WILD IDEAS
Saving
Eden T
he Gearagh was the last, virginal stand of primeval river forest left in Western Europe that had survived from the end of the last Ice Age, 9,000 years previously, up to 1950. Only then was the bulk of the forest clear-felled to make way for the flood waters of a hydro-electric reservoir, while the unique ‘forest-dwelling’ community that had lived within it was equally obliterated. Located on the middle section of the River Lee, near Macroom in County Cork, the Gearagh had escaped deforestation due to its fortuitous location on a bizarre, inland delta. Here, on exiting the Cork and Kerry mountains, the river expanded outwards into a gigantic floodplain as it broke up into an intricate maze of multi-branching streams. Continually dividing, joining and re-dividing, the channels ensnared a network of alluvial islands covered in temperate rainforest. The resulting ‘anastomosing’ structure of intertwining rivulets and wooded islands once ran to nearly 10km in length and in parts was over 2km in width, thus forming the only substantial forested river delta in Europe west of the Rhine. At its heart, it contained a tortuous tangle of fallen trees amidst a quagmire of deep pools and sucking muds that was impossible to fully penetrate or cross. All strangers when attempting to enter it lost their way and could neither get in nor out as they continually went around in circles through mental disorientation, the dreaded meascán mearaidhe. As a consequence, it had remained wholly unspoiled over the millennia, to preserve a fascinating forest ecology, biodiversity and human culture.
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The Gearagh and Irish Nature by Kevin Corcoran
Its inner core of islands was smothered in a breathtaking carpet of forest flowers, the upper canopy sported spectacular ‘sky gardens’ of rare oceanic mosses, liverworts, ferns and lichens, while its streams hid a fragile world of freshwater pearl mussels and sponges. Intriguingly, it also contained the very last ‘forest dwelling’ community in Western Europe to survive into modern times. Descendant from the subsistent, forest inhabitants of Ireland’s earlier medieval period, they retained their Irish language, customs and folklore that are now hard to believe. They fashioned their own shoes from timber, used the trees to construct everything from simple shelters to chairs and cradles, distilled the finest of poitín and possessed an extraordinary knowledge of forest plants’ medicinal and practical uses. They constructed unique flat-bottomed boats to travel through the forested maze of channels, using its labyrinthine fastness as a place of sanctuary when threatened and to hide numerous rebels when on the run. These included those fleeing the dreaded Black and Tans during Ireland’s War of Independence and those evading the draconian Penal Laws of the eighteenth century, like the legendary Robin Hood character Shaun Ruadh on Ghaorthaidh or Red-haired Sean of the Gearagh. Their folklore was diverse and retained elements of a long-forgotten past, but there was none more unusual than their list of Gearagh prophecies. These not only predicted their own demise but also gave clues as to what strange happenings the future would bring, including the implosion of the Catholic Church and the return of plague to Ireland.
Irish Wildlife Summer ‘21
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20/05/2021 15:28
