Writer | Podcasts | Environment
February is not a warming month, and Ireland went ten days this month without sunshine. All the same it’s the beginning of spring. In the lanes I started to see ewes lambing. The pond is filling up with frogspawn. There’s early veg and seeds to plant. I could start to dig again. Anyone following my …
La féile Bríde shona daoibh! (A day late as we're still in post storm signal days and so Happy World Wetlands Day too) I live far more seasonally than a city girl has a right to really, sinking into family in December, and then into rest and contemplation in January. It can easily turn into …
For something that dominates a few days of news cycle every year, the national budget is not particularly well understood. Media coverage tends towards giving headline updates from the governing parties press releases, which can sometimes be misleading. The document I’m primarily referencing in this episode is the expenditure report, which breaks down funding ceilings …
Continue reading "Environmental Sign-Posts for the 34th Dáil (Episode 10)"
“Sheer three-dimensionality is perhaps the most arresting aspect of an Irish rainforest, as though a living ecosystem had contrived to pack the maximum quantity of spatial strata into the smallest volume possible and succeeded to the wildest degree.” -The Magic of an Irish Rainforest by Eoghan Daltun The Glen of the Downs is an oak-woodland …
“the process of actively or passively assisting the recovery of an ecosystem in order to improve its structure and functions, with the aim of conserving or enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, through improving an area of a habitat type to good condition” -Restoration as defined by Article 3 of the EU Nature Restoration Law 2024 …
“If a pet day arrives in winter, shall I bask in the stillness and warmth and the sun’s enamelling with the same, almost pagan, gratitude, or shall I feel ‘well that’s fine, but it isn’t nature?’” - Nature Undone and the End of Love, Michael Viney The Convention on Biological Diversity described invasive alien species …
Three ornaments of wisdom: abundance of knowledge, a number of precedents, to employ a good counsel. - The Triads of Ireland There are three sources for laws in Ireland, the national parliament structures, the EU, and international agreements. As I stated in the first episode, international law can be a bit of an honour system, …
That is operative As an elixir. I cannot be weaned Off the earth's long contour, her river-veins. Down here in my cave - From Antaeus, by Seamus Heaney There is something I wanted to be clear about up front. In these conversations, farmers can often feel very targeted and therefore alienated from whole discussion from …
Each pore fights the river cold. Bones stiffen, locking my limbs. Feet on stones feel for ridges and ribs. A slide-shift to the one bit of sand And hurrah for me, I can stand! Hello, says the slow but steady flow. Hello I say, wary now, Knowing how it fills the fields, Leaves a layered …
Continue reading "Flooding and River Management (Episode 4)"
Cad a dhéainfimear fásta gan amhad? Tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár; níl trácht ar Chill Chais ná ar a teaghlach is ní bainfear a clig go bráth. From an Irish poem describing the clearance of woodlands from the Butler estate in Kilkash, Tipperary in the 18th century. One of the most common ideas when …
Continue reading "Why Don’t We Just Plant More Trees? (Episode 3)"
Orla ní Dhúill 