Writer | Podcasts | Environment
Rain so light, call it mist Gathering on me almost unnoticed Except for my glasses And the pond's splashes And where it bruises the apple blossoms. Call it misting, a soft day, For lingering in the back doorway, Too damp to be out long Too fresh to miss the garden And apple blossoms at their …
Ireland occasionally trips over its relationship with its own heritage. In the same week that Donald Trump declared March, Irish-American Heritage Month, to the discomfort of many, Irish minister for 'Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs', Heather Humphreys proposed a bill being known as the 'Heritage Bill' which contains provisions thought to actively harm the Irish …
Technology and nature are often portrayed as opposing forces. We are told to "log off" and go outside. The manner in which digital and other medias can extend a love of wildlife and the outdoors to those not raised with it is often overlooked outside of an academic context but there are ways in which the …
Many great thinkers and doers of modern history have labelled themselves activists, many have not and there have been plenty who called the title for all the wrong reasons. There are different schools of thought on this but generally speaking if you want to be good at activism forget about being an "activist". Forget activism …
My mother says when her hands are inside the soil that is how she goes to church. It took me two decades to really understand. It took me finding my own piece of land. Five square feet of neglected backyard, but it was mine Well, it was rented and not for a particularly long time …
For generations professional and amateur sorts alike have been a battleground of women athletes struggling for recognition. More than being excluded from sports played by men they often face discriminatory rules when they set up their own leagues. Generations of girls told they would not be interested or being shamed into quitting teams or training …
This is a beginning that will be repeated again and again and again. This is a story that is being retold, the same but new Beginning is the oldest thing you know how to do Again, again, again. . As messy and painful as all births are From bright light at the end of a …
The idea that a rapidly growing population would inevitably result in economic and resource crisis has been part of the popular imagination since Rev. Thomas Malthus published his essay Principle of Population in 1798. Malthus has been largely disproven but the idea that population is the greatest threat remained influential and was seen repeated in …
Continue reading "Is population growth the biggest threat to sustainable development?"
Environmental justice is not a new idea but it is one gaining ground in mainstream media and consciousness. Environmental justice refers to a number of connected ideas. Access and ownership of natural resources. Equitable burden sharing from environmental damage. Writing from an Irish prospective it's impossible to ignore the influence the Irish Water campaign has …
Continue reading "Water: the heart of Environmental Justice"
Persephone’s term begins the year’s dry lament Even while nymph’s paint gold dead leaves on the cement They force the evergreens to stay to cloak Demeter’s curse. That steals their father, Hellios away to freeze a solemn earth. Light begins to fade and skin begins to chill We reap what summer made and hope …
Orla ní Dhúill 