Cabragh Wetlands: Re-wilding the Tipperary landscape

As Chris Hadfield, the astronaut, said from outer space, “Tá Éire fíor álainn”. For the past number of weeks I have been gallivanting around Tipperary, traipsing through glens, meadows and bogs, climbing mottes and limestone scarps for panoramic views and exploring a wide range of natural habitats and historic landscapes.
Standing on top of Grange Hill, watching the shadow of the clouds across the forty shades of green, one got the sense of man’s impact on the landscape although it in no way diminished the beauty of the banks of foxgloves, the small micro habitats of heather on shale and the made parkland of the Kilcooley estate with its hundreds of acres of forest. I was reminded that while the forts, round towers, tower houses and the magnificent Wellington memorial testify to human history, there is a great story to be told by nature itself. The very rocks beneath our feet contain the coal of the Carboniferous period while the mauve splashes of raised bog beneath the giant wind towers are the carbon sink of thousands of years. Later in the week I would meet 4,000 year old tree stumps on the lane into Derrynaflan. Most of these bogs are long dead since the first cutting was made and the bag of water was punctured. In Tipperary this was achieved on an industrial scale with the Littleton drains taking seven years to make the bog fit to accept the giant milling machines. And yet, despite the noise and the dust of summer the small drúichtín na móna or sundew, one of the very few Irish plant insectivores never failed to enthral as did the bearded lichens, old brittle bones and the banks of bog cotton alternating with heather and ling in an artists’ paradise. Today the bogs are silent and await a new day, be it the site of windfarms as at Lisheen or a rewilding project, the latest bright idea in the battle to save the planet. The Slieveardagh community have enhanced their locality with sensitive walks, rest benches that are like Croke Park premium seats looking down on Kilcooley Abbey, interpretative boards and children’s nature trail. The bog cutting controversy, too, has had its strange side effects where old bog roads used by generations at Derrynaflan to provide fuel for the winter and the social training of the meitheal are now barred and locked against any visitors. Access to the old ways of Robert McFarlane is being denied without any obvious security concerns. The story of the Irish landscape has always been of accommodation and change for different agricultural practices and one cannot but applaud the developing reputation of Irish food production by one of the hardest working sectors of society. That same sector has always been so appreciative of the story of their landscape and so welcoming of people wishing to explore its beauty and history. Strange that I encountered a padlocked gate to the road my people have travelled on their way to a site that has all the echoes of the Roman world, the near East and Ethiopia, the Desert Fathers and our own Golden Age and of a time when insular meant being on the highways of the known world as we brought knowledge and learning to a welcoming Europe.
The Kilcooley estate, too, with its present forlorn look, represents another lost opportunity and lack of vision. The movers, shakers and thinkers that gave us the Westport to Achill Greenway, changed a barren and rhododendron covered mountain glen to the jewel that is Glenveagh National Park or nearer to home, Doneraile Park, are certainly missing something in this elegant landed estate that could be Ireland’s ancient east’s jewel and playground for the new Ireland. Both Kilcooley and Derrynaflan would be prime places to introduce the concept of re-wilding to the Tipperary landscape.
Returning to Cabragh Wetlands puts me in better form with its biodiversity and multiple habitats. We know that solutions to environmental problems must be found within an economic context of life and living. Cabragh Wetlands can play its part, an ideal forum for discussion and debate. Groups like Waters and Communities and the organizers of the recent Suirfest are always welcome. We owe it to the wide eyed children, the young professionals who completed their mindfulness week on the sun soaked balcony of the Wetlands Centre, the increasing number of elderly who bring their extended families to Cabragh to show and tell them about a natural world they knew so well in their youth. Why not join us?
Slán go fóill.