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Sarda IN is a voluntary group in Northern Ireland that provides dogs for search and rescue, as well as for cadaver searches across Ireland. Video: Alan Betson
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Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
Designed for Life: Architecture and Design in Cork City 1900-90 by Tom Spalding
Designed for Life: Architecture and Design in Cork City 1900-90 Author : Tom Spalding ISBN-13 : 978-1782050193 Publisher : Cork University Press Guideline Price : €40 In his novel A Land Not Theirs (1986) David Marcus writes that 'All the way up to the statue of Fr. Mathew was one immense conflagration … a gigantic furnace.' Carried out by British troops in December 1920 in a reprisal for an IRA ambush near the then Victoria (now Collins) Barracks, this burning of Cork destroyed five acres of the city's significant streets and properties. It is typical of Tom Spalding's tone of mild speculation that he dares to wonder if, perhaps, the fires were good for the city. The rebuilding and restoration which followed opened up the new science of town planning in Cork and introduces Spalding's survey, its densely packed material focused on a single century of urban development. Essentially, it explains where communities live and work and why, and sometimes why not. No stranger to aspects of Cork's built history, Spalding's chapters offer compelling evidence garnered over decades of archival research, observation and local and personal affection. They should be read as a guide to the management of any Irish city; the occasionally repetitive detail only reinforces its universality. This review must declare an interest as one of the minor anecdotal sources; Spalding's use of such interviews is admirably woven into a progress through all the controversies from brewery to shrine, municipal estates and slum clearances, the old Sunbeam-Wolsey factory and the new Opera House. It is a delight to find the little things recorded: the stained glass in an avenue of houses, an outbreak of Beaux Art or Art Deco, the retention of a snug in a popular pub, the stone embroideries of a monument. These endorse the dedicated investigation of an environment still familiar and the named architects, engineers, speculators and civic and church authorities who caused it to be made. READ MORE Throughout this book Spalding's restrained enthusiasms divert into commentary, as with the class-defining significance of the parlour (lower) rather than the sittingroom (middle to upper) while his academic detachment is punctured by the frequent ironies in his documentation of contradictory certainties. Guided by the title Designed for Life, what elevates this survey above all is Spalding's regard for the people of the city through the years of change and, still, decay. For such a weighty volume, it is somehow hard to put down.
Irish Times
16 hours ago
- Irish Times
Wild salmon are on the brink of disappearing from Irish waters
It's difficult to grasp two truths when only one is in plain sight. Take a walk down the chilled section of any supermarket and you'll spot rows upon rows of Atlantic salmon for sale. Whether it's fresh, poached, smoked over peat or skinless, canned, in pots flavoured with lemon and herbs, or ready-made sushi rolls wrapped in rice, farmed salmon might not be cheap, but it's abundant, in high demand (Irish production has risen by 51 per cent in the past few years) and everywhere. The other reality, underwater and hidden from our view, couldn't be more different. In the past five decades, wild salmon numbers in Irish waters have dropped by 90 per cent – and that's from an already low level in the 1970s. They are now on the brink of disappearing. Earlier this month, scientists from Nasco, an international body set up in 1984 to protect these iconic fish, met in Cardiff. Known for their cautious, measured tone, the boffins' latest warning is anything but: wild Atlantic salmon are in crisis , and only 'urgent and transformative' action can save them. Wild salmon are born in freshwater, travel to the sea, and then return to their birthplace to spawn, making them a clear sign of how well we're managing to coexist with other life. They need cold, clean and free-flowing waters, but right now we're offering rivers and oceans that are too warm, polluted, exploited or physically altered, making life impossible for these fish. On top of that, many rivers are blocked by man-made structures like weirs, culverts and dams, preventing salmon from completing their journey. READ MORE Nasco scientists say that salmon farming is a significant threat . Along Ireland's west coast – from Donegal to Mayo to Cork – tens of thousands of salmon are raised in circular open-net cages that float just offshore. For sea lice, the crustaceans about the length of a small button that feed on salmon, these pens are like a giant seafood banquet. The lice attach themselves to the fish using their clawed limbs, then crawl across their skin, feeding on them and eventually eating through to the muscle and fat before releasing eggs into the surrounding waters. Without treatment, an infested farmed salmon won't