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Birds of Ireland: Facts, Folklore and History
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By: Glynn Anderson
Publisher: The Collins Press
Published: August 2008
Pages: 376
Categories: Lifestyle
Language: English
Available as: Hardback
On sale at:
ISBN-13: 9781905172726
ASIN: 1905172729

Irish bird names are rich and full of meaning. This book focuses on our interaction with birds, covering mythology and folklore, birds as omens, harbingers and food, and bird-related beliefs, proverbs and curses. A species-by-species account gives a description and associated beliefs, culinary traditions, place names and a Facts & Figures section. Birds have been part of our culture and folklore from very early times but there is more to them than the 'wran' boys and the Children of Lir. In Irish mythology, birds were sometimes seen as omens, and there were countless beliefs, proverbs and curses associated with them: we believed cuckoos turned into hawks, woodcock holidayed on the moon and some birds grew on trees. Birds inspired poets such as Gerard Manley Hopkins, W. B. Yeats and Seamus Heaney and they influenced place names like the Curlew Mountains in Roscommon and Hawk's Nest, County Antrim. Even their own names are rich and full of meaning - the Irish for starling is druid, the dotteral is known as Amadan Mointeach which means 'bog idiot' and the dunnock was called Mathair Cheile which translates as 'mother-in-law'. A unique companion to bird-identification reference books, Birds of Ireland focuses on our interaction with birds, wild, domesticated and extinct. Glynn Anderson identifies over 150 birds of Ireland, giving each name (in Irish and English) and its meaning, a description and associated beliefs, myths, legends, weather lore, culinary traditions and place names.

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