When I last saw Matt Murphy, on a warm summer’s evening two years ago, he handed me a stack of books for my children: nature diaries, colouring and guide books, seashore activity books, a beginner’s guide to life on the water’s edge and a book on Ireland’s wildflowers. This generous and thoughtful parting gift was characteristic of a man who always seized the chance to inspire and educate young people about the marvels of the natural world.
Murphy, who died this month in his 90th year, lived a determined and visionary life as a conservationist and educator. His deep curiosity about the natural world around his part of Ireland – Sherkin, a small, picturesque island off Baltimore in Cork – led him and his wife, Eileen, to set up the Sherkin Island Marine Station in 1975. It became a gateway to biodiversity for generations of young volunteers and scientists from around the globe to visit this small corner of Ireland.
In 2000, I travelled to Sherkin to make a radio programme about Matt and his research. Originally from Cork city, where he worked in Dunlop’s rubber factory, Matt first visited the island in June 1953 at the age of 18. Within days, he considered it his promised land and told an islander that he would buy a house and live there someday. By 1971, married to Eileen and raising five children (and with two more to follow), the Murphys had settled on 16 acres in the island’s northwest corner.
Matt’s deep-rooted interest in the outdoors and nature didn’t stem from formal education – he had no degree or scientific background – but rather from an innate curiosity about what was out there: the otters on the shore, the crabs and marine organisms in the rocky pools, and the tiny, easily overlooked creatures in the water.
Matt Murphy leaves an extraordinary legacy in and around Sherkin Island
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It was occasional visits from scientists that opened Matt’s eyes to what was needed – a long-term commitment to systematically monitoring marine and terrestrial life, collecting vital data to understand environmental changes, and finding the best ways to preserve the island’s rich and increasingly threatened biodiversity. Following established protocols, volunteer researchers undertook surveys and collected specimens, all of which are now secured in the marine station.
In 1978, a red tide of harmful, potentially toxic algae appeared in the waters around Sherkin, prompting Matt in 1980 to establish an annual survey of phytoplankton algae, which became the longest and most extensive of its kind in Ireland.
Phytoplankton, microscopic plant-like organisms, function like the forests of the oceans, absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen. They’re the foundation of the marine food chain, feeding small animals that, in turn, sustain fish, whales and other sea life. Because phytoplankton are highly sensitive to environmental changes such as pollution and oxygen levels, tracking them over time provides critical insights into long-term ocean and climate trends, helping to shape evidence-based marine policy.
Rebellious, defiant and dogged – to some, stubborn – Matt was never afraid to speak his mind. He was even willing to resign from prestigious posts on State boards if it meant drawing attention to what he considered critical issues: the need for increased funding for research on the natural world, and a stronger focus on creating marine-based job opportunities for coastal communities.
Feeling that some Irish academics didn’t take his work seriously enough, Matt may have been driven to forge strong and lasting relationship with researchers and scientists from beyond these shores. He organised seminars and conferences that attracted international experts, and his quarterly newsletter, Sherkin Comment, was ahead of its time in addressing issues such as nitrate pollution, the need to incentivise farmers to protect nature, environmental law, freshwater scarcity and overfishing. It always took an international perspective, bringing global stories with local relevance to his loyal readership.
In the winter of 2023, a trove of 35 years’ worth of phytoplankton records were published on a global digital biodiversity platform based in Denmark and Ireland’s National Biodiversity Data Centre in Waterford. Making this invaluable data freely available was, as Matt described it at the time, “a dream come true”. It represents only a fraction of what was collected.
Next to be published is the rocky shore survey data, covering 145 sites along the coast that were monitored between 1980 to 2014. In addition, the marine station holds more than 7,000 physical specimens from the terrestrial and seaweed herbarium and more than 3,000 fauna records, including beetles, butterflies and other insects.
Matt’s beloved wife, Eileen, died in 1979 at just 37 years, leaving behind seven young children. Matt and Eileen’s time together on the island was brief – only six years – but, he told me, they built “an incredible life”. He kept Eileen’s memory alive by regularly speaking of her and the vital role she played in establishing the research station. Before he died, he reassured his children that all was okay: “I’m going to be with mum.”
On Sunday, March 9th, a red tractor pulled up outside St Mona’s Church on the island. On the trailer behind it lay a wooden coffin carrying Matt’s remains. In the packed church, with the President and Taoiseach’s aides-de-camp in attendance, symbols of his life’s work were placed on the altar, including a photo of the station’s volunteers (affectionally known as “bods”); a copy of one of his children’s books, for he was passionate about nature education; a quadrant used to record seashore life; and a bottle used to collect phytoplankton samples.
In death, Matt Murphy leaves an extraordinary legacy: a rich and detailed record of the diversity of life in and around Sherkin Island.
