The Royal Irish Academy

In this new series of four podcasts host Gill Plunkett explores the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland'. We talk about hunter gatherers, disease, poetry, weather events and consider our future vulnerabilities.

In episode 1, John Sweeney considers the challenging interaction between climate and society from the nineteenth century to the present, arguing that while throughout most of its history, Irish society was a prisoner of climate as mediated through the necessity of a harvest surplus, the relationship is now reversed: in a global context, climate is now the prisoner of people.

John Sweeney is Emeritus Professor in the Geography Department at Maynooth University.

'Climate and Society in Ireland' is a collection of essays, commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy, that provides a multi-period, interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most important challenges currently facing humanity. Combining syntheses of existing knowledge with new insights and approaches, contributors explore the varied environmental, climatic and social changes that occurred in Ireland from early prehistory to the early 21st century. The essays in the volume engage with a diversity of pertinent themes, including the impact of climate change on the earliest human settlement of Ireland; weather-related food scarcities during medieval times that led to violence and plague outbreaks; changing representations of weather in poetry written in Ireland between 1600 and 1820; and how Ireland is now on the threshold of taking the radical steps necessary to shed its ‘climate laggard’ status and embark on the road to a post-carbon society.

The book is available from our website: www.ria.ie/climate-and-society-ireland

In episode 5 of Shelfmarks Zoë explores the myth of Cessair and Fintan mac Bochra from the Leabhar Gabhála (The Book of Invasions / The Book of the Taking of Ireland).

In the myth Cessair is the grand-daughter of Noah and daughter of Bith. Bith is refused passage on The Ark and so Cessair builds three ships to seek out a new land. Each ship is crewed by fifty women. During the seven year journey two of the ships sink but the third containing Cessair, fifty women, her husband Fintan, her father Bith and her brother Ladra arrive in Ireland. She takes the first step on Irish soil. Zoë explores this myth, the taking of Ireland and how becoming at one with the natural world becomes essential to survival.

As part of this podcast writer Siobhán Mannion writes a fictional account of this first step and what Ireland might have looked like to Cessair and her crew.

Zoë also takes a walk across Dublin city with Siobán to discuss her relationship with nature, walking, writing and routine.

Siobhán Mannion’s stories and essays have appeared in Irish and international publications including Granta, Winter Papers, Banshee, Eighteen Bridges, Stand, The Moth, The Long Gaze Back: An Anthology of Irish Women Writers and Galway Stories: 2020. She has written plays and non-fiction pieces for radio, and her work has appeared in translation. Her honours include an Arts Council Literature Bursary, a MacDowell fellowship, two Hennessy Awards, and two New York Festivals Radio Awards. She lives in Dublin, where she worked for many years as a radio producer in RTÉ and is now completing a collection of stories.

'The Book of Invasions’ (‘Leabhar Gabhála’) is not the name of a specific manuscript. Rather it is an origin legend of the Irish people that exists in many variant versions, in poetry and prose. The origins of the tradition can be traced to the seventh century, although the earliest surviving manuscripts are much later. The story was extensively reworked in verse form in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Over time, prose versions were derived from the poetry, and additional historical material was added. It was revised again in the seventeenth century by the team of historians known as the Four Masters. It continued to be accepted as a plausible story of the settlement of people on the island of Ireland long after that.' Find out more at https://www.ria.ie/leabhar-gabhala-book-invasions

Host Gill Plunkett introduces a new series of four podcasts exploring the long view of climate change by interviewing the authors of 'Climate and Society in Ireland', a collection of essays commissioned by the Royal Irish Academy.

'Climate and Society in Ireland' provides a multi-period, interdisciplinary perspective on one of the most important challenges currently facing humanity. Combining syntheses of existing knowledge with new insights and approaches, contributors explore the varied environmental, climatic and social changes that occurred in Ireland from early prehistory to the early 21st century. The essays in the volume engage with a diversity of pertinent themes, including the impact of climate change on the earliest human settlement of Ireland; weather-related food scarcities during medieval times that led to violence and plague outbreaks; changing representations of weather in poetry written in Ireland between 1600 and 1820; and how Ireland is now on the threshold of taking the radical steps necessary to shed its ‘climate laggard’ status and embark on the road to a post-carbon society. The book is available from our website: https://www.ria.ie/climate-and-society-ireland

This week on Shelfmarks imaginary islands, real books and Manchán Magan on the magical in betweenness of Irish.

