Episodit
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A walk of a thousand paces, part nature observation, part a mythology of my own creation. Looking at the landscape through a different lens.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Phil Barnett, Louise Mee and Micki Colbeck, whose generous reading improved this piece.
This piece was deeply inspired by the Metrical Dindshenchas, a text compiled between the 11th and 14th centuries that records Ireland’s much older oral traditions. https://celt.ucc.ie/published/T106500C.html
This episode draws inspiration from the Songlines of the Australian First Nations peoples, the oldest continuous narrative geography on Earth. I acknowledge their custodianship of a landscape where every path carries a living voice. https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/Life_Lore/Songlines
Acknowledgement is also given to the enduring creation narratives of the Haida Nation, who celebrate the figure of Raven, the masterful trickster whose curiosity coaxed humanity into being from a simple clamshell. https://moa.ubc.ca/2020/01/the-raven-and-the-first-men-from-conception-to-completion/
Ethiopia, women washing at a well. https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07015046
Flowing river. https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07031097
Wind. https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=NHU05012151
Raven. https://xeno-canto.org/346231
Wren alarm call. https://xeno-canto.org/692833
Song Thrush. https://xeno-canto.org/1082934
Stone Chat. https://xeno-canto.org/1135845
Chiffchaff. https://xeno-canto.org/566729 Willow Warbler. https://xeno-canto.org/1133423
Cuckoo. https://xeno-canto.org/653108
Long-tailed Tit. https://xeno-canto.org/1080201
Buzzard. https://xeno-canto.org/510736
Badger. https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=NHU05079106
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Mostly ignored, but silently growing all the time. The grass under our feet can be an unexpected source of much interest.
Acknowledgements
Identification guide to Ireland’s Grasses, National Biodiversity Data Centre.
Grass by Carl Sandburg first appeared in ‘Cornhuskers’ in 1918.
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Puuttuva jakso?
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It is always special to welcome the swallows back after their long journey from the south. They have cpatured our imaginations for millennia, and there is much to learn about these fork-tailed beauties.
Acknowledgments
The relationship between nest location selection of Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) and human activity and residence - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-50149-6 The Barn Swallow, Angela K. Turner - https://books.google.ie/books/about/The_Barn_Swallow.html?id=jsxXFkHXKXAC&redir_esc=y -
Some birds have a simple calls but these often hold an iconic position in our collective memory. Let's listen to these two-note troubadours.
Acknoweldgements
Great Tit https://xeno-canto.org/788731 Coal Tit https://xeno-canto.org/717705 Blue Tit https://xeno-canto.org/1070960 Common chiffchaff https://xeno-canto.org/637792 Willow warbler https://xeno-canto.org/915783Cuckoo https://xeno-canto.org/673118 Corncrake https://xeno-canto.org/810279 Phil Barnett, for his discussion on thsi topicRóisín Costello, Of corncrakes and Irish. https://irishpages.org/down-to-earth/?v=25400724d737https://www.corncrakelife.ie/Ręk, P. (2013). Acoustic location of conspecifics in a nocturnal bird: The corncrake Crex crex. Acta Ethologica, 17(1), 31–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-013-0155-3 -
I explore how Ireland’s historical maps serve as more than just navigational tools, revealing the deep, often complex stories etched into our landscape. By retracing the steps of 19th-century surveyors, I examine the intersection of culture, colonial history, and personal memory.
Acknowledgements
Jim O’Connor for his local knowledge. https://www.facebook.com/jim.oconnor.33633344/posts/pfbid02mCyZZhexCAt3y76JnBtTcDqaiGgASsbGfQjwEK7GWCHLTFz3DUuKXDVxQ21HJ8E7l?comment_id=3294401454051542¬if_id=1769102767301634¬if_t=comment_mention&ref=notif
William Anthony Smith, Thesis for PhD NUI Maynooth 2008 https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/7778/1/Smyth%202008.pdf
Tailte Eireann https://osi.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=1d1c28801e5542f88960fda8e9f6d686
O’ Donovan Field Name books https://www.mayo.ie/library/local-history/publications-photographs/historical-artifacts?fbclid=IwY2xjawPgRPdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB5WEJIZFg2OVRHMXdMWmlZc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHhIylqYHwQqypXOBIGt1nUHS04dcuCZdPwJoGe7wO45k3HdW-rPzOCUumLP9_aem_ulbBLqJG3kdck6XmgJkkjg
Digital Archive of Ireland’s Ordnance Survey - https://dri.ie/os200/spotlight/os200
Hubert Dreyfus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Dreyfus
The Bog Shaman. Manchán Magan on John Moriarty https://open.spotify.com/show/31m0uD97rsj9i4q1ROdjvz?si=471f5663980f457c
https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07037386
https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=0009008
https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=07038006
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Spring a time of birth and life, but also of death. Seeing the signals, listening to the sounds.
Acknowledgements
BirdWatch Ireland, Buzzard Species Focus (2011)
https://birdfact.com/articles/buzzard-nesting
https://historycooperative.org/cailleach/
https://simonbarnesauthor.co.uk/books/birdwatching-with-your-eyes-closed/
Collared Dove https://xeno-canto.org/621403
Great Tit https://xeno-canto.org/1073555
Chaffinch https://xeno-canto.org/717558
Chiffchaff https://xeno-canto.org/561607
Willow Warbler https://xeno-canto.org/561607
Cuckoo https://xeno-canto.org/673118
Buff tailed bumble bee https://plant-evolution.org/buzz-pollination_sounds/080109-002.mp3
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We depend on the ground beneath our feet more than we realise, and it has moved more than we can imagine.
