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Author’s Foreword

My endeavours for this book began in 1959 when I ‘fell out of the sky’ into County Wexford, in a sort of horizontal manner from the Fishguard-Rosslare Ferry, one warm, sunny August afternoon. Making my way northwards, the first arresting ornithological surprise was a hooded crow frisking some rubbish on a heap of refuse outside New Ross. They were a rarity where I had just come from.

That innocent encounter set me thinking. Why were these crows so numerous and living so far south in Ireland, while Britain was bereft of them at the same latitudes? Their only claw-hold was in Scotland, a more northerly territory than the most northern extremity of Ireland. What extra inducements were on offer in this low green island, some 80 kilometres west of Wales? Not only did these grey crows buck the code of ‘conventional’ distribution behaviour, but other birds and some mammals were at it too, and so were plants. Straight away I was intrigued by the natural history questions posed by islands.

Islands, because of their remoteness, beg scores of difficult questions from biologists. How and when did they acquire their flora and fauna? How many times did the ice wipe out the incipient growth in Ireland and northwestern Europe to produce a clean slate? Was the slate entirely clean or were there species lurking in a concealed spot, dormant, quiescent, and waiting for conditions to be right again? Or did they all travel from the Continent at various stages in time, attempting a new onslaught every time the climate allowed a move? What delayed the absentees – nowhere to be seen in Ireland today, but present on the larger, nearby land mass? Have any of the island dwellers turned into new species or varieties in their cloistered gene pool? Do island plants and animals practice a different ecology from that of their brothers and sisters elsewhere? And if so, why?

While continuing to tread the hot road I pondered these questions. Eventually a bruised Renault 4, answering my thumb, stopped. The owner, profusely apologetic for the agglomeration of dirty nappies adrift on the back seat, displayed such a virtuoso performance of wild words and images that I was seduced into the domain of supreme significance in Ireland: the world of imagination. The crows flapped out of my head. Eventually, after an unexpected three week digression – I was only to have stayed for two nights as a guest with a farming family deep in the lush Carlow countryside – I arrived at Trinity College, Dublin, to pursue my studies in Natural Sciences. The crow came back to nag me. It was the beginning of an enduring fascination for the country I went on to adopt as my home. In other words, I fell in love with Ireland under the unlikely sign of the crow, stayed on, married her, and never ceased to be enraptured.

The intention of this book is to provide a descriptive overview of the natural history of Ireland. Such a book involves choices and judgement concerning what to include and what to leave out. My aim throughout has been to present a balanced view.

First came the question of the structure of the book. Perhaps it would be helpful to explain my philosophy of approach on this point. The first chapter is about earlier naturalists, and sets in place the basic natural history rubrics of Ireland. Some knowledge of these naturalists and their works provides a background to what follows in the subsequent chapters. The second chapter gives an explanation of Ireland’s biological history.

The narrative strategy adopted in the rest of the book is simple. It is based on the configuration of the Irish landscape. We start high up with mountains and uplands, then come down to lower levels in subsequent chapters before moving out towards the sea. The journey across the lower altitudes takes us in and out of the vast expanses of peatlands and the great lakes and rivers that play such a dominant role in the landscape. The Burren and turloughs, internationally famous treasures of Ireland and Europe, deserve a special chapter to themselves. The small remnants of ancient broadleaved woodlands make up the following chapter. Farmland, replacing ancient woodlands, commands most of the land area of the country and is discussed next. As a modified ecosystem it provides many opportunities for wildlife. Then we move on to the coastline, the islands and finally the sea.

The final chapter, conservation of nature, explores the developments and milestones in our efforts to protect and manage the natural environment in Ireland. The chapter concludes with a forward look at what contribution Ireland has to offer Europe with regard to its natural heritage.

