Plucked from obscurity...
QUESTION Where do the millions of feathers used in pillows and carnival costumes come from?
FEATHERS have hard, stiff quills, and are used i n the f ashion industry. Down is the soft underplumage – the layer of insulation beneath the feathers – that keep geese, ducks and other waterfowl warm and dry. It is used as a filling for jackets, pillows, duvets and sleeping bags.
Up to 90% is goose down; the rest is eiderdown, which is more luxurious and expensive.
After farmed geese are slaughtered for their meat, the down is hand-picked from the chest, lower belly, flanks and other areas not covered by the wings.
By far the largest producer is China, accounting for 80% of global production, followed by Taiwan, Thailand, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Siberia, France, the US and Canada. The goose down market is worth in the region of €4.4billion annually.
Eiderdown comes f rom the female common eider, a seabird that breeds in the Arctic and inhabits Iceland, Scandinavia, Canada, Scotland and Siberia.
The drakes have a distinctive black crown, pale green nape and black and white body, which contrasts markedly with the female’s dull striped brown, which is excellent camouflage when nesting.
These remarkable birds spend ten months at sea. They return to land to lay and incubate their eggs, nesting on remote islands and spits along low-lying rocky coasts and estuaries.
Females pull the down from their own body and push it into the nest to keep the eggs warm.
Historically, eiderdown was hand-picked from discarded nests. Nowadays, farmers in Norway and Iceland build eider shelters.
They harvest as soon as the young and adult birds abandon their nests in the summer. In those countries the common eider is a protected species. In contrast, in Scotland it is considered to be a pest because its main diet is mussels, a valuable shellfish.
Peacocks are farmed and eaten in China and India. An adult will produce 150 to 200 feathers annually. Rather than waiting for them to moult their tail feathers, as they do naturally every year, poachers have been known to kill the flamboyant birds and rip out the feathers, which are smuggled abroad.
Ostrich f eathers come f rom South Africa where they are cut from the live bird and allowed to grow back.
Dr Pauline Davies, Reading.
QUESTION How many islands off the coast of Ireland are inhabited?
A TOTAL of 67 islands off the coast of the Republic are inhabited, while the North has just one inhabited island, Rathlin.
The largest inhabited island in Ireland is Achill, with just over 2, 500 permanent r esidents, although that number doubles in summer when tourists stay there.
Gorumna, just off the south Co. Galway coast, is the next largest island in terms of people living there, 1,055, followed by Inishmore, the largest of the three Aran Islands, off the west coast of Galway. It has close on 900 permanent residents, and like Achill, draws many tourists to stay during the summer. The two smaller Aran Islands are Inis Oírr, with 250 inhabitants and Inis Meáin, with nearly 160 people.
On the east coast of Ireland, the island of Lambay, off the north Co. Dublin coast has a mere six inhabitants, and it’s the only proper inhabited island on the east coast, although on Dublin’s northside, the North Bull is classed as an island, with 16 inhabitants. In Co. Wexford, two people live on the Saltee Islands. Along the Co. Cork coast, islands abound, some large, others small. One of t he l argest Cork i sl ands is Haulbowline, with close to 150 inhabitants, the same as Inchydoney, close to Clonakilty. Sherkin Island has just over 100 residents.
Cape Clear Island, renowned for its Irish language heritage, has around 125 permanent inhabitants, while Dursey Island, linked to the mainland by a cable car, has three people living on it.
But some of the west Cork islands have tiny populations, like Horse Island, near Ballydehob, which has just two people living on it. Valentia Island is by far the most densely populated island off the Co. Kerry coast, with close on 700 inhabitants.
To the west, in addition to the Aran Islands and Gorumna, Inishbofin, off Galway, has a substantial population, of around 250.
Co. Mayo is renowned for its islands and in addition to Achill, there are many smaller islands. Some have fairly substantial populations, like Clare Island at the mouth of Clew Bay, with around 170 people living there. Inishbiggle Island, off Achill, has 25 people living on it. Other islands are far smaller, such Clynish Island, with a mere five inhabitants.
Co. Sligo has a few small islands, but in the northwest, Co. Donegal is rich with islands. The largest in terms of population is Árainn Mhór, off the west coast of Donegal, with just over 500 people. The best known island in Donegal is Tory Island, off the northwest of that county, a rugged spot well offshore, with its own ‘king’ and just over 140 inhabitants.
Sometimes, the population of islands is so small that when one inhabitant dies, that’s the population wiped out. That happened in
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February 2017, when former stuntman, Paschal Whelan, died. He lived on Omey Island on the western edge of Connemara.
Back in 1841, Omey had a population of nearly 400 but after the death of Mr Whelan, the island’s population dropped to zero.
The North’s only i nhabited island, Rathlin, is 9km off Ballycastle in north Co. Antrim. It is 9km long and 1.6km wide. Rathlin was the hiding place of Robert the Bruce from Scotland in the 14th century. Inspired by a spider he saw that made repeated efforts to repair a tear in its web, he returned to Scotland, where he was eventually crowned king. The island is also famous for Marconi’s wireless experiments there and for its seabirds. It also has a brand new hotel, the Manor House, converted by the National Trust from former Coast Guard cottages.
Unlike many other Irish islands, the population of Rathlin is increasing slowly and is now up to the 150 mark.
QUESTION What is the most amusing contrived rhyme in a pop song?
FURTHER to earlier contributions, I find most of the lyrics of Then I Kissed Her by The Beach Boys to be cringe-worthy: ‘... I gave her all the love that I had Then one day she’ll take me home to meet her mom and her dad Then I asked her to be my bride and always be by my side I felt so happy I almost cried and then I kissed her.’