Saving Irish honey bees: ‘I was terrified of bees — now I run a beehive business’

Our native Irish honey bees are fighting for survival. Joe McNamee meets the people stepping up to save them — and preserve the food source that has sustained us for thousands of years

Hanna Backmo, beekeeper, holding a frame from a hive at the apiary. Picture: Denis Minihane.

“I am the tear the sun lets fall” is a metaphor for honey from The Song of Amergin, an Irish poem, the oldest recorded in these islands, from around 600BC. Of all the natural wonders and precious food sources it alludes to, only honey is twice mentioned, one of our oldest native foods, especially prized.

Honey was drunk with milk, eaten pure or from the comb. It was used as a dip for bread, meat, and fish, for basting salmon and meat, mixed with lard as a condiment, the principle ingredient in mead. A section of the Brehon Laws was devoted to the ‘bee judgements’, detailing rights of various parties in the sharing of swarms, hives, nests, and honey.