John Feehan Explained

John Anthony Feehan (born 12 May 1946) is an Irish geologist, botanist, author and broadcaster. He was born in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. Feehan received his early education with the Presentation Brothers in Birr and the Salesian Fathers at Heywood. Following a number of years as a member of the Salesian Congregation including working as a teacher in England and Ireland, he studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. After a year of voluntary teaching service in South Africa, he returned to Trinity College to study geology under Charles Hepworth Holland, receiving his PhD on the geology of the Slieve Bloom and Devilsbit Mountains in 1980. He was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University College Dublin, where he taught for twenty years up to his retirement in 2012. In May 2021, he was made a member of the Royal Irish Academy.[1] Feehan married Róisín Gilmore in 1975 and they have two children: Jane and Christiaan.

Career

Feehan is an environmental communicator whose work is driven by a deep commitment to the maintenance of rural biodiversity and cultural heritage, and the sustaining of rural community.[2] [3] [4] He has written extensively on the natural and cultural heritage of the Irish landscape and on many broader aspects of environmental science.[5] [6] In 1986 and 1990 he wrote and presented the television series Exploring the Landscape and Tar Amach Faoin Aer / Exploring the Celtic Lands,[7] produced by Éamon de Buitléar and directed by Paddy Breathnach, for which he received a Jacob's Television Award in 1988. He has been recognised by the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management from whom he has received their Environmental Merit Award for involvement in environmental issues and his role in bringing to the attention of the public the importance of environmental heritage. He has also received a special award from Bord na Móna for his work in communicating environmental values.

Feehan teaches on a range of summer schools, field courses and postgraduate programmes, including the Offaly Naturalists' Field Club[8] and at An Taiseach, the Dominican Ecology Centre in Wicklow.[9]

Feehan is particularly well known as an interpreter of the Irish landscape (Feehan, 1979; 1984). He actively engages with agriculture and industry to build appreciation and understanding of biodiversity, and to develop conservation and restoration strategies. He is a strong advocate for community supported agriculture and integrated mixed farming as a means of maximising natural capital of land and sustaining rural community. His major work on Irish agriculture, "Farming in Ireland: History, Heritage and Environment" (2003)[10] takes stock of the impacts of agricultural intensification of the last 50 years, evaluates the principal challenges facing Irish farming today, and presents a vision for the future.[11] [12]

Between 1992 and 2008 he collaborated with Bord na Móna on Ireland's peatland heritage. He has developed principles for the restoration of the country's post-extraction peatlands, emphasising their potential for biodiversity and as a rich amenity resource for local communities. This theme is developed in his authoritative The Bogs of Ireland: an introduction to the natural, cultural and industrial heritage of Irish peatlands (Feehan and O'Donovan, 1996, revised and reprinted in 2008).[13] [14]

Building on his work on restoration and management of peatland landscapes, Feehan has worked with mining and quarrying interests. His contribution has helped the extractive industries to comply with European best environmental practice.[15]

The remarkable role of the potato in Irish agriculture – before, during, and since the Famine – is a particular interest of Feehan's. This is the subject of his contribution to the Atlas of the Great Irish Famine (2012),[16] which was named Best Irish Published Book of the Year. In 2010, at a special ceremony, Feehan was awarded Honorary Membership of the Irish Landscape Institute www.irishlandscapeinsitute.com, the officially recognised professional body representing landscape architects and parks professionals in Ireland. He is also an Honorary Life Member of the Cork Geological Association and the County Kildare Archaeological Society.

Geology and botany

During his research on the stratigraphy and palaeontology of the Irish Lower Palaeozoic in the 1970s, Feehan discovered what are still amongst the oldest known vascular plant fossils (Feehan and Edwards, 1980; Edwards, Feehan and Smith, 1983). These fossils indicated that higher plants colonised land at least 415 million years ago. The discovery extended the history of vascular plants back to the mid-Silurian period, far earlier than had previously been thought, a discovery that received international recognition.[17]

His research interests later diversified to include pollination biology of tropical mistletoes (Loranthaceae) which he studied over a three-year period in Malawi (Feehan, 1985).[18] More recently, his Grasses of Ireland (2012), produced in collaboration with Teagasc – 'an unexpectedly lovely and absorbing new book'[19] – seeks both to inspire and to inform the reader about the most important plant family in agriculture which produces 70% of the crops we grow and is the principal food of many of our farm animals.

Currently, Feehan is building on his postgraduate research, interpreting new findings on the geology of the Irish midlands and relating this to broader cultural heritage. Aiming to inform and inspire the non-expert, his current work with Offaly County Council and the Heritage Council provides new insights, showing how geology is expressed in the landscapes and local life of counties Laois and Offaly. The resulting book 'The Geology of Laois and Offaly' (Feehan, 2013) has been described as 'one of the best books to be published in Ireland on geology or the Irish landscape'.[20] [21] [22]

Writing

Since 2010 he has devoted his attention to the interface between religion and science. His book on creation spirituality, The Singing Heart of the World (Feehan, 2010), was published in Dublin by Columba Press[23] and in New York by Orbis Books in 2012.[24] The book won a Nautilus Book Award in 2013 (category 'Science/Cosmology').[25] His book on creation spirituality, Every Bush Aflame: God in the Natural World is due for release by Veritas in Dublin.

