Piracy and poitin on islands in the mistIt is odd to see a bed one has slept on recorded as a piece of social history, but there it is on the page, its planks rotted…Sat Jan 20 2001 - 00:00
Following a bird of flames and fableWhat do I remember of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a destination dredged from times past? An early spring temperature of 30 below…Sat Jan 13 2001 - 00:00
Eye On NatureI heard recently on the radio, in reference to the Sweeney cull of basking sharks off Achill Island in the 1940s and 1950s, that…Sat Jan 13 2001 - 00:00
See that tree? Now say `hello'Another year, another growth ring in the trees, in the ear-stones of fishesSat Jan 06 2001 - 00:00
Eye On NatureWe have a large bird-table and several feeders with nuts, sunflower seeds, etc. in our gardenSat Dec 16 2000 - 00:00
Reading nature for all seasonsLeft to themselves, islands make their own rules about the number of species they containSat Dec 16 2000 - 00:00
This night methinks is but the daylight sickThe growth of cities these days is not to be measured simply on the ground: their wasted light spills out across the night sky…Sat Dec 09 2000 - 00:00
Getting the tourists hooked to save our fishNow is the time of year when, across the proof-strewn, coffeestained desks of the ad agencies, nature is found recruited to that…Sat Dec 02 2000 - 00:00
And a Wagtail in a Plane TreeIn these meditative dusks, with their indigo skies and early stars above the mountain, I am likely to be visited by incongruous…Sat Nov 25 2000 - 00:00
Eye on natureThe little insect in the enclosed film case is about two millimetres long, white, with whiskers (and alive when he left)Sat Nov 25 2000 - 00:00
Why our red squirrels are out on a limbThe wildlife film-maker Stephen Mills once filmed a red squirrel feeding happily in the crown of a spindly Killarney oak tree…Sat Nov 18 2000 - 00:00
Do village values matter?They build bungalows with thatched roofs and plastic dormer windowsSat Nov 11 2000 - 00:00
Great oaks from little acorns growOn another blustery morning, a sprig of acorns lying with the oakleaves on the lawn stirred a certain grandfatherly prideSat Nov 11 2000 - 00:00
How much of the earth do you tread on?A good metaphor is worth a thousand words, and whoever coined the phrase "ecological footprint" has done us all a favourSat Nov 04 2000 - 00:00
Wet and wonderfulDinneen's famous Irish-English dictionary, compiled in a world more attentive to nature, had many words for different sorts of…Sat Oct 28 2000 - 01:00
Eye On NatureFor me, a sad time of the year is when the swallows congregate on the wires for their annual migrationSat Oct 28 2000 - 01:00
Forget not the grey ghosts at your tableIn a lull between gales, sun catches the foam on reefs and islets stretching north from Renvyle Point, and the spray exploding…Sat Oct 21 2000 - 01:00
Our records collection is not up to scratchOne of my favourite bits of trivia in Irish biogeography has been the apparently special affinity of the woodlouse Androniscus…Sat Oct 14 2000 - 01:00
Eye On NatureI was walking beside the river Suir in Clonmel in mid-September and was most surprised to see a very small bat flying around, …Sat Oct 07 2000 - 01:00
No great link to the old sodThe name de Valera pops up in enough different corners of Irish field studies to suggest quite a rounded family view of culture…Sat Oct 07 2000 - 01:00
A true champion of the wildWhen we read, in the life of some outstanding naturalist, that "his interest in nature developed in boyhood", we fit the lad …Sat Sept 30 2000 - 01:00
Bb is kingArno Karlen's last book, Plague's Progress: A Social History of Man and Disease, found him grouped, in some eyes, with the darkest…Sat Sept 30 2000 - 01:00
Snatching at cupfuls of autumnHow far it is across the bay depends on light and weatherSat Sept 23 2000 - 01:00
Eye On NatureA bird slightly bigger than a pigeon landed in the yard, walked up to within three feet of me and pecked at some food for a couple…Sat Sept 23 2000 - 01:00
Undermining the organic idealistsTo clear a wheelbarrow-path to the early apple tree, the rosy Worcester Pearmain, took a visit from a kind friend with a strimmer…Sat Sept 16 2000 - 01:00
The human shark destroys its habitatThe 20th century was a fair span for one queen-mother and the merest nano-second in the history of life on earthSat Sept 09 2000 - 01:00
Will you have beans with your nurdles?Cloud permitting, the Harvest Moon on Wednesday night will be hoisted up over the mountain like a Chinese lantern, a deeply-appreciated…Sat Sept 09 2000 - 01:00
Eye on natureTwo questions: if one sees a heron looking into a river, does this mean that there are trout or fish at that place? As an avid…Sat Sept 02 2000 - 01:00
A brittle geometry spun in stoneWhat is it about coral that so teases our sense of beauty? Even without the myriad, darting lives that furnish coral reefs in…Sat Sept 02 2000 - 01:00
Keeping tabs on tiny aliensThis is daddy-long-legs time, all crooked knees and elbowsSat Aug 26 2000 - 01:00
Restocking the skiesI was straightening up from the rain gauge, a bottle of Atlantic showers in hand, when this distant, odd silhouette caught my…Sat Aug 19 2000 - 01:00
Nature could thrive in cyberspaceA blue haze of forget-me-not has spread across the vegetables, blurring the beetroot and wreathing the beansSat Aug 12 2000 - 01:00
Why have all the birds gone quiet?A rustling in the depths of the blackcurrant thickets signals a last mopping-up of berries by the acre's tribe of blackbirdsSat Aug 05 2000 - 01:00
Pursuing a friendly demonAmong the marine bric-a-brac that lines our window-sills, a remarkable set of teeth catches the light like an elaborate ivory…Sat Jul 29 2000 - 01:00
Reaping the rich harvest of the deepA coincidence of neap tide and placid sea, with the promise of a dry, sunny dawn, tempted us to take out the long-line, replenish…Sat Jul 15 2000 - 01:00
Eye On NatureI was walking in the woods between Derryclare Lake and Lough Inagh when I saw a creature about 70 cm from head to tailSat Jul 15 2000 - 01:00
Dawning of the age of the eco-missionaryWhen Ireland's eco-missionary, Father Sean McDonagh, walks into one of the many "green" campaign offices where he is welcome, …Sat Jul 08 2000 - 01:00
Eye On NatureThere are swallows nesting in the light box over the passage at NewgrangeSat Jul 08 2000 - 01:00
Climes they are a changin'The warm and vigorous south wind that played upon the island so voluptuously for a day or two earlier this month carried in from…Sat Jul 01 2000 - 01:00
Stretching coastsJune's fretful seas have quite dragged back the soft, fluffy terrace of fresh sand that lapped ashore in the long calms of May…Sat Jun 24 2000 - 01:00
Elegy for the elmShapes trees make against the sky insinuate themselves into images we keep from childhood: jagged shadows of a back-garden sycamore…Sat Jun 17 2000 - 01:00
Sceptical of scienceOnce, an Irish-American millionaire with a tragically schizophrenic son sent me on a whirlwind fact-finding tour of research …Sat Jun 10 2000 - 01:00
Sometimes it pays to be a lay-aboutThe cuckoo seems to go out of its way to behave like an automatonSat Jun 03 2000 - 01:00
Palest gleam in the deepest darkAmong the many wonders of the world I shall never see is the Great Stalactite of Pol-an-Ionain, 6Sat May 20 2000 - 01:00
