Queen's University Belfast - Solastalgia

About Queen's University Belfast - Solastalgia

Podcast

Publisher

QUB Podcasting Service

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

15 Nov 2022

Latest episode

14 May 2024

Latest episodes

17 episodes in the feed.

1. 14 May 2024

   Season 2 Episode 6: Beautiful Trouble

   The third of three episodes talking with seasoned environmental campaigner Dean Blackwood.

2. 14 May 2024

   Season 2 Episode 5: The Reluctant Interventionist

   The second of three episodes with veteran environmental campaigner Dean Blackwood. We talk about Dean’s lifelong connections with the supposedly protected River Faughan, his decades-long career as a town planner and how, since leaving, he has used his experience and insider knowledge to challenge the irregularities and flawed practices in the NI civil and public service that were causing so much environmental damage to the river. Together with the Faughan Anglers, these concerns were brought before the European Commission and the UN under the Aarhus Convention, and out of this has come The Gathering, a loose collective of place protectors, who are all facing and challenging the systemic institutional failures and professional corruption across Northern Ireland in pursuit of environmental justice. Links Public Accounts Committee Report “Planning in Northern Ireland” 24 March 2022 http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/assembly-business/committees/2017-2022/public-accounts-committee/reports/planning-in-northern-ireland/ Northern Ireland Audit Office, “Planning in Northern Ireland”, 1 February 2022 https://www.niauditoffice.gov.uk/publications/planning-northern-ireland Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, Aarhus, Denmark, 25 June 1998 https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=XXVII-13&chapter=27

3. 14 May 2024

   Season 2 Episode 4: Walking the River Faughan

   On a rainy afternoon close to Christmas 2023, we walked along the banks of the River Faughan with veteran environmental campaigner Dean Blackwood and his dog Lola. In the first of three episodes recorded with Dean, here we talk about fish and fishing, the Rights of Nature and Dean’s knowledge and experience of this river and its tributaries, designated as both an Area of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Areas of Conservation and home to Atlantic Salmon, Otter and Old Sessile Oak Woods. We also talk about the pollution from the notorious illegal Mobuoy dump and the emotions stirred by Northern Ireland’s planning and reinforcement officials’ failure to protect this beautiful river. Links Buried (award-winning podcast by Smoke Trail Productions for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds) https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hf1w ‘You should gaze at your bins in horror’: the massive crime scandal behind the UK’s rubbish’, by Daniel Dylan Wray, The Guardian 23 January 2023 https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jan/23/buried-bbc-podcast-exposing-waste-rubbish-crime-scandal River Faughan and Tributaries Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI ) https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/protected-areas/river-faughan-and-tributaries-assi River Faughan and Tributaries Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/protected-areas/river-faughan-and-tributaries-sac

4. 31 Jan 2024

   Season 2 Episode 3: The Happy Activist

   Our guest for this episode is Rosalind Skillen, journalist, climate justice activist, Marine Policy officer for BirdWatch Ireland, public speaker and an MSc graduate in Environmental Policy. We caught up with Rosalind in November 2023 when she came up to Belfast for the fifth annual ‘Bridging the Atlantic’ conference. We talk about the local effects of climate change in the damaging floods experienced in the country at the time, what drew Rosalind into climate justice activism, what it was like to be a COP26 & COP27 Delegate, how to bring others into the environmental movement and why the climate emergency doesn’t keep her awake at night.

