts in organisations such as the Ellen Macarthur Foundation have long argued that energy efficiency and switching to renewable energies will only address 55 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. How we design, make and use products, materials and food is the other 45 per cent of the solution. If you take this wider view of sustainability , there are things we can all do more of to reduce pollution, waste and emissions too. So rather than praising yourself for being a good recycler, consider how you can reuse stuff, repair stuff and rent stuff rather than always opting to buy new stuff. READ MORE This third strand of global efforts to living more sustainably often goes under the radar. And although repair cafes, tool and toy libraries and online vintage clothes marketplaces have become more popular, it's the scaling up of these efforts across manufacturing and food production that will really have the most impact. For this to happen, businesses need to embrace the somewhat misunderstood concept of circularity – where resources and materials are kept in circulation for as long as possible at their highest value, creating closed and open loops of production. The European Commission is desperately trying to build momentum around the circular economy, albeit with the new stamp of competitiveness highlighted. During EU Green Week 2025 in Brussels, policymakers reiterated how geopolitical tensions are jeopardising global supply chains for rare and critical earth materials essential for the digitalisation of production processes across healthcare, construction, food and manufacturing. So, for Europe to remain competitive, businesses must find ways to source some of these materials from products already in circulation here. As one Brussels policymaker put it, Europe might not have the raw materials but we are world leaders in recycling. The European Commission now wants member states to source 25 per of rare and critical metals from so-called urban mining – aka taking them out of old cars, electronic and electrical items to reuse as secondary materials for new products. [ The life of microplastic: how fragments move through plants, insects, animals – and you Opens in new window ] But it's not all about rare and critical raw materials. It's also about finding new uses for byproducts in food production that go to waste (think the once neglected whey which is now central to many protein products). It's about taking out valuable construction materials like steel from building sites for reuse in other sites. And it's about creating new products like insulation panels from recycled textiles. Circular economy entrepreneurs are excited about the prospects of building a new strand to business where people, profit and planet can work in harmony but they are also cognisant that financial incentives and regulations which promote a market for secondary materials are urgently needed. The backdrop to all of this is the European Circular Economy Act – expected to be introduced in the second half of 2026 when Ireland holds the European presidency. This Act needs to include financial incentives (eg lower VAT on products with recycled content, recertification schemes for reused materials) to help companies take risks to create new uses for things they would have previously thrown out. Promoting a marketplace for second-hand building materials and building more durable products which can be repaired, reused, refurbished and remanufactured has to be the way forward if we want to live within planetary boundaries. The elephant in the room is cheap imports of virgin materials from outside the EU. To create a level playing field for 'ecopreneurs' in Europe, some form of tariffs will have to be imposed on these cheap imports so that recycled plastics and recycled textile plants in places like the Netherlands and Sweden can survive or even thrive. Turning trash to treasure has never been more important if we want to continue to have the products we need whilst not polluting our planet and helping reduce harmful emissions at the same time. Sylvia Thompson was one of 30 journalists from EU member states to attend EU Green Week 2025 in Brussels in June
