February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Stephen McKinley
World fungus experts are hailing two possibly new-found species in Fermanagh, a county renowned for its fungal riches. After a 10-day foray by a 69-strong team of experts, organizers confessed to being mystified by two specimens that none of them could identify.
In all, more than 1,000 specimens were collected and British Mycology Society organizer David Mitchell announced that 177 species located were previously unknown in Ireland.
"Each day we went out to different sites around the county. We split up and went around lots of different sites, excellent sites that nobody had ever looked at fungi before properly," Mitchell told the Fermanagh Herald.
The fungi foray headed to islands off Castle Archdale, to Castlecaldwell, Castle Archdale, Crom Estate, scarplands and most of the woodlands in the county. Mitchell added that while many are poisonous, some fungi are known to have medicinal potential, but he lamented that science is not yet far advanced in this field. The two unidentified fungi could set the mycology world reeling.
The Northern Ireland Fungi Group’s web-site can be accessed at www.nifg.org.uk.
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MORE FERMANAGH FUN
If you’re still not convinced that Fermanagh is, well, an intriguing county, then consider the escapade of Dubliner Liam Kearns, whose first mistake was to sit down for a pint in Enniskillen’s Crowe’s Nest bar.
It was a short step from there to a conversation about sailing the extensive Fermanagh network of local waterways and canals, and from there, an even shorter step to pondering the obvious fact that one can now sail all the way from the village of Belleek — home of the famous china — to New York.
In no time at all, Kearns and his three comrades, fellow Dubliners Niall O’Driscoll and Chris Walsh, and Australian Michael Flynn, have been preparing their 33-foot sail boat, the Santander, for the journey, and Kearns is confident that the hardest part of the journey will be not 3,000 miles of Atlantic swells, but the trip from the Erne down to the mouth of the Shannon.
"Negotiating the inland waterways will be difficult from a navigational point of view because this is a seagoing rig with a very deep draft, so it will be a real challenge," he said. Kearns hopes that the voyage will help highlight the Fermanagh waterways, at a time when foot and mouth is playing havoc with the lucrative North American market.
"I’m passionate about the waterways and thought it would be nice to do something to promote the Erne-Shannon waterway. Lough Erne is exquisite and I would like to see more people coming up from the South to travel on through Enniskillen to see for themselves," Kearns told the Fermanagh Herald.
GREAT NORTHERN BEACHES
Eleven Northern Irish beaches have received recommendations for their cleanliness and high water quality from the Good Beach Guide this year.
The beaches are all in Counties Derry, Down and Antrim. The Good Beach Guide is published by the Marine Conservation Society, whose director is Sam Pollard. "Northern Ireland has fared very well indeed," she said.
"We are looking purely at water quality whether they’re rural beaches or resort beaches aiming to protect people who both bathe and take part in watersports."
One beach received a poor recommendation — at Carnlough, Co. Antrim, because of a nearby sewage pipe.
The beaches are: Magilligan Strand, County Derry; Downhill, County Derry; The Strand, County Derry; Millstrand, County Antrim; Whiterocks, County Antrim; Curran Strand, County Antrim; Brown’s Bay, County Antrim; Crawfordsburn, County Down; Murlough, County Down; Tyrella, County Down; Newcastle, County Down.
THE DARK SIDE
Lawyers, thinkers, students and debaters met last weekend with politicians at this year’s Burren Law School Conference in County Clare, at the Burren College of Art.
The theme was the "dark side of the law," in particular, issues of injustice, human rights, and how legislation can violate human rights in certain contexts. The conference was opened by the former minister for the arts, culture, heritage and the Gaeltacht, Michael D. Higgins.
High-profile speakers lined up to contribute to the school, including the attorney general, Michael McDowell, Supreme Court Judge Niall Fennelly and the chair of the Equality Authority, Niall Crowley.
A special debate considered Northern Ireland, where Ulster Unionist Stephen King, special advisor to First Minister David Trimble, debated Irish Times journalist Medb Ruane.
Close by Newtown Castle, seat of the O’Lochlainns, chiefs of the Burren, is the site of the O’Davoren Law School, one of the three law schools situated in the Burren. Between 1563-69, Domhnall O’Davoren and his pupils compiled the manuscript now known as Egerton 88, containing an invaluable glossary of Brehon Law and a variety of law texts, one dating back to the Eighth Century.
The Burren Law School aims to create the tradition of legal learning associated with the Brehon Law Schools.