5. 6 Dec 2023

   Season 2 Episode 2: How to Save a Hedgerow

   Season 2 Episode 2: How to Save a Hedgerow Quarterlands is a grassroots collective made up of friends and neighbours who live in and around the Quarterlands Road, Drumbeg. They have come together as a campaign group to question, resist and hold to account proposed plans from a private “developer”, who wants to build 17 luxury houses on a Site of Local Nature Conservation Importance (SLNCI) within the Lagan Valley Regional Park and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Discovering flaws and discrepancies in a planning application process that appears to show little regard for the site’s precious biodiversity, the Quarterlands Group is gathering evidence, enlisting expert support and keeping a forensic eye on the planning portal’s document trail. In this episode, we talk to Roisin, local resident and a member of the Quarterlands group. We discuss the natural beauty and environmental significance of the site, its magnificent old hedge, the way the group formed and mobilised, their encounters with local councillors and administrators and what drives the group to continue working tirelessly and voluntarily to protect this place - one of several along the Lagan Valley - against commercial exploitation. Thanks also to James Orr from Friends of the Earth for his contributions in the outdoor recording. Thanks to all Quarterlands members who so kindly welcomed us into their neighbourhood. Resources: Quarterlands’ excellent website https://quarterlands.com/ provides information, reasons for the group’s objections, an easily navigable document trail, and visual evidence of the beautiful flora and fauna found here that the group are working so hard to protect. Visit the website to see how to email your concerns to the planning authorities, write to Councillors and MLAs and object to planning proposal LA05/2022/0033/F. You can sign the petition here https://www.change.org/p/don-t-bulldoze-our-biodiversity-save-lagan-valley-regional-park Recent evidence of the biodiversity decline that gives context to Quarterlands’ objections is in the State of Nature Report 2023 that concludes: “In Northern Ireland, 12% of assessed species were at risk of extinction”. https://stateofnature.org.uk/ https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/state-of-nature-report

6. 4 Dec 2023

   Episode 11: Cloghan Point II - Stopping the (Big) Boats?

   Episode 11: Cloghan Point II - Stopping the (Big) Boats? This episode is currently not available due to legal action initiated by the developers of the proposed oil terminal at Cloghan Point. In this episode (part two of two) we continue our conversation with Andy and Geraint, unlikely friends and accidental activists, who are among those opposing plans to expand an oil facility at Cloghan Point, Whitehead on the Antrim coast. The proposed development would turn this quiet and inactive site into a major import and distribution centre for petrol, diesel, and kerosene, undermining NI’s climate action and increasing traffic congestion, noise and risks to marine biodiversity in Belfast Lough. The proposal seeks to construct new tanks and infrastructure to facilitate supertankers from the Middle East and South America to import oil and use the site as a lorry distribution hub for the island of Ireland. This very major development has outraged the community of Whitehead, those concerned about the environment in Northern Ireland and climate activists. We visit the area, talk about its history, beauty, and potential for regeneration. Andy and Geraint explore the challenges of activism in a tight-knit, rural area and the problems that emerge when you campaign against such major developments. For more information: https://www.facebook.com/groups/389602178486609?locale=en_GB https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50681007 https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/cloghan-point-oil-terminal-plans-16338438 https://twitter.com/CloghanNo https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/say-no-to-cloghan-point-oil-terminal?source=actionworks You can view the planning application and register any objections here: https://planningregister.planningsystemni.gov.uk/application/280173

7. 4 Dec 2023

   Episode 10: Cloghan Point I - Stopping the (Big) Boats?

   This episode is currently not available due to legal action initiated by the developers of the proposed oil terminal at Cloghan Point. In this episode (part one of two) we talk to Andy and Geraint, unlikely friends and accidental activists, who are among those opposing plans to expand an oil facility at Cloghan Point, Whitehead on the Antrim coast. The proposed development would turn this quiet and inactive site into a major import and distribution centre for petrol, diesel, and kerosene, undermining NI’s climate action and increasing traffic congestion, noise and risks to marine biodiversity in Belfast Lough. The proposal seeks to construct new tanks and infrastructure to facilitate supertankers from the Middle East and South America to import oil and use the site as a lorry distribution hub for the island of Ireland. This very major development has outraged the community of Whitehead, those concerned about the environment in Northern Ireland and climate activists. We visit the area, talk about its history, beauty, and potential for regeneration. Andy and Geraint explore the challenges of activism in a tight-knit, rural area and the problems that emerge when you campaign against such major developments. For more information: https://www.facebook.com/groups/389602178486609?locale=en_GB https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-50681007 https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/cloghan-point-oil-terminal-plans-16338438 https://twitter.com/CloghanNo https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/say-no-to-cloghan-point-oil-terminal?source=actionworks You can view the planning application and register any objections here: https://planningregister.planningsystemni.gov.uk/application/280173

