Panel: Richard Collins & Niall Hatch

Interviewers: Éanna Ní Lamhna & Ken Whelan

In addition to listening to us on RTÉ Radio One at 22:00 every Monday night, don't forget that you can also listen back to each of our programmes any time you like at www.rte.ie/mooney. There, you will find an extensive archive of past broadcasts, conveniently split into different topics and segments.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, Ireland’s National Day, a day full of parades, celebration and symbolism. The natural world plays a key role, of course. All across Ireland and the world a certain plant that is forever inextricably linked to our patron saint and our island features prominently: the shamrock.

Well, all of the shamrock fans out there may be in for a bit of a shock. Our suggestion this week from the extensive Mooney Goes Wild archives is a segment we first broadcast in March 2024. In it, Terry Flanagan chose to burst a few bubbles by breaking the news that there is actually no such thing as shamrock!

To listen to this programme from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22381878/

Did St. Patrick really rid Ireland of snakes?

We would like to start by wishing a very happy St. Patrick's Day to all of our loyal Mooney Goes Wild listeners. If you happened to be celebrating Ireland’s national day here with us on the Emerald Isle itself, were you troubled by snakes as you did so, by any chance?

No, of course you weren’t. Across the world, one of the best known natural history facts about Ireland is that our island is completely devoid of wild snakes, which in global terms is highly unusual. Snakes are found on all continents, with the exception of ice-bound Antarctica, and mainland Europe is home to more than 50 species of them; even our neighbouring island of Britain has three. So why doesn’t Ireland have any snakes? Was it because, as the famous story goes, all of them were expelled by St. Patrick in the 5th century?

As Richard and Niall discuss on tonight’s programme, the real reason lies elsewhere. The landmass known today as Ireland must once have been home to snakes – probably quite a few of them – before the last Ice Age. At that time, Ireland was not yet an island and was still joined, via Britain, to Continental Europe. The freezing temperatures and massive ice-sheets and glaciers covering the land during the Ice Age would certainly have killed off all of the snakes, just as it is presumed happened in what is today Britain. As the ice eventually began to melt, sea levels rose, turning Ireland into an island roughly 8,500 years ago, at which time it was still largely covered in ice. Britain remained attached to mainland Europe for a couple of thousand years longer, giving enough time for snakes to recolonise over land before it, too, became an island.

By the way, even the story about St. Patrick seems to have been "borrowed" from the island of Malta, where legend has it that St. Paul banished all the snakes . . . though he can’t have done a great job, because Malta still has plenty of snakes today.

For more information about the reasons that Ireland has no snakes, visit https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/snakeless-in-ireland-blame-ice-age-not-st-patrick

Why doesn't ice stick to Polar Bear fur?

The Polar Bear, the largest land-based carnivore on our planet, is a very popular animal, featuring in countless television documentaries over the years. No doubt you have seen them on television, swimming between ice floes, rolling in the snow and stalking their prey in some of the coldest temperatures on Earth. But did you ever stop to wonder why almost none of that snow and ice seems to stick to their fur?

Julian Carolan, a PhD student at Trinity College Dublin’s School of Chemistry, did. He is the lead author of a recently published paper that provides the answer . . . and it all boils down to greasy hair. The sebum – made up of cholesterol, diacylglycerols and fatty acids – which is secreted by the bears and coats their fur, is highly hydrophobic, meaning that water is shed rapidly, before it has a chance to freeze solid.

On tonight’s programme, Julian speaks to Niall about his research, the special chemicals found naturally in the bears’ fur and the applications his findings may have when it comes to designing products with improved ice-repelling properties, such as snowboards and skis. Julian also explains that another feature of Polar Bear fur is that it has noise-reducing properties, allowing it silently to slide over itself. These natural qualities have been known to native Inuit people for centuries, of course, as their long tradition of making hunting trousers, shoes and feet for hunting stools from Polar Bear fur attests.

For more information about the anti-icing properties of Polar Bear fur, visit https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/2025/bad-hair-bears/

New Year Plant Hunt

For the past 14 years, the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland has run a special New Year Plant Hunt. This involved mobilising members of the public – so-called "citizen scientists" – to go out recording wild and naturalised plants in bloom. The information which these volunteer surveyors gather can tell us a great deal about how our plants are responding to changing weather patterns, as well as the implications this may have for all our wildlife.

On tonight's programme, Bridget Keehan, Ireland Officer for the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland, speaks to Éanna Ní Lamhna all about the New Year Plant Hunt, what it has revealed about the state of Ireland’s flora and how Mooney Goes Wild listeners can take part.

For more information about the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s New Year Plant Hunt, visit https://bsbi.org/new-year-plant-hunt

Swimming Upstream: one man's fight to save the Atlantic wild salmon

Once, the River Shannon was teeming with wild salmon swimming upstream. But when the enormous hydro-electric station at Ardnacrusha was built in 1929, what began as the Free State’s crowning achievement would have a devastating impact on the environment.

In his evocative and thought-provoking new memoir, entitled Swimming Upstream: one man’s fight to save the Atlantic wild salmon, Patsy Peril recalls a life deeply entwined with Irish wildlife and embedded in the history of modern Ireland. From a childhood spent on the water to a national conservation campaign, Patsy has a lifetime of knowledge to share about the wild Atlantic salmon – and a plan to save it.

On tonight’s programme, Patsy speaks to our resident expert in all things piscine, Ken Whelan, about his lifelong quest to highlight the plight of Ireland’s wild salmon, to tell their story and to prevent them from slipping into extinction.

For more information about Swimming Upstream, visit https://obrien.ie/swimming-upstream

St. Patrick was a Gentleman

Given the day that's in it, in celebration of Ireland’s patron saint and national day, Derek finishes tonight’s programme with a song all about the legend of St. Patrick . . . sort of!

Performed live by fellow Irish legends Christy Moore and Stockton’s Wing at the Abbey Tavern in Howth, Co. Dublin in 1980, we are delighted to bring you a rousing rendition of Saint Patrick was a Gentleman.