The Royal Irish Academy holds the most important collection of Irish language manuscripts in the country and more specifically it holds medical manuscripts - 6000 thousand pages across 30 different textbooks. One of these medical books is called the Book of O’Lees or Book of Hybrasil. This week Zoë relays the origin of the book of O’Less and Manchán Magan reads two specially commissioned essays prompted by the Book of O’Lees. One about Bog Plants and the medicinal cures found in Irish plants and the other about the nebulousness of the island of Hy-brasil:

“I’ve never been to Valentia Island in my life, but I don’t doubt it exists. I’ve sat in Portmagee in a thick mist and looked out on nothing, on a miasma of white vapour, but still I accept Valentia Island as part of reality. That’s how it was for people with regard to Hy Brasil. Many, many people throughout history claimed to have seen it, and there are still some alive today who have told me directly they’ve seen the allusive, mystical island. But, there are far more people living along the west coast of Ireland at points from which it is supposed to be visible who’ve never once even caught a glimpse of it. It both exists and doesn’t exist. Má thuigeann tú leat me (if you get what I mean).”

Tune in to hear more of Manchán essays on Shelfmarks Episode 4. Zoë and Manchán also discuss how Irish holds many clues to how we can understand the natural world, what we can do collectively in this time of crisis and why as a travel writer Manchán no longer flies around the world.

Manchán Magan most recent two books are Thirty-Two Words for Field and Tree Dogs, Banshee Fingers and Other Irish Words for Nature - both are published by Gill Books.

In this episode, Gladys Ganiel and Philip McDonagh discuss church leaders' contributions to public debates about a post-Brexit island.

You can read Gladys Ganiel's paper, as it appears in Irish Studies in International Affairs, at https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.47

Philip McDonagh's response can be found at https://doi.org/10.3318/isia.2021.32b.52

Gladys Ganiel is reader in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen's University Belfast.

Philip McDonagh is the director of the DCU Centre for Religion, Human Values, and International Relations.

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This is episode 5 of a podcast series that provides evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south.

Host Rory Montgomery, MRIA, talks to authors of articles on topics such as cross border health co-operation; the need to regulate social media in referendums, education, cultural affairs and constitutional questions and the imperative for good data and the need to carry out impartial research.

ARINS: Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South brings together experts to provide evidence-based research and analysis on the most significant questions of policy and public debate facing the island of Ireland, north and south. The project publishes, facilitates and disseminates research on the challenges and opportunities presented to the island in a post-Brexit context, with the intention of contributing to an informed public discourse. More information can be found at www.arinsproject.com.

ARINS is a joint project of The Royal Irish Academy, an all-island body, and the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies at Notre Dame's Keough School of Global Affairs.

In this bonus episode of Shelfmarks, guest writer Conor W. O'Brien reads a short piece on the wolf in Ireland.

Shelfmarks is a podcast by the Royal Irish Academy podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns. Every other week Zoë will sift through the Academy collection for Shelfmarks (biographies, manuscripts, books and reference from the collection) and invite a guest writer to discuss their own relationship with the natural world. Each writer has been specially commissioned to write pieces exploring their own relationship with nature. Shelfmarks goes live every other Sunday.

In this bonus episode of Shelfmarks, Zoë meets with Conor W. O'Brien. Conor is the author of two books: 'Ireland Through Birds', a journey around Ireland and through the four seasons in search of 12 of our rarest and most elusive birds, and 'Life in Ireland: a Short History of a Long Time', both published by Merrion Press.

Conor joined us for our Culture Night special episode of Shelfmarks to talk about writing and the natural world. One of the aims of this series is to commission new writing about the natural world and for this bonus episode Conor has written a short piece on the wolf in Ireland.

A full episode of Shelfmarks will be back next week with Manchán Magan. This series is funded by the Arts Council Literature Project Award.

This week on Shelfmarks Zoë Comyns tries to get a sense of the immense work done by Robert Lloyd Praeger. From his early days in Co. Down, tramping through the Mourne Mountains to the thousands of miles he walked across Ireland studying botanics, to his contribution to 800 publications and his 24 books RL Praeger is probably considered Ireland’s most influential naturalist.

Zoë’s guest this week on Shelfmarks is poet Jane Clarke. Jane grew up in Co Roscommon and came to writing after a career in psychotherapy. She moved to Wicklow almost 25 years ago and Zoë visited her there in her home and took a walk up a lane known as Fairy Lane or Lousy Land and listeners will hear two specially commissioned poems about her neighbour and quarrymen.

