Episode 5 Home Ground

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Home Ground.

Tonight, Gavin and I have a host of interesting stories

celebrating the richness of rural life right across Northern Ireland.

Here's what's coming up on the show.

Its nickname is "sea vomit".

You can see why.

And it's a major threat to marine life in Strangford Lough.

I turn history hunter in the Ring of Gullion,

digging to discover our ancient past.

Don't be doing this to your gardens at home!

And when I offered to help move cattle,

I didn't think it would involve islands and a barge.

-Is it time for me to get out of the way?

-Yeah,

-that's about the height of it!

-Honesty - I like it!

You may not think that fish or deer poaching would be

high on the agenda for the police,

but according to the PSNI, crime against wildlife

is a really serious issue,

as Ruth found out when she spent the day

with their wildlife crime officer.

Wildlife crime is a problem in Northern Ireland.

Poisoning, poaching,

cruelty, trapping - they all happen in our countryside.

Today, I'm in County Tyrone at Baronscourt

to meet the PSNI's wildlife liaison officer Emma Merideth,

their very own pet detective.

Emma's not a police officer.

Rather, she's a civilian who advises the PSNI on any wildlife crime

they encounter. Today, she's here to talk about deer poaching.

Who's got a set of antlers in the back of their work truck?!

So, this allows us to show officers, police officers,

just the size that a deer really is.

The three types of deer we have in Northern Ireland

is your red deer, your fallow and your sika.

This one is from a red stag. Here in Baronscourt,

they have sika deer and, again,

this'll give you an idea of the actual size of one red stag.

It's not the type of thing you could just drag off yourself.

This one, in particular, is totally illegal

and, again, the poor animal will go through quite a lot of suffering...

'But it's not just deer poaching.

'Her job covers a very wide remit.'

Even if a badger sett was maybe destroyed

or maybe a bird of prey being illegally poisoned or shot,

deer poaching would come under that remit.

Trade in endangered species can come into it,

people trading on the internet, of endangered species,

and as well as that, maybe even bat crime can come into it,

fish poaching can come into it...

-Fish?!

-So all this type of wildlife crime.

Police can even have a link in there as well.

So, all this is basically classed as a wildlife crime.

That's what I would advise on.

We like to say that all of our officers are wildlife officers

within the police service, and we pride ourselves on that

because they're investigators

so they are trained to investigate a crime,

and wildlife is just one of those crimes.

Baronscourt has been working closely with the PSNI

over a number of years.

-How are you doing?

-Welcome to Baronscourt.

-So, can you guarantee some deer today?

-No guarantees

but we'll do our best. If you want to hop in...

It's one of the largest private estates in Northern Ireland

and they have hundreds of deer.

Sika deer are elusive and live in the thick, forested parts

of the estate, but it wasn't long before we managed a rare sighting.

Some of these animals are culled each year

under strictly controlled licences

but, unfortunately, they're a prize catch for poachers,

who often shoot and steal to order.

Gosh, that was amazing to see, wasn't it?

Aw, what a treat. Do they do this all the time for you?

We train them daily(!)

So, I mean, they are incredible animals.

How big a problem has poaching been?

Is it increasing at all?

We've seen an increase over the past number of years,

but it is largely in line

with the increase in the value

of venison as a product, as well,

so there's a greater incentive for people to acquire the materials

to sell it into the local market, or any market they can get it into.

So, it's not just going to be guys down the pub saying,

"Do you fancy a venison steak?"

No. How big it is, I'm not quite sure

but a lot of it is probably peer to peer.

But whatever way it happens,

any sort of illegitimate source of venison

is not good from a business point of view,

as well as from an ethical point of view.

Have you seen a difference since PSNI have been involved?

It does spike from time to time.

Maybe it's the same individuals who have decided

that they've got an order to fill

or they're just determined to get what it is they want to get.

But, no, since we've been working with the PSNI,

we've got now a procedure in place

and the awareness, I think, has been raised

both within the public and further afield.

-I think that has had a positive impact.

