Taking the train I first left the country in 1986, at the age of 12. It was a much-anticipated family sun holiday to Mallorca. Until then every holiday had been to the caravan in Wexford. This was perfectly normal at the time, leaving the country was expensive. But my generation was quick to catch up. […]
Look to the sea The sea has given us everything. The earliest people lived by, and off, the sea, as have generations that followed. The sea brought us our history, from the Viking and Norman invasions to the Martello towers that were built as look-outs for a Napoleonic invasion. The sea took our hopeful and […]
A year in government by Pádraic Fogarty July 3rd 2021 The government recently celebrated a year in office. The IWT supported the Programme for Government (PfG) on the basis that – if implemented – it would set us on a course to addressing the biodiversity emergency. Green Party leader and minister for Transport Eamon Ryan, […]
Expect more Extinction Denial Science denial has a long and inglorious history. In 1615 Galileo Galilei was condemned to house arrest for defending Copernicus’ theory that the earth travelled around the sun and not vice versa. In the 1960s, Rachel Carson, an aquatic biologist working for the US Bureau of Fisheries, came under ferocious attack […]
The Urgency of Rewilding This week saw two important publications that bring the urgent need for rewilding closer to being accepted at a policy level. While rewilding has gained widespread popular support, policy-makers and even many ecologists have remained sceptical. Part of this has been the lack of a widely accepted definition, accompanied by its […]
While dairy is the most profitable sector in farming in Ireland, it increasingly faces environmental questions. What are the options? by Oliver Moore There has been strong growth in the dairy sector in Ireland because it is, by a distance, the most profitable sector in Irish farming. Even when overall farm incomes are stable or […]
Press Release 13th May Irish Wildlife Trust condemns Taoiseach’s interference in An Taisce case The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is horrified at the intervention this week by the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, in the case being taken by An Taisce against a proposed cheese factory in Co. Kilkenny. The ungainly remarks have unleashed a cascade […]
No budging the agri-debate It is rather depressing to see just how little the debate on agriculture and eco-action has progressed in recent years. The voices of the farming community, typically the leaders of farming organisations, the farming media and a cohort of rural politicians are sticking with their arguments on carbon leakage (if we […]
Press Release 26th April 2021 Irish Wildlife Trust calls for full investigation into fire at Killarney National Park and emergency measures to stop the cycle of infernos The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is calling for a full investigation into the causes and consequences of the fire which has destroyed swathes of Killarney National Park over […]
Ireland’s Agri-Food Strategy 2030 In 2015 Ireland published its last agri-food strategy. ‘FoodWise 2025: A vision for growth’ was unabashed in its ambition. “It represents the shared voice of an industry striving to create a business and regulatory environment in which the extensive growth opportunities of the next 10 years can be fully capitalised on.” […]
Press Release 23rd April Government must allow full scrutiny of the Marine Planning Framework The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is urging the government not to rush through approval of the Marine Planning Framework in the absence of a Dáil debate or Oireachtas scrutiny. It is understood that the government is planning to approve this plan […]
Over the summer of 2021 we held a series of 9 townhall meetings in major Irish coastal counties. We addressed questions and concerns the public had about marine protected areas and encouraged participants to participate in the public consultation on the report ‘Expanding Ireland’s Marine Protected Area Network’ available to download here. The government received […]
Marine Protected Areas, but where? It’s all happening at sea. This week the ESB announced that the coal-fired power plant at Moneypoint, on the west coast of Co. Clare, would be repurposed as a renewables hub to service floating off-shore wind turbines and the production of hydrogen fuel. In an interview in the Irish Times […]
IWT Submission to the Review of the National Parks and Wildlife Service Dear Prof Stout and Dr Ó Cinnéide, The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) is a national, charitable, membership-based organisation which was established in 1979. Our goal is to raise awareness of our natural heritage and its benefits to people. We would like […]
Seaspiracy and saying no to seafood I remember, over a decade ago, kick starting the Irish Wildlife Trust campaign to end overfishing which was, in turn, part of a wider campaign called OCEAN2012. This was in advance of the reform of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and I was trying to get my head […]
