I have a good friend who lives in Kenya – we used to teach in the same school in Mombasa. Some years ago, I stayed for a couple of weeks with her and her family in an old stone and thatch cottage right beside the Indian Ocean. Around the nearby headland […]
Columnist
The arrival of spring migrants from their over-wintering grounds in Africa is well underway. The morning birdsong chorus of our resident birds, such as Blackbird, Song Thrush, Great Tit has been joined by summer visitors like Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat. As we move into May, the volume […]
In recent weeks, two stories broke, almost simultaneously, that caused shockwaves amongst environmentalists and climate campaigners. The first was a warning from Simon Stiell, the most senior climate figures at the United Nations. His message was stark: Governments, business leaders and development banks have just two years to avert the […]
It’s great to be writing this with the sun shining and a bit of warmth in the air. Pat from Sherkin Island kindly shared his story with us last month and it sparked a lot of interest in the topic of using different materials for retrofitting especially in his case […]
The study of reptiles and amphibians is called herpetology. In Ireland, unfortunately, it is a limited field – apart from the occasional sea turtle, we have only one species of native reptile, and just three amphibians. Some might blame, or thank, St. Patrick for banishing snakes and other poisonous creatures […]
In 2019, the people of Skibbereen won an important victory that all of Ireland should be proud of. Joining together as a community they stopped the construction of a plastic pellets factory that threatened our local environment and the natural heritage that is our Atlantic Ocean. It is estimated that […]