In the media:
Falling Fruit was featured on RTE’s Nationwide programme on March 11, 2026
We are hugely grateful to Niall Martin who created the Falling Fruit segment. Sadly he passed away before it was aired.
2023
RTE One TV Series – Food Matters
In May 2023 Falling Fruit Ireland was included in the TV Series, Food Matters, shown on RTE One.
Mick Kelly of GIY travelled around Ireland to explore food sustainability and meet the people and projects that are helping to change the food system one meal at a time.
Falling fruit Ireland features in Episode 6 – End Food Waste – which can be seen here: https://foodmatterstv.ie/episodes/end-food-waste/
The Falling Fruit section was filmed on a bitterly cold January morning in 2023!
All episodes in the series are interesting and can be seen at Food Matter TV – all episodes
7 October 2023 Irish Independent Weekend Magazine Glean Living
September 25th 2022
Many thanks to Sylvia Thompson(@sthompsonIT) of the Irish Times for a lovely piece about Falling Fruit on Saturday – https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/2022/09/24/nature-diary-falling-fruit/
October 2021
RTE 1 – Philip Bromwell and Eleanor Mannion produced a piece about Falling Fruit for the Six o’Clock news on October 30 – see here
It was filmed at Townley Hall outside Drogheda with the kind permission of the School Of Philosophy & Economic Science. A wonderful Falling Fruit team participated in the event.
October 2021 Irish Examiner
As well as commercial growers, there are also those who happen to have old trees on their property but don’t have the capacity to pick the apples. Falling Fruit Ireland, winner of the 2020 Irish Food Writers’ Guild Community Food Award, organises volunteers to handpick seasonal gluts from orchards where the apples might otherwise end up rotting on the ground.
Some of the places it picks apples include the UCD Lamb-Clarke Irish Heritage Apple collection and Russborough House orchards. These apples are donated to food waste charity FoodCloud, which works with Trass to juice and bottle the gleaned fruit. The cloudy apple juice – stocked at places like Airfield Estate in Dublin, GIY in Waterford and KAI restaurant Galway – raises funds for FoodCloud and, through detailed labels, awareness of food waste.
By buying local and Irish there are definite wins to be made in terms of the environment and reducing food waste – and that’s before you start to appreciate the great flavour of Irish-grown apples. If you’re going to have one glass of juice a day, Irish apple juice is well worth adding to your diet.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/healthandwellbeing/arid-40729299.html
September 25, 2021, Irish Times
2020 Community Food Award
The Irish Food Writers Guild chose Falling Fruit Ireland for their Community Food Award for 2020! The annual awards were presented on Wednesday March 4 at a special lunch event in the Marker Hotel in Dublin. The menu for the lunch included sorbet made from apple juice which came from apples picked last year by Falling Fruit Volunteers – donated by many generous donors!
We dedicate this award to all the wonderful volunteers, the generous donors, kind helpers and friends who have made Falling Fruit the great success that it is!
Press Release for the IFWG Awards 2020 here.
September 26, 2020 The Irish Times
2017
Dublin Inquirer: “Getting Unwanted Fruit from Backyard Trees into Hungry Mouths“
Fare Ireland Documentary: “Food brings communities together. These tree stories show the power of a few to make a difference in their communities using something that connects us all”
Irish Times: “Is your garden or allotment producing such a profusion of fruit and vegetables that you don’t know what to do with it and yet you hate to see all that delicious homegrown produce going to waste? Falling Fruit Ireland is a community-based project established by Bernie Brannick which harvests the seasonal glut of fruit (apples, pears, plums, etc) and vegetables and distributes it to local charities.”
The Irish Times: Brannick also set up www.fallingfruit.ie, an initiative in which people pick and share surplus fruit in private gardens for owners that can no longer do so themselves.
Dissertation: Falling Fruit and the Landscape of Urban Food Harvesting in Dublin by Emma Bradfield Skelly, Department of Geography, TCD. Dublin. “What the research finds is a strong network of like-minded people involved in many different projects with a focus on sharing and sustainability”.
2016
Interview with Nicky Byrne and Jenny Greene on RTE 2FM speaking with Bernie Brannick and Eoghan Parle about WeShare and Falling Fruit.
The Irish Times Magazine, September 10 2016.
“It doesn’t seem like a year, but apple season is rolling around again and Bernie Brannick of Dublin’s Falling Fruit Project is determined to make the 2016 harvest even bigger than last year’s. Bernie links volunteers who pick apples, pears, plums and nuts from forgotten trees or gardens where the harvest is too big for the homeowner. After the owner takes the first share, the rest of the produce goes to charities who put it to good use…” Catherine Cleary
2015
The Irish Times Magazine – Catherine Cleary
Dublin Gazette: “Food Drive: Call to help gather unwanted fruit from across the city to help charities. Plucking at a way to help communities…” Aisling Kennedy (page 15)
