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.
Ireland has a distinguished tradition of natural historians, stretching back to early Christian times. Charting their contributions here reveals remarkable achievements which prepare the reader for the chapters to follow. Living Irish naturalists, whose work is unfinished, will not be discussed, but many of their accomplishments are quoted in subsequent chapters. Our purpose here is to salute those early pioneers who unravelled much of the rich pageant of Ireland’s natural world.
The trail begins with early Christian monks, living close to nature and its moods, who set down their observations of the changing seasons. Their perceptions of the flora and fauna were recorded in poetry that was at first oral before being written down several centuries later as alliterative verse – much of which was botched by antiquarians and modified not inconsiderably by scribes.1 Emerging from this first wave of nature watchers was a perspicacious monk, Augustin, reckoned by Praeger to have been the first Irish naturalist.2 Augustin flourished around AD 655, when he wrote Liber de Mirabilibus Sanctae Scripturae, and his ideas pre-empted by 1,200 years many fundamental concepts about animal distribution expounded by Charles Darwin and others.
During the thirteenth century, Giraldus Cambrensis (c.1146–c.1223), a Welsh ecclesiastic and travel writer, produced Topographia Hiberniae,3 vivid and robust sketch of Ireland’s natural history. Yet another visitor, Gerard Boate (1604–49), a medical doctor from Holland, followed many years later with Irelands Naturall History (1652),4 a popular handbook for ‘adventurers’ and land investors at the time of Oliver Cromwell. Both the Cambrensis and Boate texts provide the earliest framework for natural history in Ireland. Thereafter Ireland remained a scientific backwater until towards the close of the seventeenth century when a small group of Dublin-based natural philosophers, belonging to the age of new learning and enlightenment, brought a rational approach to the study of natural history. Subsequently many amateurs, divines, members of the landed gentry, businessmen and ordinary folk, together with academics, bore the