NISIG’s Cork Family Picnic June 2025
On Sun 08th of June, the sun was shining and the county was bathing in the after glow of the Munster final hurling win.
In a very busy Fitzgerald’s park, in the midst of the Carnival of Science, some wonderful NISIG members and families came together. Not all of the members were too impressed with the result the night before but that didn’t stop the conversations. Some people knew each other and for others it was the first time meeting up.
The rendez vous was pretty impromptu, which made it all the better and a reminder than loads of organisation doesn’t have to go into a meeting like this.
The vast majority who attended were families created with the help of donor conception, which was pretty apt with the theme of the festival being held in the park on that day also.
Helen Browne, a cofounder of NISIG, has always been passionate that ‘it’s all about the children’ and Sunday really was.
My own daughter who is 6, was very excited about the prospect of meeting other children exactly like her; that all have donors too. She also was questioning if anyone of them may have had the same donor as her also. That’s not a question that ever crossed my mine. So it was great that a meeting like this brought out that type of curiosity.
It was so lovely to see a bunch of the younger children sitting happily eating ice-cream and shooting the breeze as children do. And for the parents to know that our kids have their tribe and when they have questions or concerns about donor conception in the future they have peers to talk to. That feels very special for me.
We look forward to the next time we will meet up again after the summer holidays.