Acknowledgments
Music by Camron RooLivingstone, S.J., Cofaigh, C.O. and Evans, D.J.A. (2008) Glacial geomorphology of the central sector of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet. Journal of Maps, 4 (1). 358 - 377. ISSN: 1744-5647Geology of South Mayo Bedrock Map Series Sheet 11 -
As the wheel turns toward St. Brigid’s Day and the ancient festival of Imbolc, I mark the traditional arrival of spring with a visit to a local holy well. Join me as we explore the intersection of landscape, ritual, and history. A special note of thanks to Jim O'Connor for his knowledge and poetry reading.
Acknowledgements
Poetry remains the copyright of Jim O’Connor Cameron Roo - musicJohn O’Donovan’s 1838 Ordnance Survey Letters of County Mayo, edited by Rev. Michael O’Flanagan (1927) Vol 2 page 456.Celeste Ray, Sewanee, The University of the South https://new.sewanee.edu/our-faculty-staff/celeste-ray/
Constance Jones; James D. Ryan (2006). Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Infobase Publishing. p. 472.
https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/
Voices from festival in Mali celebrating goddess Nyale
Tribal deer dance North America
Church bells - Ammassalik, Greenland
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During a trip to the hazel forest I got lost, little did I know I was not the first.
No affiliation with Netflix or the show!
Acknowledgments
Cameron Roo - MusicSean Lysaght
Phil Barnett
https://www.logainm.ie/en/
https://irishpagan.school/irish-for-fairy/
https://www.irishagroforestry.ie/silvopasture-cattle
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As the year turns, let's turn our ears beyond the patch to listen to something different. A special episode to explore a year in Vermont with Micki Colbeck.
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In the summer, I walked down to my favourite place in the world to listen and to observe. Being not doing.
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Exploring the history of our hedgerows and what they say to us.
Acknowledgements
https://www.mayo.ie/heritage/mayo-hedgerow/https://www.mayo.ie/getmedia/3c367b71-7008-46d9-a62a-c055fd2beb68/County-Mayo-Hedgerow-Survey-Report_Final.pdf -
In 2018, the buzzard's shadow once again fell upon our corner of the west of Ireland. These are my reflections on their homecoming.
Acknowledgements
BirdWatch Ireland, Buzzard Species Focus (2011)
https://birdfact.com/articles/buzzard-nesting
Colm Philpott https://xeno-canto.org/979487
Oscar Campbell https://xeno-canto.org/582314
Harry Hussey https://xeno-canto.org/578537
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Abandoned cottages speckle the Mayo countryside. Combining the hard evidence of census records, maps and onsite investigations with imagined, fact-based dialogue, I attempt to bring one home, and the people who lived there, back to life, if only for a few moments.
Acknowledgements
https://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/
https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/view
Patrick Kavanagh’s wonderful poem, If ever you go to Dublin Town
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In search of the well of the eels that gives Pollanaskan townland its name.
Acknowledgements
The GeoHive map view is a great resource from the government agency, Tailte Eireann and can be accessed at geohive.ieMaps of drainage systems, such as the Moy, can be found on the Environmental Protection Agency's Geoportal at gis.epa.ieFor exploration of place names, begin at loganim.ie
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A walk in the rain to date a local hedgerow using Hooper's Law.
Acknowledgments
Hooper's hedgerow history hypothesis - UK NAEE https://share.google/ni1jkJMDkiSCZl4uK
Max Hooper Obituary- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/09/max-hooper-obituary
Hedgerow surveying handbook - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6863a03d08bf2f5376121a64/hedgerow-survey-handbook__corrected_01.07.25_.pdf
Hedge Britannia - https://hedgebritannia.wordpress.com/tag/hoopers-law/
Teagasc - https://teagasc.ie/crops/forestry/advice/forest-protection/ash-dieback/
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It is September and the swallows have begun to leave, we are an island of comings and goings.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Sean Lysaght and Phil Barnett.
Kate St.John: https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2014/06/16/the-importance-of-tail-streamers/
Ornithology, Third Edition, Frank B. Gill
Czech Academy of Sciences, The extraordinary life of swallows: https://www.avcr.cz/en/news-archive/The-extraordinary-life-of-swallows.-What-do-we-know-about-them/
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As the seasons change, a special episode with Phil Barnett to explore the inkling days.
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This week, I delve into the changes that have occurred in a single field over the last 200 years in the west of Ireland.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to my neighbour Pat for the invaluable chats.
Thanks to GeoHive managed by Tailte Éireann for the map data. https://www.geohive.ie/
Cameron Roo, for the music, https://www.youtube.com/@Roocaster
All errors are my own, and I remain, as always, open to correction. Thanks for stopping by.
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Searching for the forgotten wolves in the landscape of the west of Ireland and through time.
Acknowledgements:
Kieran Hickey, Wolves in Ireland
Yellowstone Forever (for their blog on wolves and ravens)
The Proceedings of the Royal Society, for the paper "Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows")
Sean Lysaght, for confirming the etymology of drumlin
Cameron Roo, for the music, https://www.youtube.com/@Roocaster
All errors are my own, and I remain, as always, open to correction. Thanks for stopping by.
