Éamon de Buitléar - An inspiring life’s work

Most great communicators achieve that status because their love of their subject is so very palpable.

Éamon de Buitléar, who has died aged 83, was one.

Generations of people had their world view shaped by his wonderfully seductive wildlife films.

He, at a time when conservation was often confused with something you build on to a house, introduced many people to the complexities and hierarchies of the natural world.

He, probably more so than any other Irish person of the last century, made us aware of our debt to and responsibility for our natural world.

Though he might shrug off the suggestion he made it impossible for anybody who saw his films to deny their responsibility for the world all around them. Few lives affect such profound and long-lasting change.