Roaringwater Journal

Every now and then I republish one of Robert's classic pieces. This one is from five years ago. We were both fascinated by the West Cork landscape and, being Robert, he wanted to get under the skin of it all. So what follows is his exploration of what makes West Cork, well, West Cork.

I am reposting a 2015 account of our discovery of Ellen Hutchins, Ireland's first female botanist. Since I first wrote this, the Ellen Hutchins Festival has turned into an annual and popular event - a worthy celebration of this remarkable young woman.

A unidentified stone circle in West Cork was the subject of a painting by Edith Somerville. Armed with her brother Boyle's reports, and other clues, but lacking a machete, we set out to identify the mystery circle.

A stained glass window in St Patrick's church in Bandon features the faces of real people. Whose idea was this? Who commissioned it? Who managed the commission? Who designed the window and who painted all those tiny portraits? Turns out we can winkle out all the answers to these questions, using family knowledge, Irish archives, and clues in old photographs.