-Hmm.

So it's out on patrol with the PSNI in the local area.

They're appealing for information from the public

about deer poaching.

The deer can be just used for by the person hunting it

and just used for their family,

but it can also be going into

the local food chain, to local butchers, to restaurants,

and it's believed that deer carcasses at the moment

can sell for about £90,

so that's criminals getting £90 per carcass, for free,

which they shouldn't have. It's illegal.

Is wildlife crime harder to solve

and tackle than other crime

because of the scale of the countryside

and the variety of the crimes?

No. Not necessarily, Ruth.

Within the PSNI, a crime is a crime,

whether it be a wildlife crime or not.

If it's a crime, then police will actually investigate it.

So it's, very simply, that people ring the 101 number,

an officer is assigned, that officer then can seek any advice,

support and assistance from myself, or my office,

and then they investigate it, just like any other crime.

So don't think you're going to get away with it...

-Definitely not!

-..because the pet detective's after you!

As a designated marine nature reserve,

Strangford Lough is brimming with marine species,

but, as I've been finding out,

a new invader is a major threat to aquatic life there.

'Today, I'm just outside Killinchy on the shores of Strangford Lough.

'I'm meeting Tim Mackie and his team to help tackle a foreign invader.'

-Tim. How are you?

-Grand.

-Nice to see you.

-Shall we go and take a look?

-Will do.

-You'll be needing one of these.

-Probably.

-Well, Tim, you've an invasion on your hands here.

-Yes, we do indeed.

This is the only known location in Northern Ireland

of a colonial sea squirt called Didemnum vexillum,

or as we call it D-vex.

-It's also referred to as marine vomit, unfortunately.

-Nice(!)

It has an unfortunate habit of just carpeting everything

it comes into contact with and displacing native species.

'Sea vomit was first discovered in 2012

'and Tim and his team monitor it closely

'and aim to stop it spreading any further.'

Well, this is the live feed coming from the pole-cam

that Ron has there and you can see a group of mussels

and some plumose anemones here,

but also you can see sort of the pendulous bit at the bottom.

That sort of grey vomit like coating is a bit of D-vex

and that's the kind of stuff that we'll be going into the water

to try and remove now.

We'll take it away and get it incinerated

so it doesn't have the chance to spread any further.

-So there's lots of other types of life in the?

-There is indeed.

And presumably this sea vomit is taking over and that's a big threat?

It is. You know, originally from Japan,

as a lot of these invasives tend to be, from eastern Asia,

where the climate is very similar so that they get here

and everything suits them very nicely.

But unfortunately our native species have never had to deal with

these things, so in particular the likes of D-vex exudes a toxin,

so it grows very quickly.

It can grow from a 50p size to a dinnerplate size in six weeks.

It will overgrow and smother the native species

and by the fact that it has a toxicant in itself,

other things won't try and grow over it because they're repelled by that.

So you're underwater gardeners?

We're going to do a bit of weeding today.

That's effectively what we'll be doing, yeah.

-There's nothing else for it - get the suit on.

-That's it.

'It took a while and a bit of help

'but eventually I was ready to get into the water and under the boat.'

What we're going to try

-and do is peel a bit off.

-OK.

Try and get it

as intact as possible.

We don't want bits drifting off

-with the current.

-Yeah.

So I'll let you do the intricate stuff

-and I'll just rip off the sticking plaster.

-Yeah, perfect.

'It didn't take long to get some of the invading sea vomit.'

What about that? Is that a mixture?

It is, but that's sometimes the way that we have to remove it.

Would that be right? It was all tied together.

So you have the D-vex leading up onto a piece of breadcrumb sponge

but you needed to take the whole lot out there because it's overgrowing

-the sponge.

-I'm a natural.

-You're natural, yeah. Gardener of the year!

'And it kept coming.'

Oof!

That's heavy, boy!

Ugh!

It's really... It's really draining.

You're using muscles that you're not usually using.

I haven't used a lot of muscles at the best of times,

but that was heavy work.

