Columnists - West Cork People

The plight of the donkey

Dr Jeremy A. Dorman November, 2025

Carl Linnaeus, the great 18th century Swedish biologist, gave scientific names, based on his binomial system, to over 4,000 species of animals (and even more plants). He called the donkey Equus asinus, which is literally just ‘horse donkey’ in Latin. But in English, ‘asinine’, meaning donkey-like, has become a synonym […]

What our ancestors drank: Part 1

Eugene Daly November, 2025

According to an ancient tale, the chieftain, Bricriu, prepared a great feast to which he invited all the Ulster warriors and their women. The feast was sumptuous, consisting of beef broth, roast boar, salmon, honey cakes and many other dishes; to drink, the guests had the finest of ale, the […]

Genocide and the countries that have committed it

Kieran Doyle November, 2025

Paradoxically as it sounds, there are rules to war. Out of the ashes of World War Two, the United Nations sought to “minimise the suffering under conditions of war”. This is referred to as ‘Jus ad Bellum’. The thought process was no matter how bad war is, there must be […]

Lets talk about sex

Dr Paula Stanley October, 2025

Sex is an important and wonderful part of our lives and wellbeing and we don’t talk about it enough. It is sometimes assumed that sex is either not important or not happening in the lives of older women but I am here to set the record straight. Women over 40 […]

Unwelcome animal immigrants

Dr Jeremy A. Dorman October, 2025

There are alien animals living wild all over the world – hippopotamuses in Colombia, camels in Australia, stoats in New Zealand, Burmese pythons in Florida. There are parakeets in England, slow worms in the Burren and wallabies in the Irish Sea. And now we have hornets in Cork. There are […]

When Russia had an American colony – and lost it

Kieran Doyle October, 2025

Six thousand miles away in the tiny Alaskan town of Sitka (formerly New Archangel – named after a Russian city), a place only accessible by boat or sea plane, much to the disgust of the local indigenous population, a statue of a Russian was erected on the town square in […]

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