It was the summer of the jellyfish. On almost every retreating tide the beach was jam-packed with jellies. A walk at water’s edge required constant attention to what was underfoot; few experiences are more unpleasant than stepping barefoot into a quivering cushion of jellyfish jelly.
Articles with Ireland
Aurelia aurita • Photo by Alexander Vasenin (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Bust of George Boole at University College Cork • Photo by William Murphy (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The boy who wouldn’t stay ‘in his place’
Inside the entrance of the Boole Library, at Ireland’s University College in Cork, the watchful eyes of George Boole gaze down on visitors from the stern but kindly portrait that hangs in a place of honor.
Peat cut from an Irish bog • Gary Miotla (CC BY 3.0)
Buried in the bog
DINGLE, Ireland — They say it was one of the driest Irish summers in years, but on the Kerry hillside where I’ve been staying there’s water aplenty. It tumbles from the clouds. It hangs in the air. It seeps out of the ground. It glistens as dew. Around here it rains 250 days a year and the ground is never dry. Perfect conditions for a peat bog.
Photo by Jesse Gardner on Unsplash
Nature’s own triumphal arch
With snowflakes in the air, this may seem to be the wrong time of the year to be writing about rainbows. But I’ve just read for the second time Fred Schaaf’s essay “100 Rainbows” in his new book “The Starry Room,” and I’m reminded that rainbows are not necessarily a seasonal phenomena.
Inis Mór, Aran Islands, Ireland • Photo by Sonse (CC BY 2.0)
Briton’s maps reflect love for the landscape
A map is an invitation into a landscape. The maps of British cartographer Tim Robinson are irresistible invitations.
Saint Brendan and his monks set sail for the west (Public Domain)
Ireland’s contender in race for America
Was Columbus was the first European to set foot on American soil, in 1492? You may agree if you are an American of Italian descent. But if you are Norwegian, or Portuguese, or Irish, or almost any other nationality, you will probably have your own candidate for the first European to reach these shores. There is no dearth of entries in the “Discover America” sweepstakes.
Barred grass snake • Benny Trapp (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The real story on Ireland’s snakes
In this space a year ago on Saint Patrick’s Day I wrote a little natural history of the shamrock. In that piece I said there was no evidence to suggest that Saint Patrick ever used the semi-mythical three-petaled plant to illustrate a lesson on the Trinity.
Trifolium dubium (lesser trefoil) • (CC BY SA 3.0)
Tracking the ‘true shamrock’
March is the time for wearing of the green. Shamrocks will sprout as thick as dandelions in July. From Boston to San Francisco, from New York City to Sydney, Australia, Irish men and women will be sporting the small green emblem of the Emerald Isle.
Eurasian Magpie • Photo by Airwolfhound (CC BY SA 2.0)
Wildlife sparse in Ireland
For several years now, correspondents to the letters columns of the Irish Times have heatedly debated the merits — or lack of them — of magpies. The magpie is a large black-and-white bird that first appeared in Ireland in the 17th Century and is now proliferating in every part of the country.
Photo by Dave Herring on Unsplash
Ireland’s changeable weather
For 12 years, off and on, I have been a student of Irish weather. I have studied the daily weather maps in the Irish Times. I have listened to the 6 o’clock shipping forecasts on the BBC. I have watched the barometer. I have held a moistened finger to the wind.