We'll get you out of this and we'll show you what you've peeled off.

-There's so much of it down there.

-It's... Yeah, there's a lot of it.

'Time to inspect today's catch.'

Well, Tim, we've a lovely shopping basket of goodies here.

Well, this is some of your handiwork here.

As Hugh told you earlier on, you get the feel for things

and if I get you, now you've got your gloves off,

to actually feel the difference

between this which is a breadcrumb sponge,

which isn't what we were looking to peel off, but...

-Whoops!

-No, no, in...

-Aha!

You see, on that side, it has been coated. Now feel the difference.

-Feel that. It feels sort of... more rubbery.

-Yeah.

-And you can't...

No, you can't separate the two.

-The only option there was to remove the entire cluster...

-Yeah.

-OK.

..whereas this sheet here, this plaster, like you described it,

-has come off in one fell swoop.

-That was a belter.

That is a large piece and again by bringing it off, it's not allowing

it to fragment, to be swept up the lough and recolonise somewhere else.

And what kind of influence can that have on this whole area?

Potentially, a devastating influence.

We're fortunate in that it's restricted to where...

this locality, but, like I say,

if that was to carpet the entirety of the bottom of Strangford Lough,

we would lose one of the jewels in the crown

in Northern Ireland's marine ecosystem.

It has the potential to interfere with agriculture,

as well as the biodiversity of the lough.

What's the endgame here? What happens?

The endgame is we keep trying to do this for as long as we can.

The ultimate endgame is we don't get any more introductions.

The best way to stop this is to not have it in the first place.

And in the short-term, a lot of hard work for you guys.

Short-term - hard work. No option for it.

'And so the fight against the invader, sea vomit, continues.'

I'm in South Armagh, close to the Ring of Gullion,

an area steeped in myth and legend.

But we're not interested in the folklore today,

more the history of the people who lived here thousands of years ago.

Today, these P5 children from St Mary's primary school

are partaking in an historic classroom.

-If we look over here, you see that circular area of bushes.

-ALL: Yeah!

That's another rath.

You see over there on the horizon, where all the trees are standing up?

-ALL: Yeah!

-That's another rath.

That's a very impressive rath, by the way, if you ever go there.

So if you follow me, kids, and we'll go into the fort. OK?

We're carrying out a series of archaeological investigations

at a number of sites around the ring of Gullion area,

so we've come here to the Corner Hove,

-just outside Crossmaglen, South Armagh.

-Mm-hm.

And we've selected this site.

This is what we call a rath site

or a ringfort, OK?

And the dates are around about the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th century,

-a period we call the early medieval.

-Yeah.

So what we have is we have circular earth work with a bank

and a ditch and we're standing in the interior of the fort here

and what we've done is we've excavated a couple of trenches,

just to try and get a feel of what the archaeology is doing here.

This is Rhuari. Say hello to Rhuari.

ALL: Hello, Rhuari!

Archaeologists are obsessed with looking at the ground.

So what sort of things might be find if we're lucky?

If we are lucky,

we'd be expecting in these trenches here to find the remains

of people's houses, the hearths that they sat around at the night-time.

Those are particular focal points that we'll be looking for.

The kids just love coming out and getting dirty,

and finding worms and stones in the ground.

It's great to see their enthusiasm, I think.

I kind of see myself in it, even though I'm 34.

CHATTER

And I think it's about time I get my hands dirty

and join in the dig.

INDISTINCT SPEECH

-SHE GASPS

-Let's see!

Pop her in there. Look.

Good lad.

Super duper.

-Patrick?

-Yeah.

Did you know much about archaeology before today?

See... Not that much.

But I'm really interested in it.

Do you think you're going to be an archaeologist?

-Maybe.

-Maybe?

-I'll stay with the farming.

-SHE LAUGHS

Well, all this great digging is being done along with

a heritage scheme centred around the Ring of Gullion

and it's no coincidence

that it's all happening in this neck of the woods.

It's said of South Armagh, "Kick any stone and you uncover history."

And it's certainly true of this area.

