With Dr Catherine Keena, Teagasc countryside management specialist
Look out for common knapweed, one of our later flowering plants with occasional flowerheads still visible. Each deep reddish-purple compact flower with a swollen base of blackish bracts is solitary or in branched clusters.
It resembles a thistle without any prickles. Grey-green simple lanceolate leaves grow alternatively up a stiff stem. Earlier it was an important source of nectar for butterflies such as peacock and meadow brown.
Many flowerheads have now turned into black seedheads which remain on their hard branched stems and last throughout the winter. It can grow to a height of one metre. Common knapweed nó mínscoth i nGaeilge is part of our native Irish biodiversity.
Crumlin Jail
by Batt Brosnan
Dark place. Hidden face,
Your soaring and imposing to the real world closed,
No hope for those, the tortured held within your hidden parts,
Your system of your own rules,
Guided and regulated by your busy fools,
Caged, moved past rage, no fight, bow down,
Rack and lash within your depths,
Broken backs and hearts of good women and men,
For here no prospect of hope for them,
Years lost, walls whisper of others who have time spent.
Sprits broken, no light in sight, cells dim,
No one here speaks or dreams or feels,
In this Hell so vast and grim,
Those buried here we think of them,
Memories fading, life vanishing, fading traces left like light,
Sparkling clear and bright in the dark of night,
Endurance and determination steers the fight,
The outside free life,
What we had no better than what’s lost,
Our crimes meagre for the cost,
The yard in the end is what calls,
Another space, another wall,
But here free I’ll sleep with them all.
Us those caged for eternity,
We a stain on your history,
For us poor souls our destiny.
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The number of people killed on the country’s roads this year up to the end of September. See full story here.
"At the end of the day, if you’re healthy and well, you can survive on one kidney, and the team working in Beaumont are very good.” – Brendan McArdle, Irish Field advertising and marketing manager, see full story here.
The Hidden Hearth festival is poised to light up the beautiful surrounds of Lisnavagh House and Gardens in Rathvilly, Co Carlow, from 11 to 13 October.
An alcohol and substance-free festival, it blends the arts, music, poetry, heritage and the Irish language into a three-day experience, with yoga, breathwork, and masterclasses on food, regenerative agriculture, rewilding and natural medicines; as well as talks on climate change, farming, history and lots more.
Among the musical attractions are Liam Ó Maonlaí, John Spillane, Tadgh Hickey, Grooveline, Mystic State, Bog Bodies, ‘An Cumha’ and a Ritual Theatre Performance exploring grief, language, loss and community, to name a few.
The festival will kick off on Friday, 11 October, at 5pm, with an opening ceremony, followed by a fire ceremony led by Aoife Lowden, a renowned firekeeper and ceremonialist.
Diabetes Ireland recently honoured 12 people living with type one diabetes with special 50 and 65-year achievement medals in recognition of their courage and endurance in living with the condition.
The five women and seven men from across Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Clare who attend diabetes outpatients clinics in University Hospital Galway and Roscommon University Hospital, received either a 50-year or 65-year achievement medal.
There are currently 308,000 people living with diabetes in Ireland.