8. 15 Nov 2023

   Season 2 Episode 1: Love our Lough

   Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in the UK and rich in mythology. Five of the six counties in Northern Ireland cluster around its shores. Together with Lough Beg to the north (which we talked about in Solastalgia Ep. 9), Lough Neagh is, supposedly, a protected Ramsar site, home to rare and local plants and invertebrates, home for waterfowl, migrating breeding birds, and the rare Pollan fish. The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) website states that “this site is of special value for maintaining the genetic and ecological diversity of Northern Ireland because of the quality and peculiarities of its flora and fauna. A large number of plants and animal species are confined or almost confined to this area within Northern Ireland.” The Lough also supplies Northern Ireland with 40% of our drinking water. In summer 2023, a toxic green sludge, known as blue-green algae or cyanobacteria, accumulated in the Lough. It killed dogs, fish and waterbirds, devastated local fishing. People were advised to avoid all contact with the water and buy bottled drinking water. So vast and green it could be seen from space, the surge of poisonous cyanobacteria was a visibly horrifying symptom of decades of pollution from industrialised farming, sewage and septic tanks, aggravated by the government’s Going for Growth policy, systemic mismanagement and neglect and prolonged illegal and unregulated sand dredging. In this episode, we speak with Dr Louise Taylor, intersectional feminist, neurodivergent ecotherapist, and founder of the collective, Love Our Lough, just one of the local campaign groups organising, protesting, raising awareness and demanding change. Louise was one of the voices of the “wake” held for Lough Neagh at Ballyronan Beach on 17 September, and the loud and colourful Belfast protest on 21 October. We talk with her about the failures of government and civil servants that have led to this environmental and public health crisis, as well as collective protest, standing for election, a 60-year-old hawthorn tree, love, taking responsibility and keeping alive the joy of activism as we cherish, protect and celebrate the beautiful Lough Neagh. Links and Resources Petition: Save Lough Neagh: Stop Pollution, Protect Wildlife, and Empower Local Communities! https://www.change.org/p/save-lough-neagh-stop-pollution-protect-wildlife-and-empower-local-communities @LoveOur Lough ‘Protectors’ of Lough Neagh stage demonstration in Belfast, by Rebecca Black, Irish Examiner, Sat 21 October 2023, https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41252803.html Environmentalists hold ‘wake’ for Lough Neagh over toxic algae bloom, by David Young, Belfast Live, 17 September 2023 https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/environmentalists-hold-wake-lough-ne… Lough Neagh and Ecological Grief, by Louise Taylor, Psychology Today, 22 September 2023 https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-neurodivergent-therapist/202309/lough-neagh-and-ecological-grief Lough Neagh has become a scene of Biblical disaster, and Stormont was central to its destruction, by Sam McBride, Belfast Telegraph, 9 September 2023, https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/sam-mcbride/lough… Love Our Lough https://www.youtube.com/@LoveOurLough-ij9jn Save Our Shores! Protect Lough Neagh and our inland waterways https://www.facebook.com/groups/313859551178206/ Lough Neagh and Lough Beg RAMSAR, DAERA, https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/protected-areas/lough-neagh-and-lough-beg-ramsar-0 How do we solve Lough Neagh's algae problem? Edited by Iain McDowell and Nalina Eggert, with reporting by Matt Fox and Finn Purdy, and Rebekah Wilson from Lough Neagh, BBC, 4 October 2023 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-northern-ireland-66993803 A Wake for Lough Neagh, by Nick Laird, BBC Radio 4, 23 October 2023, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001rq4z

