Roger O’Reilly on his new book ‘Birds of Ireland’

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The Hard Shoulder with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman on Newstalk with KIA.

Shane Colman (1:09)

Now we are delighted to be joined by award winning artist and illustrator Roger O'Reilly with his beautifully illustrated new book Birds of Ireland, Symbolism, Myth and Folklore. Roger, you're very welcome to the program.

Congratulations on the book, it's a gorgeous book. What prompted you to write it and draw it?

Roger O'Reilly (1:30)

I think like a lot of people during COVID, when all the background noise of the busy world had dropped away, we suddenly heard birds singing in the trees again. I decided I was going to do a series of posters on the birds. As part of the poster, I decided I would do a little bit of dog roll or a little bit of verse on the bottom that had something to do with the folklore of each bird.

And having done that, I then decided I'd investigate the folklore a little bit more because I thought it was really interesting. Some of the some of the ones were familiar with like the Magpie one for sorrow, two for joy. But but some of the other stories and things we weren't particularly familiar with. And I thought it was kind of interesting to tease that out and see how it had developed over the years in Irish life.

Shane Colman (2:23)

Yeah. Is there a particular association between birds and Irish folklore, do you think?

Roger O'Reilly (2:29)

Yeah.

The birds were always seen as a kind of in-between between the other world and our world. So certainly the crow family, the ravens and the huddled crows seen as carrying messages between this world and the next world, as was the blackbird. And so they were they were seen with a measure of, in some cases, fear and in other cases, you know, great sort of empathy. Yeah.

Shane Colman (2:54)

And was there a particular chapter you enjoyed researching the most? I mean, there's some gorgeous ones. I'm looking at the one for the swallow, which obviously has a lot of resonance here with people and the passing of the seasons and so on.

Roger O'Reilly (3:08)

That's right. And of course, you know, for anybody who went to see, they used to often get a swallow tattoo, which would tell how many, what's called a nautical miles they had traveled across the sea. For me, the blackbird, I suppose, was the big one. The bird, it has one of the nicest songs, I think, of all the birds.

And it's just a very affable bird to have in the garden.

Shane Colman (3:39)

On Londo.

Yeah. All the names as well have their Irish names as well. You have a little verse, a blackbird's nest left undisturbed and safe beneath your eaves will bring you fortune and good luck until December leaves.

Roger O'Reilly (3:55)

Yeah. So the blackbird was seen as a lucky bird. Most birds, if they came into your house, was regarded as bad luck. There was going to be some sort of disaster and possibly even a death in the family.

Blackbird was the exception. So if a blackbird came into the house, it was actually regarded as good luck.

Shane Colman (4:08)

Really? Yeah. Okay.

And there's different blackbirds have different symbolism depending on where you go in the country, Donegal compared to your original home county of Mead, for example.

Roger O'Reilly (4:20)

Yeah. Well, the thing about folklore is what's true in one county isn't necessarily true in another county.

Shane Colman (4:26)

Are true at all.

Roger O'Reilly (4:27)