Thus the book has been structured on nine major habitats or what might be better called ‘eco-zones’ of Ireland and concludes with a review of what care is taken of them today. I have tried to explain the principal ecological characteristics of each habitat before moving on to particular issues, or sometimes key species, which are highlighted and treated in greater detail. The selection of specific issues was a difficult task, but it had to be done if the book was to stay within sensible limits. I have also taken a ‘gazetteer’ approach to each habitat, mentioning as many sites of interest as possible in the hope that people will visit and enjoy them.

Throughout the preparation of the book I have been conscious of the imbalance of information on Ireland’s natural history. I have drawn extensively upon a sometimes thin and scattered literature, not always as up-to-date as I would have wished it to be. I have also dug deep into my own experience, gained over almost 40 years’ field work and fortified by three trips to Greenland in pursuit of one of my special interests, the barnacle goose. However, it will be clear that it has been impossible for a single person in one book to deal with every facet of Ireland’s natural history in great detail. One would have to write a series of monographs to do the subject justice. So there are many caveats and limitations to the book and I hope that these will be clearly understood.

I have tried to write in a simple, easily understood language for the non-specialist. I would have preferred to use scientific names alongside common names throughout the text. However, in the interests of reducing the text length, scientific names may be found in the index. In several instances their use cannot be avoided when dealing with subspecies or derivations of common names. Also where ordinary names do not exist, as in the case of most mosses, liverworts, insects, marine invertebrates and numerous other organisms, there is no alternative but to use their scientific names. Place names have been taken from the maps of the Discovery Series of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland 1:50,000 published by the Government of Ireland and, where not available, from the 1:126,720 series. Following this reference source some hallowed names have been changed, e.g. ‘Ben Bulben’, Co. Sligo, becomes ‘Benbulbin’ and so on. However, concerning Connemara I have used ‘Twelve Bens’ in preference to the Ordnance Survey ‘Twelve Pins’. I have used the second edition of The Census Catalogue of the Flora of Ireland by Scannell & Synnott, published by the Stationary Office, Dublin, 1987, for all the common and scientific names of pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms. For other scientific and common names I have used the following Collins guides: Freshwater Life of Britain and North-West Europe (1986) by Fitter & Manuel; Sea Shore of Britain and Northern Europe (1996) by Hayward, Nelson-Smith & Shields; Insects of Britain and Western Europe (1986 and 1993) by Chinery; Butterflies and Day-flying Moths of Britain and Europe (1989) by Chinery; Mammals of Britain and Europe (1993) by Macdonald & Barrett; Ferns, Mosses and Lichens of Britain, Northern and Central Europe (1983) by Jahns; Fish of Britain and Europe (1997) by Miller & Loates and Birds of Britain and Europe (1993) by Peterson, Mountfort & Hollom. The following have also been used as references: The Flora and Fauna of Exmoor National Park – a natural history checklist (1996) by Giddens, Robbins & Allen (Exmoor Books, Dulverton), Handbook of the Marine Fauna of North-West Europe (1991) by Hayward & Ryland (OUP, Oxford), Atlas of the Bryophytes of Britain and Ireland by Hill, Preston & Smith (Harley Books, Colchester), Marine Algae of Northern Ireland (1994) by Morton (Ulster Museum, Belfast), Charophytes of Great Britain and Ireland BSBI Handbook No 5 by Moore (BSBI, London), A portable dictionary of the higher plants (1990) by Mabberley (CUP, Cambridge) and New Flora of the British Isles (2nd ed. 1997) by Stace (CUP, Cambridge).

I should also explain that the frequent comparisons between the natural history of Ireland and the larger island of Britain are necessary to set Ireland in its ecological context alongside its nearest neighbour. These two islands have much in common but there are also many differences between them. Britain harbours a much more diverse natural inheritance, firstly because it is bigger with a wider range of habitats, and secondly because it was more closely and more recently connected with the Continent and thus inherited more plants and animals than Ireland.

Whilst writing this book I have always tried to keep in mind the curiosity, enlightenment and pleasure of the reader and hope that this work will provide an inspiration to whoever comes across it. I was inspired by a series of people who had an abiding interest in nature; I would like this book to perform a similar function.