Richard Collins: Important to get our claws into animal subspecies

Irish dippers and jays, isolated on this wet windy island for millennia, have developed ‘Irish solutions to Irish problems’; they are now significantly different from their cousins elsewhere, writes Richard Collins.

However, the Irish ‘races’ are not distinct enough to merit ‘species’ designation; they are deemed to be ‘subspecies’ and appropriate additions have been made to their biological names. Our dipper bears the extra title hibernicus, while the jay is lusitanicus. Such distinctions may recall the pompous titles we bestow on the great and the good.