Colin shares Atlantic thrills in multi-media Town Hall show

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

He has travelled to the world’s most remote regions, filming big cats such as tigers and leopards for his award-winning TV series, but while he loved working with these exotic creatures, wildlife expert Colin Stafford-Johnson has equal regard for the less majestic birds and insects found here Ireland.

“It’s the little creatures that rule the world,” says the writer, presenter, director and cameraman, referring to the bees, butterflies, birds and flies that pollinate the plants on which humans depend for food.

Colin will be in Galway next Wednesday, October 23, to give an illustrated talk about his work, focusing on Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard from Kerry to Antrim.

My Wild Atlantic Journey will offer the audience a rarely-seen insight into Ireland’s wildlife, with much of the footage having been shot at sea.

It will also include behind-the-scenes insights, including how a humpback whale appeared alongside Colin’s currach while he was filming one day and how the crew were enthralled by groups of basking sharks feeding off the coast of Donegal.

Dublin-born Colin graduated in Biology and Film-making from Derby University in the early 1990s, having spent his early 20s travelling around the world to learn more about its wildlife.

After graduating, he worked on various nature films and got his big break in the 2011 BBC documentary A Tiger Called Broken Tail. Colin, with a local soundman Salim, was responsible for the programme which explored India’s declining tiger population.

However, when he realised “I was spending more time with tigers than with my family,” Colin changed direction.

He moved back to Ireland with his wife and children, settling in Westport. Since then his productions with Crossing the Line Films, many of them for RTÉ, have focused on nature closer to home.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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