Donal Hickey: Making room for bats

We have nine bat species in Ireland, all protected under national and EU laws. They are harmless creatures and play a useful role in gobbling up insects that might otherwise be a nuisance to people

Lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) is one of nine bat species in Ireland

With Halloween approaching, bats come more into people’s minds as spooky symbols of this ancient Celtic festival of Samhain and are associated with witches, ghosts and other weird, mysterious beings of the night.

For such reasons, bats have earned quite a fearsome reputation. In folklore, the bat has been portrayed as a messenger of death, just like the banshee, and the myth goes that if one gets into your house a death can follow.