About 300,000 people made the annual pilgrimage this year to the Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co. Laois. Contrary to what the social media trolls would have you believe, I was met with strong, friendly handshakes and passionate voices for the protection of nature and the ecological transformation of modern farming. […]
Described in chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions of non-linear systems, in which a small change can result in large differences at a later time and even in a different place. Explaining this, the mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz used the metaphorical example of a tornado being influenced by […]
The new environmental schemes ACRES (Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme) was introduced with much fanfare earlier this year but the shine has faded, as farmers are left disappointed when they see the options available. Achieving the headline figures of over €7,000 seems out of reach to many farmers as either […]
The pig was always highly praised by the Irish for its succulent meat, and in legend it was the favourite meat of gods and heroes at their feasts in the otherworld. The pig was also respected for its bravery and ferocity in defending itself against attack, and so was seen […]
In a new historical series starting in November, Holger Smyth of Inanna Rare Books will introduce us each month to a West Cork house detailed in a rare publication by Reverend Richard J. Hodges and W.T. Pike, a massive volume of historical photographs and stories about the big houses and […]
Like so many other things that have been postponed; premiership matches, flights into Heathrow and even postal and train strikes in England, I’m afraid my follow-up article of the civil war in Russia also has been hit by the death of Queen Elizabeth, the monarch of Great Britain, (and postponed […]
