Writer | Podcasts | Environment
When I decided to stop using single use plastics this month I did not anticipate that brushing my teeth would be one of the most complicated parts of that challenge. Dentists tell us to change over toothbrushes every 3 months, that's four a year for your life. Even assuming people don't follow that advice strictly …
There has been some controversy in my life recently from a source I would never have expected. Teabags. Those who know me know that the volume of tea I can drink on a given day in likely outside of safe levels but at least I always knew that my compost bin was healthy. Or not, …
I have spent so much time on war, The more time I spent singing for peace The more I became a piece of wasted fury, Maybe not wasted when anger is A fundamentally logical response to injustice, But if it’s just this then your activists will always burn out, There’s no doubt there’s cruel work …
When you walk into a psychologists office they offer you a seat a glass of water and a stupid question: how are you? Fine. How to begin? At some point I learned how to walk, younger than most, started out running my Nana tells this story about an open front door and me halfway down …
The problem with “sustainable lifestyle” bloggers is that they’re liars. That does not mean that they are always lying on purpose or that a sustainable or minimalist lifestyle is not a good thing to have but ultimately, they’re selling you something, an ideal, and like much you will be sold in your life – …
Continue reading "Sustainable Lifestyle Bloggers Lie But it’s OK"
One of the strongest memories of my childhood was my family visiting the eco-warriors who lived in the trees in Glen of the Downs woods beside the N11. We had recently moved to Bray, the M50 did not exist and the N11 was a lane narrower then it is today. Whole families of people had …
Continue reading "Has Ireland’s environmental activism lost its teeth?"
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 …
Orla ní Dhúill 