Biodiversity is not just about species and habitats. It is also about memory, connection, and the stories we pass down through generations. To truly understand the natural world around us, we must listen to those who have watched it change over time.
With this in mind, the Mary Robinson Centre was proud to support Our Changing Landscape, a creative intergenerational biodiversity project focused on the Knockmore and Lisaniska area. The programme brought together local school children and their grandparents to compare the natural environments they each grew up with. Through conversation and shared recollection, younger and older members of the community discovered how the local landscape has shifted across the decades.
Which birds were common then and are rare now? What did the fields, hedgerows, and streams look like a generation ago? These questions opened up rich conversations between children and grandparents, allowing families to chat, share stories, remember past times, and recognise together the changing landscape within which Lisaniska National School and its community live.
Supported by local artist Emma Donoghue, participants transformed their discoveries into stunning artworks. Each piece depicted the landscapes of two childhoods: one from the past and one from the present. The resulting exhibition was a beautiful and poignant reminder that biodiversity loss is not an abstract concept. It is something witnessed and felt by real people in real places.
This project demonstrated that protecting biodiversity means protecting the wisdom of older generations alongside the curiosity of the young. We were delighted to facilitate this collaboration and hope to support similar intergenerational initiatives in the future.”
The landscape around us holds more than soil and stone. It holds language, memory, and centuries of quiet observation. Every field, stream, and hillside has a name, and within those names lie clues about the wildlife and natural features that once thrived there.
To explore this connection, the Mary Robinson Centre joined with the University of Galway for a special intergenerational event at St Oliver Plunkett National School, focused on place names and biodiversity. Pupils, parents, and grandparents came together to share stories of how the local landscape and wildlife have evolved through the years.
The session was guided by Dr. Liam Ó hAisibéil, Assistant Professor in Irish at the University of Galway. He led the group through the fascinating history woven into local place names, revealing how the Irish language often describes what the land once looked like, which animals were common, or which trees grew in a particular spot. For the older generation, these names triggered vivid memories of childhood rambles and forgotten corners of the countryside. For the younger pupils, the session opened up a new way of seeing their own neighbourhood, as a living record of environmental change.
What made the afternoon truly special was watching three generations swap memories in one room. Grandparents recalled the birds and plants they took for granted decades ago. Children listened, asked questions, and began to imagine what the future might hold for the same fields and streams. The school was alive with stories of the past and dreams for the future.
This event reminded us that biodiversity is not just a scientific issue. It is a shared inheritance, passed down through place names, stories, and the simple act of listening across generations
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