We are so lucky that we have history from 4,500 years ago

right up to modern history.

We have dolmens, we have cairns and, on top of Slieve Gullion,

just about five miles that way,

we have Ireland's highest surviving passage tomb as well.

So, from that, we have history going right through

to the early Christian period.

-Think of the history right where we're standing.

-Absolutely, yeah.

So, this ring fort, going back 1500 years,

but even just before that you have the story of the Tain Bo Cuailgne,

and that would have been the Cattle Raid of Cooley,

and you would have had CuChulainin running round these hills.

You would have had Queen Maeve coming up from the south...

with her armies around here.

You have the Dorshey, which is the gateways,

from Ulster and Leinster.

You would have had the Black Pig's Dyke running into Monaghan,

so the place is just absolutely littered with history

and archaeological sites.

Archaeology is great

because you get to learn the history before the historians, so to speak.

The historians who teach us history get their information from us,

so we're constantly rewriting the rules, basically, of history.

Every site, we find something different.

We learn about how people used to live - slightly different -

so we're adding to that information.

'The dig's been going on all week and there's been a very

'exciting find - a hammerstone -

'which means that man has been using this site for even longer

'than we expected.'

It's yellow!

We know it's a hammerstone because it's made of quartz.

Quartz is quite a hard material.

But this end of it - it's bashed.

-You can see little marks...

-So they've been...

..where people have continuously... bang, bang, bang.

It dates to prehistoric time, probably during the Neolithic,

probably about 5,000 years ago,

and it's a tool that prehistoric man was using to strike flint to

get nice sharp bits that they would then turn into arrow heads or knives

or scrapers, so that has been...

So far, that's been the star find.

Well, thankfully, the rain held off for our dig,

here in South Armagh today,

but let's see what the forecast has in store for the week ahead.

Raising cattle are a common sight in our countryside,

but what happens when you need to move your herd,

not from field to field but island to island?

I've been to find out.

The old barge, here at Ringdufferin on Strangford Lough,

serves as a reminder of how they used to move between the islands.

But this is how they do things today.

This is Cuan Brig, the barge owned

and operated by the National Trust.

Once a fortnight, it helps farmers transport livestock

and equipment around the islands on the lough.

And while that may seem like a lot of effort,

it's necessary, as grazing cattle on islands is essential

to maintaining this environment.

Without this boat, essentially, islands can't be managed effectively

because if you don't have livestock on these maritime cliff

and coast grasslands, you start to lose the biodiversity

interest, and eventually they scrub over and become woodland.

So, if you want to maintain the nature conservation

interests of the grassland, you have to graze it.

The guys farming on the lough and on the fringes of the lough,

for some of them, this is a critical part of their system

and their regime.

And if they weren't able to graze

the islands on the lough that they currently do,

their business would be compromised.

So...it's important in terms of keeping farming going on the lough.

Today, we're helping a farmer move cattle from one island on to

another, and the pressure is on.

You're battling the whole time with tide,

and tide is critical to this whole operation today.

And if the round-up takes too long...that's the end.

We can only load livestock on the barge when the tide is coming in...

and we've got floatation.

So once the tide turns, if we put animals onto this barge,

the barge runs aground, game over, you're stuck.

The initial pressure is to get them into the handling pen,

but then, once they're in the handling pen,

you've got to get them onto the barge.

And, instinctively, they don't feel comfortable coming onto the boat...

And you've got to coerce them on, so...

I'm not sure I'll be much help, but I'll try.

You're in a red coat, which is a good start!

-It's half the battle.

-Yeah. Yeah.

This is our first destination, Island Taggart.

Oisin Murnion has been grazing cattle

on three islands on Strangford Lough for over ten years.

Today, he and his family are rounding up their herd of Galloway.

We push them right round that side

and they come up back, thinking they're getting away again

and they come back onto a field that we have a corral system in

and a fence and a whole pile of things, and we push them down

into the corrals and shut the gate on them.

-That's the plan.

-That's the plan.

Does the plan always work?