9. 6 Jun 2023

   Episode 9: I will go to Aarhus and speak for the swans

   In this episode, we speak with Doris Noe, who together with her husband Chris Murphy, has fought for years against the building of a dual carriageway through wetlands between the freshwater lakes of Lough Neagh and Lough Beg. These lakes and the lands around them form precious wildlife habitats of international environmental significance. For 100s of years, Whooper swans have overwintered in pastureland after migrating from Iceland, feeding on the lush grass from October to April. Despite strong public protest and overwhelming scientific evidence for the need to protect these wetland habitats, alternative routes along were rejected in favour of 4 miles of new dual carriageway built, with no requirement for planning permission, north of an existing route and further fragmenting this special landscape. We discuss how Doris Noe, who together with her husband Chris Murphy, fought for years against the building of the road. We talk about birds, place, Seamus Heaney who grew up here, the finality of extinction and why Doris and Chris are still fighting for justice for these beautiful birds. Some resources about Doris’ cause: Controversial new A6 will brutalise Heaney country, says petition https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/controversial-new-a6-will-brutalise-heaney-country-says-petition/35027236.html Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland: Fighting for nature in a corner of Co. Down http://www.natures-keepers.org/northernireland/portfolio/doris-noe-chris-murphy/ Ecocide in Heaney Country https://vimeo.com/415894558 A6 upgrade: Environmentalist loses bid over 'Heaney' road https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-39408566 Actor Stephen Rea calls route through Lough Beg wetlands 'beyond stupid' https://www.change.org/p/save-heaney-country-ecocideinheaneycountry/u/22402952

10. 5 May 2023

    Episode 8: A Possible Lagan

    In this episode we talk with Dr Nuala Flood, Fulbright Scholar and senior lecturer in Architecture at Queen’s University. In 2019, the School of Architecture declared a climate emergency, integrating climate action into every teaching, research and outreach activity. Each January, Nuala runs an intensive week-long course: Public CoLab. Students work in small teams with local and international experts to design ambitious, site-specific projects. This year’s theme was 'Lagan Futures'. We talk about the imaginative projects students designed for the river as public space, a 'possible Lagan', about climate grief and people's right to beautiful, liveable places shared with plants and animals. References Public CoLab 2023: Embracing Belfast's Riverfront as Public Space, edited by Dr Nuala Flood https://issuu.com/nualafloodqub/docs/public_colab_2023_-_embracing_belfast_riverfront_l https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/nuala-flood “Planners should be looking 200 years ahead to protect Belfast from climate crisis” by Shauna Corr, Belfast Live, 24 June 2022. https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/planners-should-looking-200-years-24221030

11. 3 Apr 2023

    Episode 7: Wolf Moon Part 2

    This episode continues the story of poet Emma Must and her part in the extensive and influential environmental activist campaign that worked tirelessly and imaginatively to prevent the carving of a motorway through the beautiful, mythical Twyford Down. We pick up the story in the summer of 1993, when a civil injunction is served against her and 76 others by the Ministry of Transport. We talk about what happened next and the consequences of breaking the civil injunction. Emma also reads from her recent poetry collection, The Ballad of Yellow Wednesday, including the statement she wrote for her court appearance in July 1993, before she was imprisoned. Links and references Must, Emma, 2022. The Ballad of Yellow Wednesday, Valley Press. https://www.valleypressuk.com/shop/p/yellow-wednesday “Memories of the lost Down”, Hampshire Chronicle, 26 January 2023 https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/23270146.m3-destruction-twyford-inspires-book-poetry/ Must, Emma. 2022. “What Northern Ireland means to me”, Shared Future News. https://sharedfuture.news/category/podcast/wnimtm/ Must, Emma. 2014. “Twyford Rising”, in Here We Stand: Women Changing the World, compiled and edited by Helena Earnshaw and Angharad Penrhyn Jones, Honno: Dina Powys, pp 193-206. Must, Emma. 2022. “The Colour of its Voice” Resurgence and Ecologist Magazine https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article6078-the-colour-of-its-voice.html https://www.emmamust.com/

12. 31 Mar 2023

    Episode 6: Wolf Moon Part 1

    In this episode, we talk with Emma Must, poet, Belfast resident and, in another time and place, an accidental activist. We begin by discovering our common appreciations of the city of Belfast, including Emma’s encounter with the tree-felling and vegetation removal along the River Lagan towpath. “Wolf Moon”, the poem she wrote in response to that devastation, is read here for the first time, a world premiere. The conversation then moves back to the early 1990s, when Thatcher’s government was embarking on its massive so-called “Roads for Prosperity” scheme, quipped as the “largest road building programme for the UK since the Romans”. Emma, fresh out of university and working as a children’s librarian in Winchester, sees on her daily train commute from Southampton how the top of Twyford Down, a beloved ancient chalk landscape of rolling hills, is being scraped away to build a motorway.

