Like a lot of people, I spent a lot of time walking during lockdown, especially through nature. With less traffic on the roads and confined to the local area, I hit the country roads, pushing into the surrounding countryside. I also installed a bird feeder in the garden and enjoyed the daily visits from the birds, trying to identify them as they squabbled over the seeds.

Dara McAnulty

I definately felt more tuned into nature, and had a deeper understanding of the surrounding natural world. Nothing though, on the scale of 14 year Dara McAnulty, who wrote this book in the form of diary entries between one spring equinox and the next. As he’s autistic, Dara feels different from the others in his school and he finds refuge in nature, because ‘ 'Wildlife never disappoints like people can. Natura has a purity to me, unaffected.’

His enthusiasm is infectious throughout, and his autism means that he ‘feel’s nature intensely. When a male hen harrier sails past the family car window, here are whoops of excitement from the McNultys (they are as ‘close as otters’ and all are nature lovers, and Dara's brother Lorcan and sister Bláthnáid and mother also also have autism) and the car fills with joy. There are lots of momments like this in ‘Diary of a young naturalist’ that really made me smile.

Nature

Dara is enraged by other peoples persecution of nature in ‘diary of a young naturalist’, and can't understand how people can behave that way. He describes himself has having ‘the heart of a naturalist, the head of a would-be scientist, and bones of someone already wearied by the apathy and destruction wielded against the natural world.’

His family is instrumental in developing his love of nature, grounding and protecting him from the chaos, judgement, and never ending noise of the outside world which at times rages around him. Dara makes mention on more than occasion to bullying, so you really get a sense of just how vital the natural world is to him. On one occasion he makes reference to the ‘thin place’, which is where the veil is thin between worlds in Celtic Mythology. It reminded me of a book very much inspired by nature and similar in spirit, Kerri Ní Dochartaigh’s memoir, ‘Thin places'.’

Although it’s in the form of a diary, there are lots of references to Irish folklore, reminding me of another book by Manchán Magan. There’s poetry (Heaney, naturally) but it's his superb writing on nature that most of the focus is on. It’s so textured and evocative that I had to remind myself constantly that Dara is only 14. Hard to believe.

Activism

His activism and campaigning is inspiring, and you can really feel his frustration. He can’t understand why many of the older generation fail to see the threats to nature. I found it hard not to get angry myself; I am a committed vegan and try to be environmentally conscious and practice sustainability as much as I can. But Dara is so impassioned that you can’t help but feel we all need to do a lot more. It can’t just come down to one generation.

Dara includes a poem called 'Leisure’ by WH Davies

What is life if full of care

we have no time to stand and stare

no time to stand beneath the boughs

and stare as long as sheep and cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

Though Dara doesn't see it as leisure but 'good work.....heart work. Taking the time to observe nature. To immerse oneself in its patterns, structures, happenings and rhythms.’

It’s hard not to swept away by Dara's love of nature through the strength of his writing in ‘diary of a young naturalist’ and you can really feel how nature affects his senses. ‘Diary of a young naturalist’ is powerful and inspiring book.

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Diary of a young naturalist by Dara McAnulty

224 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2020 by Little Taller books