It does if everybody's in the right place.

-Teamwork?

-Teamwork, but it doesn't if somebody goes to the wrong place,

so we have to be very careful and not spook them.

It's like moving a cattle herd in the Wild West, literally.

-And you're John Wayne?

-I'm not John Wayne, I'm Oisin Murnion.

But all joking aside, it's a serious business today.

-It needs to work for you, doesn't it?

-It has to work.

We only get a couple of opportunities to get the cattle off

and we need to move them, you know?

-Good luck. Saddle up, partner.

-Oh, thank you very much.

So it's a race against time to round up the cattle

and get them on the barge.

I'll catch up with them at the far end of the island.

These Galloway are particularly hardy animals,

foragers that will graze on any type of pasture.

They've been on this island for almost two years

and a general lack of human contact makes them almost feral.

But on schedule, they've been rounded up.

HORN BEEPS

HORN BEEPS

The best system to move cattle is actually to go slowly

instead of trying to go fast, you know?

Everything slow, everything calm? They are a bit jumpy, aren't they?

-They are a wee bit jumpy.

-As we can see.

Is that just the type of the breed,

or the nature of them being out here for so long?

It's probably the fact that they're penned there

and they're wanting out.

This is a tough job here, so it is, now.

The cattle don't like going down into the water.

They have to step into the edge of the water there,

sometimes when the tide comes in.

The tide's coming in here at a foot an hour.

It comes in quite fast, you might not notice.

It doesn't seem very much, but if you're stuck in the mud,

it'd be coming in awful fast.

-Time for you to get the game face on, then?

-Mmm.

And me to get out of the way!

-Yeah, that's about the height of it.

-Honesty, I like it.

-Hmm.

This is a delicate operation.

This is probably the most stressful point of the day

for everyone involved and for the cattle.

They're jumpy and let's hope they just get aboard OK.

As expected, they don't want to get on board.

These cattle can be dangerous

and, all the time, Oisin is battling the incoming tide.

Finally, success and relief.

We'll go up to Pawle Island with the load of cattle

and let all the cows off,

then we have to divide them two bull calves

from the other cow and put the cow off as well,

then take them two calves home.

-It's never easy.

-It's a tough job, so it is.

Working with cattle is hard work, it's for hard men.

You need hard men and women.

This style of conservation farming is worth the effort

for those involved.

The landowners have their ground maintained

and farmers get access to land on which to graze cattle.

Just your average day, Anne-Marie, out on the ocean waves?

Well, that's a typical day, except it went well.

Sometimes it can go badly

and it doesn't work, but today it worked,

-so...

-It's definitely a lifestyle choice, it's hard work.

It can be, yeah.

It can be kind of tense, just going out to do all that and just hoping

that it'll go well and you achieve what you set out to do that day.

-If not, you go back and do it again.

-There was a definite atmosphere

in the pen when everybody was...

Well, the animals were...and you were starting to get worried.

Yeah, it wasn't going well.

Then we all stopped and had kind of a team meeting,

changed the strategy and next thing,

just all onto the boat, so it went good.

Who's the calm head in it all?

-You?

-Not, it's not me!

I don't know who, I don't know who.

I'm the one that would nearly lose it, you know?

Quicker than anybody.

Pawle Island is our final destination

and the new home for Oisin's cattle.

After all the stress of the day,

how did it feel to finally see them run off the boat

and away onto the island?

I love that part.

I love to see them jumping off the boat, I love to seem them just...

They're not stressed and everything's done.

There's still two more to unload and that'll be it.

-Home for a lie down and a rest.

-Yeah.

By the end of the day, you're ready to go in and just sit down, yeah.

It's been a unique day for me,

but it's all in a day's work for Oisin,

his family and the Cuan Brig.

That was quite some day, Gav.

Yeah, a long day and a lot of effort to look after both the cattle

and the local ecology,

-but I think worth it.

-I think you did a great job.

-Thanks.

-Anyway, that's it for this episode. We'll see you next week.

-Bye-bye.