survive long. For young wild salmon leaving their home river for the first time, the journey to sea is full of danger. A female adult salmon lays thousands of eggs, but only a few will survive to become adults. As the young salmon swim by the salmon farms along the coast out into the Atlantic, they can pick up sea lice. These parasites can cause serious harm; scientists say it only takes a few lice to kill a young wild salmon. However, some experts sharply disagree over how much blame sea lice from fish farms deserve for the decline in young wild salmon. This debate really matters because, by law, every fish farm must have an aquaculture licence to operate. The rules are clear: if the science raises any reasonable question that sea lice from a farm could cause serious damage to wild salmon, then granting a licence becomes very difficult for the authorities to justify. 'Unless a salmon conservation programme is initiated, Ireland could be looking at a situation where we will have little or no salmon left in the wild,' according to Declan Cooke of Inland Fisheries Ireland Scientists can use a simple method to determine how sea lice affect wild salmon. They take two groups of young salmon; one group is given a special chemical treatment to protect them from lice; the other is left untreated. Both groups are then released into the same river, go to sea and face the same conditions. A year later, researchers count how many fish from each group return. If more of the treated salmon come back than the untreated ones, it shows that sea lice have a serious impact. Between 2001 and 2009, scientists from the Marine Institute carried out this 'paired release' research at eight sites in Ireland. Their conclusions, published in 2013: while sea lice cause a 'significant' number of deaths among young wild salmon, the overall impact is 'minor and irregular'. This paper has been used to support the granting of fish farm licences as evidence that sea lice from farms aren't a significant threat to wild salmon survival. [ Wild salmon are an Irish icon. Now they're almost gone Opens in new window ] Not everyone agrees. Scientists from Canada, Norway and the UK raised serious concerns about the paper and, last month, researchers from Inland Fisheries Ireland published a new study looking at 18 years' worth of data from paired released experiments. They found that, on average, an 18 per cent drop in survival among young salmon that weren't treated for lice, and the more lice on the farms, the greater the losses. Their conclusion is clear: sea lice from salmon farms pose a real threat to wild salmon. Why does this matter? Because 12 rivers along Ireland's west coast flow into legally protected areas where salmon farms operate. If scientists are now saying that these farms are killing young wild salmon due to sea lice infestations, then the law leaves little room for inaction. Authorities are obliged to act to move the farms to new locations, revoke their licences or find a way to ensure that there are no lice on the farmed salmon during the critical time when the young wild salmon are heading out to sea. There is no single solution that will save Ireland's wild salmon. If emissions remain high, our waters will continue to heat up. But not everything is hopeless – there are things in our immediate control. We can remove our barriers, free our waters from pollution and, if the science shows it will help wild stocks survive, change how or where salmon farms operate. Holding on to the reality of wild salmon in our waterways is one we should cling to – for future generations if nothing else.
Irish Times
16 hours ago
- Irish Times
Peruse a lifetime's worth of art and antiques in the Dún Laoghaire home of their collector
House content auctions are rarer now than in the past, when viewing the interior of a discreet deceased neighbour's lavish home was a weekend hobby for many people. Nowadays, most houses are emptied of their furniture, precious paintings and various collectibles, and these items are put up for sale in auction rooms with a mélange of pieces from other homes. Not so in the case of 6 Royal Terrace West, Dún Laoghaire. The contents of the property will be on view in the house, July 12th-14th, 10am-5pm each day, in advance of the auction in Sheppard's auction rooms in Durrow, Co Laois on July 15th and 16th. Royal Terrace, one of the architectural gems of south Dublin, was built as two facing terraces on opposite sides of a four-acre park in 1860. The two-storey over basement homes were part of the expansion of Dún Laoghaire following the opening of the Dublin-Kingstown railway line in 1834 and the completion of the harbour in the 1840s. READ MORE 6 Royal Terrace West, Dún Laoghaire Front hall of 6 Royal Terrace West, Dun Laoghaire Until recently, number 6 was owned by Philip and Constance Murphy. Originally from west Cork, Philip was the youngest of six children of TJ Murphy, Labour Party TD and minister for local government in 1948-1949. Philip Murphy, who died in September 2024, was a solicitor and an avid collector of antiques. The house, which was put on the market by Savills with a guide price of €1,400,000 earlier this year, is currently sale agreed. Both Philip and Constance, who predeceased him, were active member of the Royal Terrace West Residents' Association. 