Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda
One of the themes I have found emerging from my project of blogging about species extinct in Ireland since human habitation is how hidden much of this biodiversity loss is.…
OK, this entry in my September series of species rendered extinct in Ireland since human settlement here may cause many readers to do a double-take. The red squirrel? Extinct? But…
From Pádraic Fogarty‘s Whittled Away: Woodlark Formerly common along the Eastern counties, it had disappeared as a breeding bird by the start of the twentieth century. Gerald Manley Hopkins attempted…
From Pádraic Fogarty’s Whittled Away: Spotted crake Probably common up to the mid-nineteenth century, there was a record of them breeding on the once extensive marshes around Dundalk, Co. Louth,…
From Pádraic Fogarty’s Whittled Away: Osprey Breeding in inland lakes including Lough Key in Roscommon in 1779 but no records thereafter, save for the odd vagrant. Given its relatively abundant…
Another pretty flower with a pretty name – pretty names, indeed, as Adonis annua has a pleasingly alliterative ring. And extinct in Ireland. I came across this elegy for Adonis…
This is one of those entries in this month of Irish extinctions since the coming of humanity which can provoke a double-take. For the wild boar, as I have blogged…
Another day, another extinct species. And another evocative common name (and again a translation of the formal name), this beetle is, according to the RedList No 1: Hydraena pulchella The…
Séamus Sweeney 