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.
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
22nd May and 24th May 2025 – A Natural History – 100 Years of Biodiversity Discovery in Ireland
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
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]
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.