'The terrace wouldn't be intact today if it wasn't for the work of Philip Murphy,' says a neighbour, Breasal O'Caollai. As well as campaigning against any development that would destroy the integrity of these Victorian homes, Murphy also led the campaign to bring the park back into public ownership. 'He was the custodian of the square since they moved there in the 1960s. He was concerned about maintaining the architectural heritage of the area and he persuaded the county council to buy back the land in the 1980s from Monkstown Hockey Club,' says his niece, Hilary Walsh. The Royal Terrace park, which has been planted with trees and laid out with paths and green spaces, is now popular among locals and visitors alike. The Murphy's Victorian terraced house has many original features, which are complemented with antique furniture, clocks, art and carefully chosen ornamental pieces. 'I can remember visiting the house, seeing all the clocks wound up, smelling the furniture polish and everything just so pristine,' says Walsh. And so, this house content auction offers members of the public a rare opportunity to see a lifetime's collection of antique furniture, oriental art and ornaments (including Chinese snuff bottles), several antique clocks and mirrors, silver and wooden boxes, in an almost museum like setting. 'Each item offers insight into a life lived with genuine engagement and appreciation for the decorative and historic arts,' says Michael Sheppard, who has been cataloguing the items over the past few weeks. A rare 19th-century French automaton bird clock under a glass dome (€5,000-€8,000) One of the more unusual items for sale is a rare 19th-century French automaton bird clock under a glass dome (€5,000-€8,000). It features a rotating tree with multiple taxidermy hummingbirds and other exotic birds perched among naturalistic silk flowers. The mechanism causes the birds to rotate in synchrony with the passage of time. Also of note is a mid-20th century hand-knotted Donegal wool carpet (€5,000-€8,000). This piece was inspired by the designs of Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, the English architect and designer renowned for his Arts and Crafts style wallpapers, fabrics and furniture – some of which can be seen in London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Antique furniture enthusiasts may also be drawn to a Victorian Wellington mahogany chest (€400-€600). Named after the 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley – who led the British armies to victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 against Napoleon – the chest is tall and narrow with a single key locking all seven small drawers. This offers a perfectly secure, compact and portable storage for someone frequently on the move. Meanwhile, Whyte's Summer Online auction, which ends on Monday from 6pm, offers collectors a snapshot of 20th-century Irish artists, as well as affordable prints of works by Paul Henry and Jack Butler Yeats, among others. Frescati House in Blackrock, Co Dublin, by Peter Pearson Take, for example, the painting of Frescati House in Blackrock, Co Dublin, by artist and architectural historian, Peter Pearson. Painted in 1982, a year before the Georgian house was demolished, the painting is a reminder of its loss. Originally built in 1739 for the family of John Hely Hutchinson, then provost of Trinity College Dublin, Frescati House was later owned by the Fitzgeralds, who also owned Leinster House in Dublin and Carton House in Co Kildare. The Fitzgeralds named the house Frescati, a deliberate derivative of the Italian city of Frascati – a name which was revived for the Blackrock shopping centre, built on the land of the demolished mansion. A watercolour and pencil drawing of St Peter's Church in Drogheda, Co Louth by Thomas Ryan (€300-€500) September Morning, Castle Archdale, Co Fermanagh by Colin Middleton (€1,200-€1,500) A watercolour of the Museum Building in Trinity College Dublin by Eve Lyn Hope (€500-€700) Baked Beans Boy (€300-€500), the Self-Portrait by Paul Hewson (Bono) Among the lots at Whyte's auction are some interesting watercolours. These include a watercolour and pencil drawing of St Peter's Church in Drogheda, Co Louth by Thomas Ryan (€300-€500); a watercolour of the Museum Building in Trinity College Dublin by Eve Lyn Hope (€500-€700); and September Morning, Castle Archdale, Co Fermanagh by Colin Middleton (€1,200-€1,500). The Self-Portrait by Paul Hewson (Bono), entitled, Baked Beans Boy (€300-€500), is also sure to draw some interest. ; What did it sell for? Crossing the City by Jack B Yeats Crossing the City by Jack B Yeats Estimate £100,000-£150,000 Hammer price Unsold Auction house Bonham's Christian Dior flower brooch Christian Dior flower brooch Estimate €80-€100 Hammer price €200 Auction house Adam's 18-carat gold small mesh bag 18-carat gold small mesh bag Estimate €2,000-€3,000 Hammer price €2,400 Auction house Adam's Wicklow Early Morning by Sean McSweeney Wicklow Early Morning by Sean McSweeney Estimate €500-€700 Hammer price €500 Auction house Morgan O'Driscoll
