We justThe Dawn Chorus is Back for 2023, only we are
extending it with a Dusk Chorus!
This Event is ONSITE & ONLINE
Event Description:
It’s that time again – The Dusk & Dawn Chorus with The Sanctuary is back on Saturday April 22nd & Sunday April 23rd 2023.
Let’s all come together as a community to raise much needed funds towards the work of the Sanctuary and to enjoy Nature’s Ultimate Soundbath!
The Sanctuary is inviting you to join us from your own home OR onsite in Ards Friary & Retreat Centre in County Donegal, as we celebrate the wonderful birdsong of the Dusk & Dawn Chorus in a special mindful way.
This year, we are shaking things up a bit. We have decided to broadcast a Dusk Chorus on the evening of Saturday, April 22nd, in which we will say goodnight to the day with the birds through meditation and bird song. We will then welcome the new day in the same way, for the Sanctuary’s annual Dawn Chorus.
We have also decided to broadcast the event from Ards Friary & Retreat Centre within its 200 acres of biodiversity forest and Atlantic coastline. For those who would like to attend in person, the Sanctuary’s Managing Director, Jane Negrych, will lead a retreat which will begin at 12.30pm on Saturday the 22nd and end at 2pm on Sunday the 23rd. Places are limited so book early to avoid disappointment.
For those joining us online, The Dusk Chorus will be broadcast out live on Saturday evening, April 22nd, starting around 7.30pm (time TBC closer to the date). The Dawn Chorus broadcast will begin on Sunday morning, April 23rd, around 4.15 am
Outline of Online events:
Saturday April 22nd:
6.00pm- Welcome & Introduction and Logistics…
6.30pm/7pm Talk with Sean O’Gaoithin of Glenveagh National park on Declaring Peace with Nature
7pm/7.30pm- Dusk Chorus and Meditation with Jane Negrych
8.15pm- Closing poem by Tony Bates
Into silence for those who choose….
Sunday April 23rd
4.15am- Opening poem by Sr. Stan
4.30am- 5.15am Dawn Chorus and Meditation with Jane Negrych
5.15am- 5.45am- Talk with Brother Ade of Ards on Biodiversity/ Spiritual Ecology and Earth communities
Outline of Onsite events:
Saturday Afternoon
12.30pm: Arrival to Ards- welcome and getting settled into individual rooms
13.00pm- 14:00pm: Lunch
14:00- 16:30pm: Sitting meditation session with Jane and Walking meditation of Ards grounds
16:30pm- 18:30pm: Dinner Break
18:30pm: Dusk Chorus event (see Outline for Online event)
Sunday Morning
4:15am: Dawn Chorus (see Outline for Online event)
6am- 9am: Rest and Breakfast
9am- 10.30am: Practice Session with Mary
10.30am- 11:00am: Tea Break
11am- 12.30pm: Practice session with Jane
12.30pm- 14:00pm: Check out and Lunch
Day & Date: Saturday April 22nd & Sunday April 23rd 2023
Time: Dusk – 7.30pm / Dawn – 4.15am
Price: €160.00 – Onsite – 2 Spaces have just become available!! Email Patricia at admin@sanctuary.ie to book your spot. (All bookings include single room accommodation with shared washroom facilities. All meals included.)
€50 – Online


I am Br Ade, and am a member of the Capuchin Franciscan Order and currently resident at Ards Friary in Co Donegal. I joined the Capuchin Franciscans in 2015 having spent the previous 10 years or so working in Mental Health services in Bristol, where I had wandered from my home town of Plymouth, Devon.
I came to Ards Friary around two years ago and have spent this time diving deeply into Ecology and Environmental movements like Deep Ecology, Permaculture, and Regenerative Forestry. My day-to-day work has been to begin the process of transitioning Ards Friary to an ecologically sound land management. My particular passion being the care and support of our 100 acres of woodland. I have had the wonderful blessing of living closely with nature and this has changed me.
In these last two years I have seen in myself the fruition of a longer conversion process towards a deeper understanding of the place of humanity in the Ecology of Creation, and as part of an Earth Community. My hope is that I will be able to live out an authentically Franciscan spirituality of community building, contemplation, and service, with my feet firmly earthed.
Sr. Stan is a member of the congregation of the Religious Sisters of Charity and a well-known social campaigner and founder of several voluntary organisations in Ireland, including Focus Ireland, The Immigrant Council of Ireland, Young Social Innovators and the Sanctuary. Sr. Stan founded the Sanctuary in 1998 to provide a reflective contemplative, beautiful place for people in the midst of a frantic busy word: a place and space where they could be re-energised and nourished in body, mind and soul. Sr. Stan is also a meditation teacher and an author of several bestselling books on social and spiritual themes including Now is the Time, Gardening the Soul, Day by Day and her latest Finding Peace published in 2021 and Finding Hope published in 2023.


Dr Tony Bates is a Clinical psychologist and writer. He was Head of Psychology for 30 years in St James’s Hospital and established and directed the MSc in Cognitive Psychotherapy in Trinity until 2006. He founded Jigsaw (The National Centre for Youth Mental Health) in 2006, where he was CEO until his retirement in 2018. He was a full-time editor of A Vision for Change, Ireland’s national mental health policy from 2006-2018. He was appointed adjunct professor of Psychology at UCD in 2018. Tony trained as a mindfulness teacher in University of North Wales, Bangor in 2001 and has been active since in disseminating Mindfulness in Ireland. Author of the best-selling book on depression, Coming Through Depression: A mindful approach to recovery.
Jane Negrych is Managing of the Sanctuary, a Mindfulness and Meditation Centre in the heart of Dublin cityand Meditation Centre in the heart of Dublin City, where she teaches on the Caring for the Caregiver programme and the MBLC Teacher Training.
Jane has also been teaching the MBLC course to Service Users, Service Providers and family members at the Recovery College in DCU since 2015.
Jane has completed and is an Honorary Teaching Fellow on the MSc: Studies in Mindfulness with the University of Aberdeen


Sean O`Gaoithin Head Gardener at Glenveagh National Park
Seán hails from Falcarragh in Co Donegal. He studied Horticulture at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin and then went on to study Conservation/Horticulture at UCD, graduating in 2002.
Seán is the Head Gardener at Glenveagh National Park and has been working there since 1995. Glenveagh National Park lies in the heart of the Derryveagh Mountains, in the north-west of Co Donegal
Mary O`Grady is a Meditation Teacher and Facilitator with The Sanctuary. She holds a BA in Theology and Philosophy from All Hallows College (now DCU), in Dublin, Ireland.
Among other adventures, her path include two years at Leuven University, Belgium on the Canon Law MA programme; Life Coach certification with the Positive Success Group in Ireland; and Facilitator Trauma training in both Belfast, Ireland and Toronto, Canada.
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- To make sure that our booking system records all course participants, each order form is restricted to booking one course space at a time. If you are looking to book multiple spaces, please reach out to us on enquiries@sanctuary.ie or call on +353 (0)1 670 5419.
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- If you have any issues at all, please contact enquiries@sanctuary.ie. We are happy to help.
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