13. 24 Mar 2023

    Episode 5: The Silent Hedge

    Episode 5: The Silent Hedge As part of the Belfast Tidal Flood Alleviation Scheme that destroyed the avenue of mature sycamore trees discussed in Episodes 1 and 2: Mollie-Rose Way, a mature, well-established and well-loved hawthorn hedge was also destroyed. In the 2018 environmental screening report that concluded the scheme would not require an Environmental Impact Assessment, the hedge was described as “ornamental planting” of “negligible to low local importance”. Locally, the hedge was known as The Singing Hedge because it was full of chattering house sparrows, a species included on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern Red List of birds in “critical decline” and “in most urgent need of our help”. Sparrows have been on the Red List since at least 2002. The Singing Hedge grew 40 metres along the length of a car park in parallel to a wire fence covered in evergreen and deciduous climbers. The hedge and the fence vegetation acted in tandem to provide safety, food and shelter for the sparrows living in this urban patch of land. In this episode, we talk to Peter Cush, known as “the nature man”, about his decades-long affection and regard for the sparrows. We talk about his response to the destruction of the hedge, his persistent advocacy for the house sparrows and ongoing efforts to ensure the Department of Infrastructure replaces the hedge and restores the sparrows’ habitat. Post Script On Wednesday 8th February, the DfI met with Peter Cush at last to discuss their plans for replanting. The meeting was attended by local residents and politicians. Peter Cush’s multiple suggestions and solutions for reinstating the hedge were met with caution by DfI employees, who insisted that any replanting must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the sight lines required for cars to enter and exit the car park. DfI stressed repeatedly that vegetation must not affect any of the car parking spaces, and it could not be allowed to reduce the space people needed to access their car boots. DfI gave no priority at all to the needs of the Red Listed house sparrows. On Monday 20th of March, the DfI contacted Peter with detailed plans stating "We are aiming to have planting of the hedging and trees along the wall, in the upper/Cutters carpark, completed within the next few weeks. Planting in the lower carpark and along the path towards the weir is programmed for later in the scheme". Peter and others welcome this development and will watch this proposed reinstatement with interest. Links and resources Belfast Tidal FAS Environmental Screening Report, Department for Infrastructure (DfI) Rivers, 23 August 2018, https://www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/infrastructure/btfas-es-report-drainage-eia-regulations-ni-2017.pdf Birds of Conservation Concern 5 (2021) report summary https://www.rspb.org.uk/globalassets/downloads/bocc5/bocc5-report.pdf What is the Red List for UK birds? https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/uk-conservation-status-explained/ Lynch, Connor Lynch. 2023. “Trees to be replanted at another location after removal from Stranmillis path for flood scheme.” https://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/trees-replanted-another-location-after-26230459 Galbraith, Colin 2002. “The population status of birds in the UK: birds of conservation concern: 2002–2007”. Bird Populations 7: 173-179. https://www.birdpop.org/docs/journals/Volume-7/BPJ07-24_Galbraith.pdf

