As an assessor, I regularly complete assessments for one-stop shop upgrades. There are certainly advantages to the One Stop Shop scheme over the individual grants, but there are also additional requirements and restrictions. So how does it all work? The government launched the One Stop Shop, (OSS) scheme in early […]
At a meeting of Cork County Council, on Monday, July 22, a surprising motion was passed to ask the government to review its application of the wildlife act with regards to verge/hedge cutting and maintenance of footpaths. Only the Social Democrats voted against the motion. Fiona Hayes writes on the […]
There are many animals that reach a great age. Tortoises and turtles are especially long-lived. In his lovely 1948 book ‘Over the Reefs’, Cork-born writer and artist Robert Gibbings (whose father was rector of St. Multose Church in Kinsale) told of a radiated tortoise called Tu’i Malila that lived as […]
I can’t recall as challenging a 12 months in farming as the past year, even looking back to the extremes in 2012 with a washout summer and accompanying fodder crisis into May 2013. Fast forward five years and it got more extreme. Beginning with hurricane Ophelia in October 2017, through […]
Growing up in rural West Cork in the fifties, practically every housewife kept a flock of hens. Domestic hens are direct descendants of wild Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) and grey Junglefowl (Gallus sonneratti) from southern Asia. These domesticated birds have spread to every corner of the earth. There are hundreds […]
It’s very difficult to change a perception of anything once it becomes established in popular culture. It always seems to me that Irish people like that we have some link and heritage with the Vikings. They come from an era that was pre Anglo-Norman, who of course became the permanent […]