Madam, – I was delighted and surprised to read (Front page, December 30th) that the bittern has returned to Ireland – delighted to know that it is not extinct and surprised that you claim that it died out in Ireland in mid 19th century.
I lived as a child in a townland called Gurteendrish between Athenry and Mountbellew in Co Galway. There was a bog across the road from our house and the cry of the bittern, the bunán leana as we called it, was a daily feature. I heard it at dusk coming home from the fields after milking or hay making. I dreaded it. Although I knew what it was and expected it as it was such a regular occurrence, I feared it.
Its sound filled the air. Its cry is so distinctive that you cannot confuse it with other birds. That was the 1940s and early 1950s. I moved from the area then and have not heard the bunán leana since. It is great news that it is back but surely that it has not been absent for 150 years.
I think Francis Ledwidge would agree with me.
– Yours, etc,