Never Mind the Gondolas, Here’s the Flying Pine Martins!

A few years ago a Wicklow County Council meeting it was proposed to put a gondola on Blessington lake as a tourist attraction, to which County Councillor, Jim Miley, is reported to have asked who will feed the gondola? Irish public representatives are famously ignorant of Irish wildlife but this snafu was soundly beaten by recent comments by Westmeath County Councillor Newman as reported in the Westmeath Examiner of Saturday May 30th and in the Irish Times of June 18th. The Council was discussing the imposition of Special Protection Areas under the EU birds directive for the protection of birds at Glen Lough, Lough Kinale and Derragh Lough including Whooper Swan, Tufted duck, Teal, Wigeon and other species.

Councillor Newman was reported to have commented “that he had a "bellyful" these directives and with "interference" in the everyday life of good honest country people. "We are seeing species that have never been seen before in Ireland being introduced by these people," he said. "Look at the Pinemartin, the most nasty vicious bird that you have ever seen. They were never in Ireland but have been introduced," he said.”

Newman subsequently claimed that he had been misquoted and sent a letter of clarification to the Irish Times published June 20th, which includes the following statements: “I suggested that there have recently been seen in the Midlands ravens, eagles and pine martens, and that it's conceivable that all these had been introduced from other parts of this country by well-meaning environmentalists who should know better. In over 40 years in this area I had not once seen such creatures until very recently.”

Unfortunately we will be deprived of Mr Newmans expertise in Irish wildlife as he failed to get elected in the recent County Council elections.

The fact is that pine martins, a small, shy, nocturnal, cat-like mammal that lives in trees have existed in Ireland for at least 1000 years and was probably introduced by those well meaning environmentalists, the Vikings. Ravens have been here even longer and likely were among the first species to colonise Ireland after the ice age. And God know what the councillor meant in his reference to eagles, which have not been introduced to the midlands, not by well meaning environmentalists or by anyone else.