Panel: Richard Collins, Éanna Ní Lamhna and Niall Hatch
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.
Tonight’s programme features a discussion about conservation measures currently underway to eradicate invasive alien rodents from the island of Lambay, off the coast of north Co. Dublin. To help you to learn more about this island and its remarkable flora and fauna, our suggested listen from the Mooney Goes Wild archives this week is a segment all about it that was first broadcast in March 2023.
In it, Dr. Matthew Jebb, who has strong family connections to the island, tells us more about the plants and animals that call Lambay home... including Rock Sea-lavender, Puffins and even Red-necked Wallabies!
To listen to this programme from the Mooney Goes Wild archives, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22227021/.
The Great Big Garden Birdwatch – Bank Holiday Monday, February 2nd 2026
We know that lots of our Mooney Goes Wild listeners love to watch the birds that visit their gardens, with many of you providing food and water for them each winter. If you are one of those people, or if you have ever considered taking care of them during the coldest period of the year, we have a special treat in store for you.
On Bank Holiday Monday 2nd February, RTÉ Radio 1 will celebrate The Great Big Garden Birdwatch. Our expert panellists will feature across various different programmes on the station throughout the day, giving tips on feeding and identifying Ireland’s garden birds.
We will also be encouraging you to submit your garden bird records to BirdWatch Ireland’s Irish Garden Bird Survey, which runs until the end of February and is Ireland’s longest-running citizen science initiative. So, while you are enjoying watching our feathered friends as they flock to your garden, you can also make a valuable contribution towards monitoring their conservation status and ensuring that they can have a bright future.
The highlight of the day will be our Nature On One Garden Bird Special, which will be broadcast at 12 noon, featuring Derek Mooney in conversation with our garden bird experts Jim Wilson and Niall Hatch in Jim’s sunroom at his house in Cobh, Co. Cork. There, they will discuss the comings and goings of the various different birds visiting Jim’s bird tables and bird feeders.
What’s more, thanks to our fantastic cameraman Donal Glackin, you will be able to watch simultaneous video footage of the birds as Derek, Jim and Niall discuss them, all right here at www.rte.ie/mooney. You can also view a fantastic livestream of all the bird action from Jim’s garden there too.
For more information about Ireland’s garden birds, courtesy of Jim Wilson, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/generic/2020/1116/1178558-jim-wilsons-guide-to-garden-birds/.
To view our livestream of all the bird action from Jim Wilson’s garden in Cobh, visit https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/mooney/2026/0119/1553982-the-great-big-garden-birdwatch-live-stream/.
For more information about BirdWatch Ireland’s Irish Garden Bird Survey and to submit your own records, visit https://birdwatchireland.ie/our-work/surveys-research/research-surveys/irish-garden-bird-survey/.
What’s on Éanna’s Burns Night menu?
Last night, Sunday 25th January, was Burns Night, a key celebration in Scotland’s calendar which commemorates the nation’s most famous poet and proponent of the Scots language, Robert Burns (1759 – 1796), also known as Rabbie Burns.
As Éanna tells us on tonight’s programme, her daughter is married to a man who is rightly very proud of his Scots heritage, which resulted in her hosting a very special dinner party last night in celebration of the great Scottish festival of Burns Night. Her menu was as follows:
Atholl Brose
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Smoked Salmon Cullen Skink
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Haggis
Neeps and Tatties or Clapshot (if preferred)
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Roast Chicken and Gravy
Shoulder of Lamb
Carrots and Peas
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Clootie Pudding Cranachan Shortbread
If some or all of that looks a bit confusing, be sure to listen to Éanna’s explanation. Oh, and in case you are wondering, she didn’t wear a kilt, even though both men and women can!
Address to a Haggis
(Rabbie Burns, 1786)Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the pudding race!
Aboon them a' yet tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin was help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin', rich!Then, horn for horn, they stretch an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
"Bethankit!" hums.Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad make her spew
Wi' perfect sconner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckles as wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' blody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whissle;
An' legs an' arms, an' hands will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!
For more information about Robert Burns, visit https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-burns.
The Living and the Dead
The latest book from naturalist and author Conor W. O’Brien, entitled The Living and the Dead, is an account of his travels both to seek the traces of Ireland’s extinct wildlife and to discover our country’s greatest conservation success stories. At once a lament for creatures we have lost and a celebration of the power of nature to recover and regenerate, it is a powerful reminder of the impacts, both positive and negative, that we humans have had on the biodiversity of our island home.
Covering species from the long-gone Great Auk, European Sturgeon and Grey Wolf to the triumphantly resurrected White-tailed Eagle, Lesser Horseshoe Bat and Pine Marten, Conor’s book is both a warning and a celebration of the power of mankind to dominate the landscape. We are delighted to welcome him on tonight’s programme to tell us more.
For more information about Conor’s book The Living and the Dead, published by Merrion Press, and to purchase a copy, visit https://www.irishacademicpress.ie/product/the-living-and-the-dead/.
Jim Wilson’s garden birds
As mentioned above, RTÉ Radio One will broadcast our Nature on One Garden Bird Special at 12 noon on Bank Holiday Monday 2nd February. On tonight’s programme, Jim Wilson looks forward to this very special event, which was recorded at his home in Cobh, Co. Cork, and also speaks to our very talented cameraman Donal Glackin, who has expertly captured Jim’s garden birds for us on video.
Be sure to tune in to our Nature on One Garden Bird Special on RTÉ Radio One at 12 noon on Monday 2nd February.
Happy retirement to Dr. Matthew Jebb
On tonight’s programme, we are delighted to welcome into the studio our very special guest, long-standing friend of the programme Dr. Matthew Hilary Peter Jebb, who has recently retired from the National Botanic Gardens after 30 years, the past 15 of which he spent serving as Director of that venerable institution. Over the course of his illustrious career, he has described more than 100 new plant species to science, a quite remarkable achievement.
In conversation with our panel, Matthew discusses some of the highlights of his three decades of working at "The Bots", as well as some of the changes he has seen over the course of his storied career and the ever-increasing importance of botanical gardens as powerhouses for conservation and genetic diversity.
For more information about the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland, visit https://www.botanicgardens.ie/.