Category Archives for "Shaping New Mountains"

Mar 26

Chapter 9: Bear Country

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 […]

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Mar 19

Chapter 8: the Shannon Wilderness Park

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 […]

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Mar 12

Chapter 7: Pearl Valleys Farmland

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 […]

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Mar 05

Chapter 6: the Ulster Shark Coast

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 […]

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Feb 26

Chapter 5: Natural Capital

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 […]

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Feb 19

Chapter 4: The Wild Atlantic Rainforest

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 […]

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Feb 12

Chapter 3: Restoring Connections

  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 […]

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Feb 05

Chapter 2: The Heart of the Matter

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.” […]

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Jan 29

Chapter 1: The End

Part 1 Episode 1: In the End   The beauty of the world hath made me sad, This beauty that will pass; ‘The Wayfarer’ by Padraic Pearse Imagine if all the birds vanished from Ireland. Picture for a moment your daily routine, except with no bird song, no seagulls rummaging around the bins, no rooks […]

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Jan 24

Shaping New Mountains

Shaping New Mountains In 2017 I wrote a book called Whittled Away: Ireland’s Vanishing Nature. One of the reasons I wrote the book was because I didn’t feel that people realised the true extent of the damage that has been inflicted, and continues to be inflicted, to nature in our country. It painted a fairly […]

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