14. 23 Mar 2023

    Episode 4: A song for Knock Iveagh

    For more than five thousand years, Knock Iveagh (Cnoc Uí Echach) in County Down has been a sacred site of national historical and cultural significance. Freely accessible under common law, the hill is an ancient place of assembly aligned with the path of the sun and other hills in the surrounding Ulster landscape. Since September 2017, that access has been blocked, the cairn (a scheduled historic monument) threatened and the hill itself damaged. After a defective planning process, construction of a wind turbine and associated infrastructure was carried out without consultation and with no environmental impact assessment. In this episode, we talk with Anne Harper, local resident, professional musician and storyteller who, with other allies, has been researching the area and campaigning persistently against the flawed planning process and the administrative inertia that continues to blight this beloved place. Credits Knock Iveagh, composed and performed by Anne Harper The Ardbrin trumpet (replica) courtesy of Simon and Maria O’Dwyer of Ancient Music Ireland Links and Resources ‘Breathing Life into the Embers at Knock Iveagh: The Importance of Community Guardianship in Protecting Heritage at Risk.’ Presentation to the Ulster Archaeological Society by Arlene Copeland, Emma Grossmith, Anne Harper, and Veronica Kelly (The Friends of Knock Iveagh) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLteI3_AQ3M Kelly, Eammon P. 2020. “Knock Iveagh and Drumballyroney, Co. Down: investigation of a royal ritual landscape”, Emania, 25, 113-135." by Eamonn P Kelly Knock Iveagh: A personal narrative on a changing landscape Posted on 20th February 2022 By Claire Nolan – interview with Anne Harper https://research.reading.ac.uk/changing-landscapes/knock-iveagh-a-personal-narrative-on-a-changing-landscape/ Northern Ireland Audit Office. 2022. Planning in Northern Ireland. https://www.niauditoffice.gov.uk/publications/planning-northern-ireland Save Knock Iveagh https://saveknockiveagh.weebly.com/ The Friends of Knock Iveagh are campaigning for the removal of the unlawful wind turbine development, and for the site to be taken into State Care, and they are asking supporters to sign and share this online petition: https://chng.it/pGrSBNtg The Sound of an Iron Age trumpet returns to Knock Iveagh after 2,000 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drTYCVpSXvg

15. 17 Jan 2023

    Episode 3: Lagan Lands Lost

    In early 2021, after a hiatus of over a decade, building works began on a luxury housing estate in South Belfast on the right bank of the River Lagan. Within the Lagan Valley’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty – Northern Ireland’s oldest and smallest designated AONB – visitors to ‘Lagan Lands East’ began to notice the presence of enormous ‘spoil heaps’, adjacent to the housing site. These huge mounds of soil, dumped on a grass meadow near Galwalley Stream, were not only drowning the meadow, but blocked the natural paths local people had walked for years. In this episode, we talk to one such local walker, Drew, who sought answers about the spoil heaps and dumping ground and took his cause – to ensure rights of way and a halt on further environmental damage - to the public, political representatives and to Belfast City Council. Is Lagan Lands East lost or can paradise be regained?

16. 25 Nov 2022

    Episode 2: Mollie-Rose Way Part 2

    In episode 2, we continue the story of Mollie-Rose way and the beginnings of the accidental environmental activist group Save Our Lagan. In conversation with Mollie-Rose's mother, Olivia, we talk about what happened after the 24th of February 2022 and the week-long protest when Save Our Lagan and friends tried to prevent the further destruction of more trees along the river. We talk about the meetings held with officials and political representatives over the weekend, about the dramatic events of Monday 28th of February and how the protest came to an end. We talk about how it felt to be there and the legacy of the protests. For photos and more information go to https://www.saveourlagan.org/home/podcasts

17. 15 Nov 2022

    Episode 1: Mollie-Rose Way Part 1

    In Belfast, on 10 January 2022, ten-year-old Mollie-Rose’s favourite part of her walk to school was torn apart and fed into a woodchipper. Without proper consultation or an Environmental Impact Assessment, this lovely part of the towpath along the Lagan Valley was cleared of all its habitats, including a row of 90-year-old trees – a millennium of tree-growth – leaving behind only stumps and tarmac. Ironically, the trees were removed as part of a tidal flood alleviation engineering construction, one that is being carried out along the Lagan River with no Environmental Impact Assessment, because, under current legislation, none is required. This episode is a conversation with Mollie-Rose’s mother, Olivia. We talk about the felling of the trees, how people responded, the beginnings of the Save Our Lagan grassroots environmental group and remember the protest that followed to stop the loss of more trees.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings