Tucked away off the main street of Ballymun in Dublin next to the Church of the Virgin Mary – and across the road from its parish school – the Glas (Green Living And Sustainable) community garden is a hive of activity when we arrive.
A group are busy preparing food at improvised kitchen counters while others cook rice in large pots heated by fires built around three upstanding cement blocks.
There is music playing. Young children dig in a sand pit while the older ones run around between the vegetable beds and apple trees.
As direct provision hotels don’t have cooking facilities, this community garden offers asylum seekers the opportunity to cook ethnic dishes to share at their twice-yearly barbecue.
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Abdallh Alomri, a chef from Jordan, is leading the cooking. He says he volunteers here when he can as he has a job in a restaurant in Dublin and gives cooking classes in family resource centres. “I love making food for people,” he says, handing me a delicious chicken and halloumi burger.
The gardens also run programmes for school groups, people with disabilities and the long-term unemployed. An on-site geodome is used both as a protected cropping space to extend the growing season and a social space, allowing participants to escape the variable Irish weather.
Hans Zomer, chief executive of Global Action Plan (Gap), describes the approach in the community gardens run by the environmental charity as “radical inclusivity”. “These green spaces are far more than spaces to grow food. They are lifelines – spaces where people find calm, reduce stress, ease their anxiety and build lasting friendships,” he says.
The Ballymun community garden – cultivated on a neglected piece of land owned by the Catholic parish – has been in existence since 2011 with funding from Dublin City Council. Since 2023, Gap also runs the Glas community garden at the Blanchardstown campus of the Technological University of Dublin (TU Dublin) with support from TU Dublin and Fingal County Council. Plans are afoot to launch another community garden in Monaghan with Monaghan County Council and the EU Peace Plus programme.
Testimonies given by participants acknowledge the benefits of spending time in these outdoor spaces. “Since coming to this garden, my mental health has improved and my humour returned” says one. “I have anxiety issues and being here is grounding for me. It helps me be in the moment and all nationalities are equal here,” says another.
“Whether planting, watering or harvesting it’s a space of connection and togetherness where everyone can feel at home,” says Magdalena Seitz at the garden in Ballymun. “Even if I arrive in the garden not feeling my best, I leave feeling lighter and happier.”
Seitz says her eyes have been opened by listening to the experiences of many asylum seekers who come to the gardens. “I never realised how good my life was when I hear their stories of missing their homes yet wanting to stay here.”
We meet a young man from South Africa who has been in Ireland since 2021, but whose application to stay has been refused. “I feel safe here. I haven’t been involved in any kind of crime. I’ve helped people get started here. I’ve made friends from different countries but South Africa is designated a safe country so I will be deported soon. It’s so painful,” he explains.
Another 26-year-old who arrived in Ireland from Somalia three months ago started volunteering in the Glas community garden in August. “I want to make new friends and help others. Ireland is a good place to live. I feel at home here,” he says. With a master’s degree in healthcare, he plans to apply for a work permit later this year.
Sharon Harvey is the horticulturist who runs the garden in Ballymun. She is passionate about organic gardening and wildlife. “I love nature and people. I’ve made lifelong friends here. This is the best job you could have in your life,” she says.
Harvey says that she has learned so much about the personal struggles faced by asylum seekers. “Everybody thinks that they don’t have preconceived ideas about asylum seekers but we have. But, when you meet people, it makes you look at your own culture differently. Also, people from countries which don’t get on, work well together here. They realise how much they have in common and how similar we all are,” she says.
Marie Carroll has been volunteering twice a week for the last three years. “I live alone and I retired early so I knew I needed to do something,” she explains. She says she loves being outdoors. “The minute I arrive, any issues I have dissolve. I unwind when I am digging and weeding. It’s very calming listening to the chatter in the background and the birds.”
Carroll says that meeting the asylum seekers and refugees was a new experience for her. “I’ve heard why they left their homelands and how they got here. You end up thinking how lucky you are. One man was telling me his story and it turned out he was the Moroccan javelin champion.”
Researchers at TU Dublin have called for the more widespread use of community gardens in urban areas. In their study, horticulture lecturer Rachel Freeman notes that these spaces are not only important for food and biodiversity but also for mental health and social inclusion. Participants reported that the garden helped reduce stress, increase physical exercise and provide them with greater access to fresh air. “Community gardens are a space for intergenerational collaborative gardening. They act as effective local learning environments that promote physical and psychological wellbeing through community connection, particularly in areas of social disadvantage.”
She suggests that through learning to grow fresh food in safe social spaces, individuals can both increase awareness of their personal wellbeing and community life. One person interviewed for the report described Glas as a “proper oasis in the middle of Ballymun. And here’s to many more such oases being developed across Ireland.”
Different from allotments, community gardens are often created on waste pieces of land and are either shared between different groups or managed by one. The national voluntary organisation Community Gardens Ireland has more than 250 community gardens and allotments registered on their map. “We are hopeful that the number of community gardens and allotments will continue to grow across Ireland. Every community deserves a place to grow,” says Molly Garvey, co-chair of Community Gardens Ireland.
