Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Dick Warner, of the waters and the wild

Dick Warner, environmentalist, contributes to the Irish Examiner and is widely recognised for his television documentaries, Spirit of Trees, Ironing the Land, and Waterways. The latter has an accompanying book, also called Waterways, which traces his watery journey by steam launch through the north-west of Ireland, down the rivers Shannon and Erne, drenched in the reedy landscapes and wildlife.
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The island of ireland

Once upon a time, and for 15000 years, ice a mile high blanketed Ireland. When the lingering Ice Age finally released and the Irish ice departed it left a landscape scoured. Across land bridges linking Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe plants and animals arrived to colonise the new lowlands, mountains and valleys. The world’s ice continued to melt, the sea levels to rise, and some 8000 years ago Ireland became the island we now know, accounting for just 0.01% of the world's total land area and the most westerly point of Europe.

Though at Alaskan latitudes, the country's climate is tempered, due partly to the neighbouring waters of the Gulf Stream and partly the prevailing southwesterlies that veering and backing make landfall on our sodden coast. These offerings from the Atlantic mean it is never too hot, never too cold. But without doubt it is wet. Rain lingers year round, never far away, though is most frequent in winter, the western counties and, inevitably, on the day of your parade.