Detail taken from an illustration commissioned for a limited edition book, Our future will become the past of other women by Eavan Boland, MRIA, published by the Royal Irish Academy to mark the one-hundreth anniversary of women securing the right to vote.
The Curlew is one of Ireland’s most distinctive birds, renowned for its plaintive, bubbling call, and can be found in farmland areas and bogs. It is a red-listed species under the Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland and is Ireland’s only species on the IUCN red list of endangered species. The National Parks & Wildlife Service commissioned a national survey that shows how serious a situation our native Irish Curlew is in, with just 122 breeding pairs recorded. This represents a 97% decrease since the 1980s. Visit ipcc.ie to adopt a curlew, or support the work of the Irish Peatland Conservation Council in protecting peatland habitats and wildlife in Ireland.
Handmade and printed in Dublin by Liz Walsh (29bridestreet.com) using linen from Baird McNutt, Ballymena, Co. Antrim, and designed by Fidelma Slattery of the Royal Irish Academy.