WILD IDEAS

Saving Eden

The Gearagh and Irish Nature by Kevin Corcoran

The 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.

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.

 Gearagh interior. Dutch rush (Equisetum hyemale) in foreground

Tragically, the bulk of these details have been erased from human memory, thereby allowing past abuses to be repeated on an ongoing basis. Using the bitter lessons learned from the devastation of the Gearagh, Saving Eden confronts the seemingly unbreakable bond between rampant brute progress and the present ruination of our environment, human culture and heritage. Although intensive farming and mass conifer afforestation are radically changing the Irish landscape, strategies are being adopted to make them more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Not so with corporate energy production. Alongside the inexcusable negligence by our political administrators to diligently implement the EU’s various environmental laws, the present explosion in wind farms across Ireland’s unspoiled landscapes are, in too many cases, monstrous repetitions of the Gearagh tragedy. Pristine ecosystems are being obliterated, rural communities devastated and in a black irony, climate change is exacerbated – all under the derisory banner of environmental protection.

In tracing the chronicles of the Gearagh, Saving Eden introduces the history of Ireland’s once expansive temperate rainforests, the customs of past cultures that lived within them, the manner in which brute progress destroyed both and critically, how modern society maintains this legacy of horrendous environmental destruction. Offering a better way forward, Saving Eden advocates the concepts of bio-economics and energy conservation through sustainable living. Beautifully adorned with poetry, ink and watercolour sketches, it also outlines the benefits and wonders of nature that will bring joy, hope and encouragement to everyone that appreciates wilderness and the outdoors.

Kevin Corcoran is an ecologist, writer and illustrator based in West Cork and has spent a lifetime promoting Ireland’s pristine environment and bountiful nature. Saving Eden is his latest publication and is available online or instore in Vibes and Scribes in Cork and Fitzgeralds bookshop or Costcutters shop Massytown Road, Macroom.. See our competition page for your chance to win a copy.

 16th. c Temperate rainforest expanse in Upper Lee Valley. Beara mountains in background

 Beautiful yes, but the labyrinthine interior of the

Gearagh river forest is a trecherous place for the unfamiliar

 The parasitic Toothwort (Lathraea squamaria) in

Geargh forest