Writer | Podcasts | Environment
A hiding mane of a green-barked yew supports the sky; beautiful spot! the large green of an oak fronting the storm. A tree of apples - great its bounty! Like a hostel, vast: A pretty bush, thick as a fist, of tiny hazelnuts, a green mass of branches. A choice pure spring and princely water …
Continue reading "A Brief History of the Irish Environment (Episode 2)"
Irish people often take a lot of pride in our landscape, but how green are we really? That was why I chose to use it to open my podcast From the Roots.
The only thing more overdone than someone launching a podcast in 2023 is someone announcing that podcast with a self-deprecating joke about how the world didn’t really need another podcast – so I’ll spare you the latter at least. For a while know I’ve had concerns about how environmental news is reported, across the board, …
Originally publishing in Catflap magazine (November 2021) There were two reasons I became a champion tree climber as a child. Firstly, because I loved it, the shapes of the branches and glow of the leaves when the light came through, the whisper of the breeze like the promise of something magical about to happen. Secondly, …
A popular cousin of the “terrible English accent by an American actor in a fantasy movie” is the “this elvish thing is kinda Irish but only whatever I remember about Ireland from that one Wiccan girl I dated in college”. Why does how Irish language and mythology is used in Western Fantasy matter? It is …
Continue reading "Do Fantasy Writers Think Irish is Discount Elvish?"
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?"
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 …
I have made my feeling on the state of mental health services in Ireland known in asides many times. But this Mental Health Day highlighted the disconnect between what the Irish government and its various agencies claims, and what they put into practise. The Green Ribbon (#EndtheStigma) campaign caught the support of numerous politicians. The …
Orla ní Dhúill 