For a few years now I’ve been half-begun on a project to help identify key strategic locations for woodland restoration. I’ve spoken about native Irish woodlands, their tiny fragmented remains, and have spent the month of October on my #Treetober threads talking about Ireland’s tree species. What I think is often missing in the conversation
Today is World Mental Health Day and this is a blog post I first wrote most of on this day two years ago and then deleted, feeling that it was too personal. I’ve changed my mind again, at least for the time being. The last decade has seen huge change in how we view health,
Celebrate saving the less charismatic Write odes to plankton, snail and flies, Our love of birds and mammals may be automatic, But we struggle to value lichen in our lives. It’s harder to sing of fungi than of tigers, Hard to remember the worm in the earth, Diversity means algae as much as flowers So
A popular cousin of the “terrible English accent by an American actor in a fantasy movie” is the “this elvish thing is kinda Irish but only whatever I remember about Ireland from that one Wiccan girl I dated in college”. Why does how Irish language and mythology is used in Western Fantasy matter? It is
Tá gaol gairid idir an t-aisteoir Meiriceánach a chuireann blas Sasanach air féin i scannán fantaisíochta agus an scríbhneoir a deir leis féin “is Gaeilge de shaghas éigin í an Ealbhais seo, ach níl inti ach an méid is cuimhin liom gcailín Wicca sin ar shiúil mé amach léi san ollscoil”. Cén fáth a bhfuil
I have always watched fires burn. As a child, playing with matches Older, piling the wood in the grate better than my dad Later as a circus performer until my knees got bad I have always stopped and watched Captured by the heat And the flicker bittersweet. The first time losing the Amazon made me
Advice for girls who wake up smelling smoke: the fire isn’t lit yet, And if they come to take you to the pyre scratch every bit of them you can get. Even executioners have eyes. I’d advise you to drink honey in the mornings to keep your voice sweet No one came when you screamed
Some days it feel like conservatives simultaneously claim ownership over the idea of “values” and “morals” while criticising “the left” as overly emotional. Equally a lot of alleged progressives have let them do this, seeing values as describing somethings backwards and irrational rather than what it is – prioritised ethics. But there are things I
It’s long been debated in writing circles, the idea of being too precious with your writing. Some of the controversial advice given in this regard comes from poet, Allen Ginsburg, to “kill your darlings” and strip away those parts of your writing that feel cosy and comfortable. Now there are many alternative views to this,
It’s relatively well known that before the arrival of humans, aproximately 9000 years ago Ireland was covered in mixed, broadleaf woodland. A huge amount of deforestation happened in the first few millennium as the human population became settled and these first Irish are often both credited and blamed for how the Irish landscape looks today,
