Disclaimer

Since one of the commonest complaints from tourists is that Ireland is not what they expected, be aware that the pictures on this site may give a distorted image of Ireland.

They're mainly taken in Waterford City and county, where I was born and raised, and in the neighbouring counties of Wexford, Kilkenny and Tipperary. This green, gently rolling, beautiful countryside is fairly typical of the centre and eastern half of the country. For the wilder beauty and grandeur often associated with Ireland, you need to see the mountains and west coast.
Parts of Ireland are full of litter, cars, junk, advertising hoardings, neon signs, overhead power and phone lines, suburban and industrial sprawl etc. These are kept out of picture as much as possible.
Most photos were taken during bright, sunny weather, and the Irish weather is not always bright and sunny.
Most Irish people now live in modern houses in cities, towns and villages, with only a tiny fraction still living in old country cottages.
And lastly, the quotes on the Ireland page are at least seventy years old. Today, in Ireland as in most places on the planet, the old trees and woods are being bulldozed; the free wind regularly stinks of burning plastic and petrol; the tumbling water is polluted; eagles have been extinct in Ireland for over a hundred years; the bees are dying; litter and rubbish are everywhere; few people believe in the Sidhe anymore; "they paved Paradise, put up a parking lot" (Joni Mitchell); and the brokers, lawyers and other fumblers in the greasy till are the ones dancing and laughing .....all the way to the bank. All in the name of the economy and growth. And all for nothing. (Why is for nothing?)

See also letter from tourist.

"Planet Earth is 4,600 million years old. If we condense this inconceivable time span into an understandable concept, we can liken the Earth to a person of 46 years of age. Nothing is known about the first 7 years of this person's life, and whilst only scattered information exists about the middle 35 years, we know that only at the age of 42 did the earth begin to flower. Dinosaurs and the great reptiles did not appear until one year ago, when the planet was 45. Mammals arrived 8 month ago; in the middle of last week, human like apes evolved into ape like humans, and at the weekend the last ice age enveloped the Earth.

Modern humans have been around for 4 hours. During the last hour we discovered agriculture. The industrial revolution began 1 minute ago. During those sixty seconds of biological time, humans have made a rubbish tip of Paradise.

We have caused the extinction of many thousands of animal species, ransacked the planet for fuel and now stand gloating over this meteoric rise, on the brink of the final mass extinction. We have almost destroyed this oasis of life in the solar system.

Here in Ireland much of our land remains pristine, wild and unscathed BUT our rivers continue to be used as sewers, our soil is being polluted by intensive agriculture, our biodiversity is threatened by genetically engineered organisms, our air is being polluted by industry and unsustainable transport, levels of waste are higher than ever...." From the Voice homepage. (Originally from Greenpeace)

"And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell."
From "God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manly Hopkins.
Still........

More about Planning/Environmental issues in Ireland

Latest News on Global Warming

All images and text are copyright and may not
be reproduced without written permission.

If you have any enquiries, complaints or suggestions please e-mail me at earrings@eircom.net