Chapter 9: Bear Country “Do you remember, one day down in the glen you found a poor little wolf in great agony and like to die, because a sharp thorn had pierced his side? And you gently extracted the thorn and gave him a drink, and went on your way leaving him in peace and […]
Chapter 8: The Shannon Wilderness Park “On the chilly lakelet, in that pleasant gloaming, See the sad swans sailing: they shall have no rest: Never a voice to greet them save the bittern’s booming Where the ghostly swallows sway against the West” From The Children of Lir by Katharine Tynan (1898) “We can truly […]
Press Release 15th March 2021 Irish Wildlife Trust finds that no permits for ‘controlled burning’ were issued in the North, East or South of Ireland in 2020, and only two in the West The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) has received information from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage from Freedom of Information that […]
The senseless logic of burning land Pádraic Fogarty March 13th 2021 Let’s say for a moment that I’m a farmer in the uplands and I want to clear land for my grazing animals. I’ve been told by all the farmer organisations that fire is a perfectly acceptable tool for the task and I may even […]
Chapter 7: Pearl Valleys Farmland And precious their tears as that rain from the sky Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea Thomas Moore (Irish poet 1779-1852) The water was slightly murky but as the swirling vortex slowed I could see the outlines emerge from the bottom of the tank. Even […]
Chapter 6: The Ulster Shark Coast Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived with his granny at Easkey. He always went down to feed the fish at the pier. He stole bread from his old grandmother for which she used to beat him, but still he did steal the bread and […]
Our tortured relationship with trees If there’s one thing that unites nearly everyone in Ireland it’s that we’re all in agreement that the current attitude to trees is pitiful. Whether you’re an urbanite watching your street trees being torn down or a worker in a sawmill watching your supplies of timber dry up there is […]
Natural Capital … as he waded slowly up its course, he wondered at the endless drift of seaweed. Emerald and black and russet and olive, it moved beneath the current, swaying and turning. The water of the rivulet was dark with endless drift and mirrored the high-drifting clouds. The clouds were drifting above him silently […]
Chapter 4. The Wild Atlantic Rainforest Glen of the scarlet-berried rowan Fruit praised by every flock of birds, For the badgers a sleepy seclusion Quiet in their burrows with their young 14th Century Irish poem It is no more than a twig the size of a chopstick standing upright in the ground. Only […]
Press Release 18th February 2021 Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes Oireachtas report on pre-Legislative Scrutiny of General Scheme of the Marine Planning and Development Management (MPDM) Bill The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) welcomes the report on the pre-legislative scrutiny of the MPDM Bill which will provide for development projects in the marine environment, particularly off-shore renewable […]
Press Release 16th February Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes independent review of the National Biodiversity Action Plan The Irish Wildlife Trust today (16/2/21) welcomes the report of the National Biodiversity Forum which highlights serious weaknesses in the state’s approach to biodiversity protection. The IWT particularly welcomes the recommendation that the next National Biodiversity Action Plan be […]
What value Nature? It has long been argued that one of the reasons for our biodiversity crisis is the failure of economics to account for environmental harm. The effects of habitat destruction or pollution from industrial effluent has been dismissed as an ‘externality’ as though the air we breath and the water we drink is […]
Shaping New Mountains Chapter 3: Restoring Connections I am the wind which breathes upon the sea, I am the wave of the ocean, I am the murmur of the billows, I am the ox of the seven combats, I am the vulture upon the rocks, I am the beam of the sun, I […]
Shaping New Mountains: Chapter 2 The Heart of the Matter “What is your trouble?” the gentle queen asked. “During a year”, Conn replied, “there has been neither corn nor milk in Ireland. The land is parched, the trees are withered, the birds do not sing in Ireland, and the bees do not make honey.” […]
Press Release 03rd February 2021 Press Release: Irish Wildlife Trust welcomes commencement of National Parks and Wildlife Service Review The Irish Wildlife Trust (IWT) welcomes the announcement by Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Malcolm Noonan, that the review of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has […]