You can read more about Jane Clarke on her website: http://www.janeclarkepoetry.ie/

To write this episode Zoë read The Way that I Went and A Populous Solitude by Robet Lloyd Praeger, Irish Topographical Botany and the Clare Island Survey, as well as the invaluable biography of Praeger The Life of a Naturalist by Sean Lysaght published by Four Courts Press. She also read A Farrington's obituary of Praeger in the Irish Naturalist Journal, Vol 11 (1954).

The readings in this episode are by Declan Brennan.

In this bonus episode of Shelfmarks, Zoë Comyns chats to guest writers Niall and Christine about their own relationship with their garden and nature.

Shelfmarks is a podcast by the Royal Irish Academy podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns. Every other week Zoë will sift through the Academy collection for Shelfmarks (biographies, manuscripts, books and reference from the collection) and invite a guest writer to discuss their own relationship with the natural world. Each writer has been specially commissioned to write pieces exploring their own relationship with nature. Shelfmarks goes live every other Sunday.

In this bonus episode of Shelfmarks, Zoë meets with Niall Williams and Christine Breen. Niall and Christine are the authors of numerous books. Niall has been longlisted for the Man Booker for History of the Rain and his most recent novel is This is Happiness. Chrstine Breen’s first novel is Her Name is Rose. Together, their most recent book is In Kiltumper: A Year in an Irish Garden (Bloomsbury, 2021).

Niall and Christine joined us for our Culture Night special episode of Shelfmarks to talk about writing and the natural world. One of the aims of this series is to commission new writing about the natural world and both Niall and Chrstine have a short piece for this episode in the same style as their entries for In Kiltumper - they explore their own relationship with their garden and nature.

A full episode of Shelfmarks will be back next week with poet Jane Clarke and an exploration of the uplands and walking through the work of Robert Lloyd Praeger.

This series is funded by the Arts Council Literature Project Award. Special thanks to Matt Purcelll for the recording.

In this week's episode, podcaster-in-residence Zoë Comyns delves into the life of Cynthia Longfield and spends time with writer Amanda Bell in her Mayo garden.

Cynthia Longfield (1896–1991) was an entomologist, specialising in dragonflies (Odonata). She was part of the St George Expedition that sailed to the Pacific in 1924. Her collection of memorabilia from the 1924 St George expedition is held by the Academy Library, and includes personal diaries, news-cuttings, albums of photographs and her killing jar used for collecting insect samples. She subsequently went on a variety of other research expeditions in Asia, Africa, Canada and South America. Cynthia Longfield worked in the British Museum as an unpaid associate for over 30 years. She was the Museum’s Odonata expert. She retired to her family’s Cloyne in 1956. In 1979 she donated her library (books, notes and ephemera) to the Royal Irish Academy. The collection is known as the ‘Longfield-Roberts’ collection.

In this episode Zoë invites poet and writer Amanda Bell to explore some themes around Cynthia Longfield’s life and research – Amanda has written for the podcast about collecting, iridescence and poison – Zoë visits her in her Mayo garden to chat about tending the site and her understanding of nature and how it influences her writing life.

Amanda Bell’s most recent collection is Riptide (Doire Press). Riptide explores the zeitgeist using the art of Edvard Munch as a counterpoint, delving into the ecological and spiritual anguish informing his paintings, finding parallels in the world we live in today.

Amanda's awards include: Arts Council of Ireland Literature Bursary 2020; Harold’s Cross inaugural Writer in Residence; Poetry Ireland Introductions Series 2016; Winner of Allingham Prize and Merit Book Award; shortlisted for Irish Poem of the Year, Shine Strong Award, Touchstone Distinguished Books Award

The readings in this episode are by Jennifer O’Dea.

Additional Music Credits: Through the Tunnel by DoKashiteru (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Truth and Fact (with Piano) by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2021 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/63942 Ft: Kara Square

In this Podcast, Megan Brien, historian of design and interior architecture, explores the history of the turret clock in the Clocktower building at Grangegorman on the northside of Dublin’s city centre. With horologists Julian Cosby and David Boles, Megan reveals the unique features of this extraordinary timepiece: the oldest known flat-bed clock in the world.

Grangegorman Histories is a public history project of Dublin City Council, Grangegorman Development Agency, HSE, Local Communities, National Archives, Royal Irish Academy and TU Dublin. To learn more see www.grangegormanhistories.ie