In May 2020 John Feehan launched a new series of online films about Irish wildflowers, Wildflowers with John Feehan.[26] Hosted by the Offaly County Council Heritage channel on YouTube,[27] the series encompasses 50 species through the seasons, beginning with primrose and concluding with ivy. Each short film is an intimate and informative encounter with a chosen species, explaining the flower morphology, giving the pollinators' view of the flower, putting the species in its taxonomic context, and alluding to cultural and medicinal uses of the species. The series was initially launched to bring elements of Feehan's teaching online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has grown into a larger project with over 21,000 views of the films to date. A second series is planned for 2021.

Select bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Admittance Day 2021 . Royal Irish Academy . 21 May 2021 . 2021-05-26.
  2. http://finndelaney.com/tag/john-feehan/ John Feehan teaching during 'A Learning Landscape Symposium', October 2012, the Burren, Ireland
  3. http://www.offaly.ie/eng/Services/Heritage/Publications/Heritage_Publications.html John Feehan's publications with Offaly County Council
  4. http://www.offalyhistory.com/articles/252/1/The-Contribution-of-Offaly-Writers-to-Irish-Literature/Page1.html The Contribution of Offaly Writers to Irish Literature
  5. http://www.mercierpress.ie/authors/johnfeehan/ Mercier Press: John Feehan
  6. http://ecocongregationireland.com/archives/2429 Fr. Séan McDonagh: "The Wonder of God’s Creation"
  7. http://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/print.php?search=title&q=amach&exactMatch=&extraSearch=. Trinity College Dublin: Irish film archive
  8. http://www.offaly.ie/eng/Services/Heritage/Biodiversity/ Offaly Naturalists' Field Club
  9. https://antairseach.ie/ An Tairseach Dominican Ecology Centre, Wicklow. Retrieved 30 October 2020
  10. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Farming-Ireland-History-Heritage-Environment/dp/1902277597/ref=la_B001K7YNJ6_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1364945669&sr=1-5 Amazon: Farming in Ireland: History, Heritage and Environment
  11. http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/kevin-myers-how-can-coillte-which-speaks-in-such-gibberish-to-its-stakeholders-you-and-me-save-the-land-from-ruin-26873198.html Kevin Myers, Irish Independent 6 July 2013
  12. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/within-an-ass-s-roar-of-old-ireland-1.1343367 Michael Viney, Irish Times March 30 2013
  13. http://www.ucd.ie/bogland/Publications.html UCD: Bogland Publications
  14. http://www.publicpolicy.ie/bogs-when-theyre-gone-theyre-gone/ PublicPolicy.ie: "Bogs – When they're Gone, they're Gone
  15. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/biodiversity/business/sectors/extractive-industry/index_en.html EU Business and Biodiversity Initiative: Extractive Industries
  16. http://corkuniversitypress.com/Atlas_of_the_Great_Irish_Famine_/357/ Cork University Press: Atlas of the Great Irish Famine
  17. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v287/n5777/pdf/287041a0.pdf "Records of Cooksonia-type sporangia from late Wenlock strata in Ireland,"
  18. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1095-8339.1985.tb02205.x/abstract "Explosive flower opening in ornithophily: a study of pollination mechanisms in some Central African Loranthaceae,"
  19. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/revelling-in-nature-is-more-fun-when-you-do-it-by-the-book-1.497252 Irish Times: Michael Viney's review of The Grasses of Ireland
  20. http://issuu.com/spin35/docs/spin_60_all/28?e=0 Science Spin, September 2013
  21. http://www.offaly.ie/eng/Services/Heritage/Geology/ The Geology of Laois and Offaly (Feehan, 2013)
  22. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/laois-and-offaly-i-take-it-all-back-1.1397293?page=1 Irish Times: Michael Viney's review of "The Geology of Laois and Offaly"
  23. http://www.columba.ie/index.php/the-singing-heart-of-the-world.html The Columba Press: Feehan, J. (2010) The Singing Heart of the World
  24. http://www.episcopalbookstore.com/product.aspx?productid=7275 Orbis Books: The Singing Heart of the World
  25. http://www.nautilusbookawards.com/2013_SILVER_Winners.html Nautilus Book Awards 2013
  26. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSQVCCvVVKfaPenqHfgJIZmPmJklUP15l Wildflowers with John Feehan: YouTube Series
  27. https://www.youtube.com/user/offalyheritage Offaly County Council Heritage YouTube channel

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