Herbal therapies: Feverfew for headaches, elderflower and plantain for streaming noses or asthma, primrose for summer coughs. Mention any ailment and one Galway-based GP is as likely to prescribe something from a hedgerow as from a conventional pharmacy.
Dr Dilis Clare is not only a GP but also a herbalist with a clinic on Galway's Sea Road. She worked as a GP for 20 years in London and did a science degree in herbal medicine in 1999, before returning to Ireland to establish a practice offering both traditional medicine and complementary therapy.
For the third year in a row, she is throwing her garden in Knocknacarra open to increase awareness of the benefits of natural remedies and raise funds for two charities. Herbalists will give tours and talk about the benefits of, and lore associated with, different herbs.
Currently chairwoman of the Irish Institute of Medical Herbalists (IIMH), Dr Clare welcomes the recent recommendation by the National Working Group on the Regulation of Complementary Therapists for statutory regulation of herbalists.
The IIMH has recommended that a BSc (Hons) in herbal medicine should be the entry level for registration as a medical herbalist. "This is to ensure that our ethnic medicines are not lost to us, and to allow the Irish Medicines Board to advise regulation which allows herbalists to use herbs which may not be suitable for general release but can be safely used by a well-qualified and regulated herbal medical profession," she said.
For further information of the tour of Dr Clare's herb garden, on Sunday, June 25th, at noon, tel: (091) 583260. Tickets are €5 and all proceeds go to the Galway Rape Crisis Centre and the Tsunami Housing Project.