This month, branch committee member Mark Loughrey lauds the mallard. There is an old Irish saying that goes: ‘An rud is annamh is iontach’. It means ‘what is seldom is wonderful’. This is certainly true in the bird world. The elusive penduline tit that was spotted in Macroom a few […]
Columnist
When I was young, I often sat alone by the beacon at Wood Point, looked out across Courtmacsherry Bay, and day-dreamed. The sea then seemed infinite and clean, unspoiled by Man. One day, I would sail away, over the horizon; (I never did). But now, if I can even find […]
The heritage council defines traditional buildings as those constructed before World War II. There are estimated to be 270,000 traditional buildings in Ireland that were built prior to 1945. A traditional building doesn’t necessarily indicate that the property is of particular architectural or historical merit (i.e a listed or protected […]
Have you ever eaten shark? Perhaps you have, unwittingly, if you’ve tried rock salmon or huss, because they are names given by fishmongers and chippies to various species of small sharks; few people in these islands would eat them otherwise. In many parts of the world, however, shark meat is […]
This month West Cork Branch committee members Fiona O’Neill and Damaris Lysaght share their ‘best bird experiences’. Fiona’s best experience in Ireland was In the winter of 2017/18. “During the autumn of 2017, small groups of Starlings began to meet up over farmland near Timoleague, before roosting for the night […]
In the second part of his article on the efficiency of design, Ruairi Kay focuses in on the gold standard for low energy building, Passivhaus. Passivhaus, or Passive House in English is a standard for low energy building that originated in Germany but is now recognised worldwide. The standard rewards […]