Ireland Reads Day 24 Feb 2024 - Miriam Mulcahy in conversation with Vincent Hyland and Maureen McCoy
The benefits of the natural world for our mental and physical wellbeing have long been recognised, but perhaps never more so than in the last few years.
Writer, journalist and author of This is My Sea, Miriam Mulcahy, is joined in conversation by two nature experts as they explore how our desire to reconnect with nature has resulted in a surge in popularity of activities in the outdoors, as well as a drive towards sustainability and a commitment to ‘leave no trace.’ Wild Derrynane: A Wildlife Year Explorer’s Guide, Stories and Memoir by wildlife film maker, naturalist and outdoor educationalist Vincent Hyland is a visual natural history of the Skellig Coast, and an invaluable record of the area’s changing biodiversity. The forthcoming The Complete Book of Wild Swimming in Ireland by Maureen McCoy, complete with spectacular photos by Paul McCambridge, is a comprehensive guide to discovering dramatic and lesser known locations around Ireland for swimming, diving and snorkelling.
Maureen McCoy, from Hillsborough, County Down, is an award-winning open-water swimmer, having swum in the sea, loughs and rock pools with her brothers since she was a small child. In 2009, just after her fortieth birthday, she fulfilled her childhood ambition to swim the English Channel. Maureen enjoys outdoor swimming throughout the year and always keeps a swimsuit in her car - just in case.
Miriam Mulcahy is a writer and journalist living in Kildare. She contributes to the Irish Times, writing for the property section every week, and last year curated the Surrealist Gallery at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Visual Arts. This is My Sea, published by Eriu/Bonnier in August 2023 was an Irish no 1 bestseller, was nominated for an An Post Irish Book Award and was one of the Irish Times books of the year for 2023. This is My Sea comes out in paperback this May.
Vincent Hyland is a multi-award-winning underwater filmmaker, publisher and digital broadcaster. He was an early adopter of digital technology, establishing Ireland's first digital design bureau in the mid-1980s. He spent ten years working in technology at Microsoft. He established and published Ireland's first Wildlife magazine "Wild Ireland", has filmed the underwater marine life of Galapagos and Antarctica and worked for the BBC's Natural History Unit. He has appeared on BBC, RTE, TV3 and TG4 television including directing and narrating the recent series "Call of the Wild" for RTE One television. His practice combines music, art and outdoor education. His recent discoveries include night-time fluorescence in underwater temperate marine life. He has just published his life's work "Wild Derrynane" - a Visual Natural History of the Greater Skellig Coast. He is nominated in the 'Eco Individual of the Year' category in the Outsider.ie annual awards that will take place in February 2024. He lives with his partner Mo and son, Neil in Caherdaniel, Co. Kerry.