Pegah Mollahajian came to Ireland from Canada and told us a little about herself, and why she choose Ireland as a location for her internship with Forest Friends. She also described her first impressions of Ireland and read one of Francis Ledwidge poems.

We mentioned and talked about the James Joyce festival which includes special celebrations this week and particularly on Bloomsday, Thursday 16th 2017. Joyce is one of Ireland’s great writers. Enviro is an anti-war program which promotes peace as an alternative. John said that he was shocked by recent happenings whereby weapons to the value of four billion Euros were sold to Saudi Arabia by Britain and one hundred billion dollars worth of weaponry was sold by the US to Saudi.

We mentioned the following:

• In environmental news, the National Parks and Wildlife Services has recommended the banning of night-time shooting and hunting for seven months of the year, between September and March.
• Also, the Heritage Bill – Environmentalists (Birdwatch Ireland, the National Trust of Ireland/An Taisce, and the Hedgelaying Association of Ireland) have strongly stated is detrimental to the natural environment by proposing to extend the period for lighting fires in sensitive areas and to extend the period for cutting hedgerows. We also mentioned a very important court case which will have very important implications depending on how the decision goes. The case is the Resolute (logging company) vs. Greenpeace lawsuits.
• We talked about how the Poolbeg incinerator malfunction whereby A SERIOUS ACCIDENT occurred which led to the hospitalisation of eleven operatives working on the site and the closure while the EPA the HSA and Covanta who operate the incinerator carry out investigations.
• Environmental poet Francis Ledwidge – July 31 st will be the centenary of his death. He was killed in the First World War. Student Pegah read one of his poems. John referred to the article of Irish writer, journalist and poet, Dermot Bolger who has made a special study of his life and poems (Review June 3 2017)
• We referred to the seriousness of the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate agreement.
• We also referred to what appears to be a seismic shift in UK politics due to the recent election results.

Artist Eli Mcbett was a surprise guest and spoke at some length about her large glass bottle wall, its meaning and functional aspects. The wall is composed of bottles from the now closed Irish Glass Bottle Company.

Presenter: John Haughton

Panellist: Joe Dunne

Guests: Students Cindy, Nassima and Pegah