WITH summer and, hopefully, prolonged spells of dry, sunny weather ahead, the thought of floods must be the last thing on people’s minds.

IT’S the time of year when, traditionally, hardy men celebrated in song as “peat bog soldiers” would be sharpening the edge on their sleans and heading for the turf banks.

IT’S the stone walls patterning the landscape of the west of Ireland that leave a lasting first impression on many people visiting that part of the country.

A SURE sign of a healthy river is the presence of the freshwater mussel which has largely disappeared in Ireland in recent decades.

ANGLERS and conservationists are mounting strong opposition to moves to change a law that has imposed a complete ban on commercial fishing for sea bass over the past 20 years.

IRELAND could end up paying hundreds of millions of euro in fines unless we divert more waste away from traditional dumping (landfill) and meet EU targets.

DESPITE claims to the contrary by anti-field sports organisations, hares are 18 times more plentiful in areas managed by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) than at similar sites in the wider countryside, a recent study by Queen’s University Belfast has shown.

IT’S ironic that a time of a year when new life begins to spring forth, we also have large-scale destruction of natural features of the landscape and wildlife habitat, in Ireland.

DESPITE advances in the past 100 years, Ireland remains one of the least wooded countries in Europe with only 10% of our land planted with trees compared to the European average of 40%.

A RECENT visit to the magnificent Dingle Peninsula, on a day when there was a heavy swell in the Atlantic, illustrated yet again the sheer power of the waves that crashed into the jagged coastline.