“A ten-minute drive east of the Shannonside town of Foynes lies Europe's largest aluminium plant, Aughinish Alumina. Sprawled over the Aughinish peninsula, the plant employs a workforce of over 450 strong, and has garnered a reputation for its abuse of state support, as well as a below par environmental record…”

Ages ago, ‘ere the hamadryades died, the woods of Erin sang their joy for the kisses of the wanderers from the Aeolides. The winds were gentle with us then, for we loved our trees and ours was a fair and pleasant land to dwell in. Then to the hardy mariners who sailed stout-hearted out ‘twixt the Pillars of Hercules our isle was known as the Isle of Woods.

“Walk outside the gaff–emptiness in the city centre. Suffocating grey sky, high pressure. Like a breath being held. The odd car, a Deliveroo cyclist, a seagull poking at a refuse sack of a private waste-disposal company. A face mask lies discarded in the gutter. A newly built student-hotel, words tattooed all over the facade, sits and bides its time. Lights are on but nobody's home. ”

“Will it ever end? We are holding onto the balloon, and we keep ascending. If we keep holding on, we are surely doomed. And if we let go?”

There are few events in Irish history whose ramifications can still be felt so strongly now as the Plantation of Ulster. The cultural, political and religious ramifications of the Plantation are well-known, but the impact the Plantation had on the environment, particularly Ulster’s forestry, is rather less known, and its ramifications are no less tangible.

MEON is a new socio-environmental journal for the youth of Ireland. We seek to illuminate and re-envision the future relations between nature, man, and tech. We aspire to end the glorification of Capital, and to graft a new Gaelic culture devoted to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful…