What ospreys ask of us is simple: clean, fish-rich waters. Whether they succeed here will depend on whether the fish do too. www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2...
What ospreys ask of us is simple: clean, fish-rich waters
Imposing bird of prey can make Ireland home if plankton thrive
irishtimes.com
“Restoration without pollution control is not a policy, it’s a gesture, and an incoherent one at that. It spends public money cleaning up what private and public polluters are permitted to dirty, in a publicly-funded loop without end.” By me for @irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2...
Ireland punishes tax evaders. Pollution should be just as risky
Nature absorbs the impact of polluters because the political will isn’t there to make the consequences serious enough to stop them
irishtimes.com
A bit on Gordon D’Arcy’s new book, David Cabot and a ringed plover laying an egg in the middle of the road 😉
The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 2mo ago“Wild salmon connect wild mountains to the sea, their presence or absence a verdict on how humans value, treat and manage the world. Wild salmon are the measure; when they go missing, it signals that things are completely out of ecological whack.“ By me, for @irishtimes.com
The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 2mo agoWe changed how we treated dogs and how we viewed dog ownership. We can - and must - do the same for the pet that poses a much greater and more immediate threat to wildlife: cats.
The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 2mo agoWhy Ireland needs to stop forcing parents to buy their children laptops for school
Why Ireland needs to stop forcing parents to buy their children laptops for school
Ella McSweeney: Educational technology is now marketed aggressively to schools, which are treating individual laptops as an unquestioned educational good
irishtimes.com
The mandate that secondary students should have individual laptops is a mistake. Weak to no evidence it improves learning outcomes; expensive for families; bad for concentration and focus of our kids, and their physical health; damaging to the environment. www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2...
Why Ireland needs to stop forcing parents to buy their children laptops for school
Ella McSweeney: Educational technology is now marketed aggressively to schools, which are treating individual laptops as an unquestioned educational good
irishtimes.com
On April 29th a fire raged through a bog on Slieve Beagh, nearly destroying a curlew nest with 4 eggs had it not been for Roosin Kearney @rspbni.bsky.social Donal Beagan @breedingwaderseip.bsky.social. Listen here - www.rte.ie/radio/radio1... @rteradio1.bsky.social
Crunchy bog
You know what walking on a bog should sound like but that's not what could be heard underfoot at Slieve Beagh following a wildfire last week. Ella McSweeney joined Philip Boucher Hayes to talk more.
rte.ie
Ireland already knows how to deliver an ambitious plan, and it comes down to this: you fund it. A nature restoration plan without money is like a human without a heart. It will never work. www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Ireland is trying to fund environmental protection on the cheap
Nature restoration isn’t a luxury. It’s one of the highest-return investments available to the State
irishtimes.com
Imagine a world where we could safely drink and swim in all our rivers? 🤔 Unfortunately, that is not the case in Ireland today! 🚨🤮 💧Check out the most recent article by Irish Times writer Ella McSweeney for more on the state of rivers in Ireland and why we should be angry about it!
Water is our great truth-teller. You cannot fake your way to a drinkable river. www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2...
Is there an Irish river I can drink from without vomiting?
In the 1980s about 500 Irish rivers were classed as the very best of the best but, today, there are about 20
irishtimes.com
Deer management is a necessary reality of native woodland conservation. Those of us who want to see more woodlands in our landscape really need to accept the necessity and see the opportunity in deer hunting. Thanks for raising awareness @ellamcsweeney.bsky.social www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...
How does deer culling work? | Newstalk
Seán’s guest has decided to take deer culling into her own hands.Ella McSweeney has bought a ...
newstalk.com
‘If I were to invent an Irish nickname for the dandelion, it would be something like An Bhialann Órga, the golden restaurant.’ Beautiful piece by @ellamcsweeney.bsky.social Archive link in comments www.irishtimes.com/life-style/2...
We need to stop killing dandelions and this is why
For that flare of yellow to appear, the plant must spread its seeds, and it is that seed head which is a design marvel
irishtimes.com
"In the future, standing either side of the river Shannon on drained bogs, we'll look back and ask, 'How did we get this so wrong?'" Strong piece from Ella McSweeney. I watched this account of the Abbeyleix bog project just last week. We can save these ecosystems: www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaFa...
