{"id":647104,"date":"2025-12-21T22:29:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T22:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/647104\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T22:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T22:29:20","slug":"west-belfasts-doggy-danders-marks-one-year-of-breaking-barriers-and-building-community-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/647104\/","title":{"rendered":"West Belfast\u2019s \u2018Doggy Danders\u2019 marks one year of breaking barriers and building community \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

From what started with a few friends and their four-legged companions, a cross community \u2018family\u2019 has gained momentum in west Belfast<\/a> and is continuing to bring people together.<\/p>\n

\u2018Doggy Danders\u2019 is celebrating its one-year anniversary this Christmas.<\/a> <\/p>\n

The group welcomes the wider community on weekly walks aimed at tackling isolation, promoting fitness and wellbeing and sharing tips and advice with dog owners.<\/p>\n

Despite numerous weather warnings for wind and rain, every Sunday the group meets for a weekly walk in Falls Park and has only missed one, that due to the weather being \u2018too hot\u2019 for the dogs. <\/p>\n

\"Belfast<\/a>\"Newry<\/a>\"DoggieDoggy danders celebrates its one year anniversary in Falls Park in west Belfast. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

Over the course of the year, the group has partnered with Guide Dogs NI, Food Stock and animal rescue centre Almost Home.<\/p>\n

They are hosting a \u2018Santa Paws\u2019 event on Monday and Tuesday, hoping to raise more funds for Guide Dogs NI.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Deeds organiser of Doggy danders celebrating its one year anniversary in Falls Park in west Belfast. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n

OOrganiser Jim Deeds said the group has spiralled into something he could have \u201cnever imagined\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome weeks there are 100 people in the park, with 70 dogs. I could never have imagined it would turn into this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are beautiful stories already from the year. An older gentleman came along in February and told us he hadn\u2019t left the house since the previous October, when his wife died.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came out, and he\u2019s a part of our community. There are countless stories like that. We know the power dogs have to unite people, but I don\u2019t think any of us thought we would be in this position now, it\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over Christmas<\/a>, the group is hosting extra events and extra walks to support people who find this time of year particularly challenging.<\/p>\n

Jim will miss his friend Joanne from the group, who tragically passed away two months ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s difficult time. It\u2019s difficult for us, we lost one of our volunteers, Joanne McDonnell, who died from liver cancer, she was only 46. She was there on the first doggy dander with her daughter,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a tricky time for everyone, so we put in the diary as many doggy danders as we could manage. Now we have the presence in the community, we are really tapping into it to be a force for good this Christmas.\u2019\u2019 <\/p>\n

\"DoggieEnjoying a pup pot at 7 coffee shop as Doggy danders celebrates its one year anniversary in Falls Park in west Belfast. PICTURE: MAL MCCANN <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From what started with a few friends and their four-legged companions, a cross community \u2018family\u2019 has gained momentum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[2378,5554,690,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-647104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-dogs","11":"tag-northern-ireland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115759925819193665","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}