Donal Hickey: Summer's here and isn't the hawthorn just lovely this year?

Lots of readers have been in touch to say they're hearing the cuckoo — have you heard it yet?

In Celtic mythology, the whitethorn was hugely valued. It was deemed to have properties that could cleanse the heart of negativity and also stimulate love and forgiveness.

At a time of terrible predictions about the future of the planet and the extinction of species, there’s something to celebrate. Summer is here.

Travelling the road between Ballyvourney and Cork, through the sylvan, rolling countryside beyond Macroom, the other day, there was an unmissable reminder of the uplifting season — hawthorn, sometimes called whitethorn, in full bloom.