Coillte outdoor skills scheme - Outdoors focus

MOST people of a certain age will remember with fondness a childhood of climbing trees, swimming in lakes and rivers, trekking through the woods or “camping” for the night in their own gardens.

Even urban dwellers had the joy of kicking a football or wielding a hurley in their neighbourhoods.

Sadly, street kids have given way to screen kids and the result is that around half the children of Ireland spend less than 30 minutes a day on outdoor activities, preferring to spend their timed glued to their video games.