Description This is the story of life in Ireland – a story half a billion years in the making. With its castles, crannogs and passage tombs, Ireland is a land where history looms large, but the saga of life on this island dates back millions of years before the first people set foot here. In Life in Ireland, Conor W. O’Brien guides you on a safari through place and time, from the Jurassic Coast of Antrim to the great Ice Age bone-beds of Cork. Along the way, we’ll meet some of the astonishing creatures to have called Ireland home through the ages: shelled monsters; huge marine lizards; armoured dinosaurs; giant deer; mighty mammoths. Vital strands in the story of life on Earth have left their mark here, including some of the first creatures to crawl onto land or take to the wing. This epic journey will take us from the first fossils to the present day. through it all, we’ll see how our wildlife has adapted to the human age and explore what the future might hold for life in Ireland. CONTENTS Introduction Part I: From the Dawn to the Dinosaurs The First Life in Ireland Footprints in Stone: The Valentia Island Trackway Sharks, Shells and Monsters: Carboniferous Ireland Ireland’s Dinosaurs The Sea Dragons of Ulster Part II: The Beasts of Ice Age Ireland The Coming of the Ice Ice Age Ireland One Big Tooth The Giant Irish Deer The Woolly Mammoth Giant Goats and Reindeer: The Other Herbivores of Ice Age Ireland The Predators of the Plains The End of the Ice Age Giants Part III: Life in the Human Age The Coming of Man To a Forest Primeval: Ireland’s Lost Woodlands Life in the Long Grass: Ireland’s Farms The Bogs and Mountains of Ireland Life Under Lamplight: Ireland’s Urban Wildlife Life Beneath the Waves The Tragedy of the Great Auk Epilogue Back from the Brink: The Rewilding of Ireland A New Frontier: Bringing Extinct Species Back to Life ISBN 9781785373848 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Conor W. O’Brien is a writer and photographer with a lifelong interest in the natural world. His work has been published in Ireland’s Own, Irish Wildlife magazine and Wings, the official publication of Birdwatch Ireland. Conor’s first book, Ireland Through Birds: Journeys in Search of a Wild Nation, was shortlisted for Best Irish-Published Book at the 2019 An Post Irish Book Awards. His second book, Life in Ireland: A Short History of a Long Time, was published in 2021. Conor is a board member at Birdwatch Ireland, one of the country’s largest conservation charities. From Wicklow, he now lives in County Meath. Praise for Life in Ireland ‘[O’Brien] has taken a passion for nature and turned it into an accessible, enjoyable and frequently surprising synopsis of evolution for which we have evidence in our rocks, caves, soils and bogs.’ Caroline O’Doherty, Irish Independent ‘[Conor W. O’Brien] is the Irish David Attenborough … His enthusiasm for his subject is electric’ Jacqueline Strawbridge, Irish Dail Mail