The Abbeyleix Bog Project Story | Abbeyleix Bog Walk
YouTube video by Abbeyleix Bog Project
youtube.com
Ella McSweeney@ellamcsweeney.bsky.social · 4mo agoThe irreplaceable Shannon bogs warrant full restoration. What we stand to lose by draining them for energy infrastructure is trading a guaranteed long-term asset for short-term expedience and convenience. By me for the @irishtimes.com #cornafulla www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
The irreplaceable Shannon bogs warrant full restoration. What we stand to lose by draining them for energy infrastructure is trading a guaranteed long-term asset for short-term expedience and convenience. By me for the @irishtimes.com #cornafulla www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Ella McSweeney: Cornafulla Bog is a gold mine. Let’s not squander it
Siting wind infrastructure on the Shannon bogs is too high a price to pay for renewable energy
irishtimes.com
"In a world humans have broken, conservation and restoration also requires perpetual, unglamorous killing." Deer culling and the control of invasive species are not exceptions but integral parts of modern conservation, uncomfortable, yet unavoidable realities. www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
‘I’m not a natural-born killer but I’ve learned to shoot ethically and I’ll help cull deer’
Ella McSweeney is not a natural-born killer but she will shoot deer next month for the first time. It’s for the woodlands
irishtimes.com
‘I’m not a natural-born killer but I’ve learned to shoot ethically and I’ll help cull deer’
‘I’m not a natural-born killer but I’ve learned to shoot ethically and I’ll help cull deer’
Ella McSweeney is not a natural-born killer but she will shoot deer next month for the first time. It’s for the woodlands
irishtimes.com
Looking forward to my discussion with @ellamcsweeney.bsky.social @granardbooktown.bsky.social 19/4 2026 Come for the craic and stay for the craic! #books #festival #ireland #literature #writers #author #firsbook 🌳 🌿 🌍🦤🧪🦊📚💙 @pelagic.bsky.social @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social @aicbrn.bsky.social
Granard Booktown Festival@granardbooktown.bsky.social · 5mo agoOur 2026 Programme is LIVE! All tickets go on sale this Monday at 9am via our website granardbooktownfestival.ie 📚This year marks our fourth festival and it's our biggest to date! 20+ talks, 35+ authors, writers and poets, 3 writing workshops, 1 film screening, in 4 venues over 4 exciting days!
Could Ireland’s burial grounds become memorial places where our late loved ones are remembered not with the deadly permanence of plastic, but with plants, flowers and trees that will, like all of us, eventually return to the earth? www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
I wrote a bit about the recent Coolglass court judgement and how it has revealed a deeper crisis: Ireland’s land-use policy is a fragmented, siloed, splintered mess.
The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 5mo agoIreland doesn’t have time for wind farm battles
“We need an overarching national policy based on evidence, data and a judgment about what is fair and reasonable for local communities.” - @ellamcsweeney.bsky.social Yes. Long overdue.
The Irish Times@irishtimes.com · 5mo agoIreland doesn’t have time for wind farm battles
'And so we get to the real crisis: Ireland’s land-use policy is a fragmented, siloed, splintered mess.' - Excellent, honest writing, as usual, from @ellamcsweeney.bsky.social www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Ireland doesn’t have time for wind farm battles
Ella McSweeney: A recent verdict showed climate law can’t fix what politics won’t
irishtimes.com
Tomorrow, Too Big to Fail, a doc on Larry Goodman, is a reminder of one of the most important moments in Irish investigative journalism, when Susan O’Keeffe took on a story many believed was untouchable. Monday 9th March, 9.35pm, @rteone.rte.ie
For me, nothing heals better than being alone in the wild. www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Being in nature can be deeply restorative – something we all too easily forget
Losing routine contact with the living world results in less concern, less protection and less access. The antidote is evidence that conservation works
irishtimes.com
He rarely gives interviews. At 89, he‘a the largest exporter of beef in Europe. €2.5b in annual turnover. Ireland's biggest player in private healthcare. A vast property empire. Now, for the first time: his story. 📺 Too Big to Fail by Ciarán Cassidy, Ella McSweeney, Hugh Ormond & Colum McKeown
Nature and climate funding must now be articulated as infrastructure: as essential to food systems, public health, energy stability and geopolitical resilience. In security terms, biodiversity is not sentimental, it is strategic. www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
Environmental breakdown isn’t a distant possibility – it’s a threat to world stability
The message is clear: climate change should be prioritised as a security crisis, not just an environmental one
irishtimes.com
The Dublin city half hectare that became a self-sustaining sanctuary for nature, until recent clearance works - photo 2023 (left) and 2025 (right) www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
“All of the reductions in carbon emissions we’ve achieved through sustainable sources and electric vehicles will be reversed by the inexorable rise and insatiable appetite of AI” @financialtimes.com giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
I loved reading this and its lessons on curiosity and happening upon any of the myriad wonders our planet has wrought that empower us to access awe. "In many ways, cotterite is as much a story about attention – paying it and following it... – as it is about chemistry and geology." #Geology #Earth
Ella McSweeney@ellamcsweeney.bsky.social · 7mo agoWrote a bit about a 7 year old boy who found one of the world’s rarest minerals near his home in Cork, and the geologist Dr Patrick Roycroft who brought the story together… www.irishtimes.com/environment/...
