INJ Centenary Events 2025
The Irish Naturalists’ Journal was established in June 1925 as a successor to The Irish Naturalist (1894-1924). To mark our centenary we are organising a number of events in collaboration with some of our supporting/affiliated organisations. These public events and displays will reflect on some of the early issues of INJ, the recorders and contributors to the journal, the organisms and landscapes reported on and how our understanding of Ireland’s natural heritage has evolved over the past 100 years.
Please check back here for details of events as they are organised.
12th October 2025 – A bryophyte walk/talk in Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry
Details: The Irish Naturalists’ Journal (INJ) celebrates its Centenary this year. One of the first series of articles published in the INJ focussed on mosses and their diversity. To mark the Centenary, the Irish Bryophyte Group of the British Bryological Society joins the INJ in hosting a bryophyte walk/talk in Killarney National Park led by expert bryologist Dr Rory Hodd.
Location: Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry (please book via email below for exact location details)
Time & Date: 10.30pm–1.30pm, Sunday 12 October 2025
Booking details: For bookings, please email Christina Campbell at [email protected]
Details: Coinciding with Heritage Week celebrations at, Glenveagh National Park Co. Donegal. A series of short talks about the handful of natural historians who first described Donegal’s geology, botany and zoology.
- Hugh Gerard Boyle on Donald Stewart (d.1811), a geologist who worked for the Dublin Society ( precursor to the Royal Dublin Society) c.1800 – described the geology of Donegal; also on T.C. McGinley (Kinnfaela) from Carrick, who wrote The Cliff Scenery of South Western Donegal ( b.1830-d.1887)
- Stuart Dunlop on Henry Chichester Hart, family home in Portsalon, wrote Flora of the County Donegal and several other publications which are based on his expeditions to the Arctic and Palestine (b.1847-d.1908); also on Robert Lloyd Praeger, describes the natural highlights of Donegal in The Way that I Went and was a co-founder of the Irish Naturalist, the precursor to the INJ (b.1865-d.1953)
- Emer Magee on Maude Delap, the marine biologist, lived in Maghery until the family moved to Valentia Island ( b.1866–d.1953)
Location: Glenveagh National Park, Visitors Centre, Churchill, Co. Donegal, F92 P993
Time & Date: 2-4pm, Saturday 23rd August 2025.
Details: https://www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings/donegals-natural-historians-1850-1950
19th August 2025 – A Heritage Week talk to mark the INJ Centenary, Co. Kerry
Details: Ger Scollard from the Irish Wildlife Trust Kerry Branch will focus on the historical records from Kerry that have been published in the INJ, how they were obtained and those people involved in the early botanical exploration of Kerry and in particular the Killarney area. https://www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings/the-irish-naturalists-journal-centenary
Location: Killarney Library, Rock Road, Kilcoolaght, Killarney, Co. Kerry, V93 YE35
Time & Date: 6:30-7:30 pm, Tuesday 19 August 2025
28th June 2025 – A field outing in search of Bee Orchid in Co. Antrim
Details: Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club joins INJ in celebrating the centenary by hosting an outing reflecting the first record of the bee orchid in Antrim, reported in INJ in 1925 by Chasse. The BSBI Antrim country recorder, David McNeil, will lead a field outing to look for the orchid at a site he knows.
Location: Car Park, Coast Road, West of Glenarm, Co. Antrim (D32301547) https://maps.app.goo.gl/EPGWthAXBQGRQD7A8
Time & Date: 10.30am on Saturday 28th June 2025
Booking details: For bookings and more information, please contact Dr Helen James at [email protected]
Details: A themed tour in celebration of Biodiversity Week and the Centenary of The Irish Naturalists’ Journal
For 100 years the Irish Naturalists’ Journal has been publishing biodiversity records and research from throughout Ireland. From a time of great discovery in the early 20th Century, to a time of threatened species extinctions, the journal has documented some significant changes in Ireland’s biodiversity and landscapes.
Join Dr Darren Reidy for a special tour of the National Botanic Gardens as we learn how our understanding of Ireland’s flora & fauna has changed over the last century. Visiting some of the most important specimens in the herbarium and living collections, we will discover some of Ireland’s rarest plants; chart the spread of prolific invasive species and learn what the future holds for our biodiversity. The tour will be accompanied by a display of early INJ publications, impactful articles and specimens referred to in the journal.
Location: National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin 9
Time & Date: 2-3pm Thursday 22nd May or 2-3pm Saturday 24th May
Booking Details: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/a-natural-history-100-years-of-biodiversity-discovery-in-ireland-tickets-1348384056009?aff=ebdsoporgprofile
Details This is a field outing to Ardnamona, a protected woodland on the shores of Lough Eske, Co. Donegal. Ralph Sheppard, an ecologist with 50 years experience, specialising in botany, lepidoptery and ornithology will lead the group. This is the perfect time of year to see Bird’s-nest Orchid (Neottia nidus-avis) and Narrow-leaved Helleborine (Cephalanthera longifolia). Both species were described by H.C. Hart as present in Ardnamona in his ‘Flora of Donegal’ (1889).
Location: Ardnamona Nature Reserve is located on the west side of Lough Eske, north of Donegal town.
The meeting point details are described in the Eventbrite booking on the link below.
Time & Date: 11.00am–1.30pm Saturday 24th May 2025
21st May 2025 – Nature Networking Event featuring INJ Stall and Presentation, by Emer Magee
Details: Coinciding with Biodiversity Week celebrations at, Glenveagh National Park Co. Donegal. Le Chéile don Dúlra, Together for Nature. A week filled with various events related to Biodiversity in the north west.
Location: Marquee, Glenveagh National Park, Co. Donegal.
Time & Date: 9am–1.30pm, Wednesday 21st May 2025.
Details: https://www.nationalparks.ie/glenveagh/things-to-do/events/#events-summary
Publications
The Irish Naturalists’ Journal Volume 41
(published 21 December 2024, print circulation March 2025)
Origins of Ireland’s Biodiversity
(published 12 December 2024, print circulation March 2025)
The Irish Naturalists’ Journal Volume 40
(published 1 December 2023, print circulation May 2024)
You can search the entire contents of the The Irish Naturalists’ Journal at Irish Natural History Literature hosted by National Museums Northern Ireland.