Columnist - West Cork People

Case study: Vacant property upgrade and navigating the grant process

Ruairi Kay March, 2025

Following on from last month’s article on the vacant and derelict property grants, Ruairi Kay speaks with Paul Deane about his experience with the grant in upgrading his home in Clonakilty I first met Paul in May of 2024, when I completed a home energy assessment for him under the […]

Sea Shepherds and krill

Dr Jeremy A. Dorman March, 2025

There was a piece on RTE Radio 1’s ‘Sunday Miscellany’ a few weeks ago by Hugh Wheldon, a young Irish volunteer with the environmental organisation Sea Shepherd. He was aboard the ship ‘Allankay’, in the Antarctic, and talked of icebergs and polar sunsets, Cape Horn and Drake’s Passage, orcas and […]

Why go birding?

WCP Staff February, 2025

This month Jez Simms, Chair of the Birdwatch Ireland West Cork Branch, talks about his love of birding. To answer the question of this article’s title, as to why you should take up this joyful and fulfilling pastime, I shall relate my life as a bird watcher and hope this […]

Waste Not, Want Not: Initiatives and the February Freezer Challenge

WCP Staff February, 2025

This month we’d like you to join us on a mission. Winter has always been what we humans have pickled and preserved for. We freeze, we dry and we can. These are all great ways to save food but, as our lives have modernised, so have our shopping options. We […]

Hares and horrible hunters

Dr Jeremy A. Dorman February, 2025

Most people associate hares with March; think of the expression “mad as a March hare” and the hare in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. So this is a bit early, but because of what I have seen and heard recently, I couldn’t wait another month. The madness, by the way, refers […]

Sandhoppers and plastic

Dr Jeremy A. Dorman January, 2025

In 2024, I collected 51.74 kilograms of litter from the cove at the end of our lane. That is more than in 2022 and 2023, but a little less than in 2021. Fishing gear such as ropes and hard plastic floats were the heaviest items, but plastic bottle pieces were, […]

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