The golden eagle is to be re-introduced into Ireland today almost a century after the species became extinct here.
Up to 75 birds will be released over a five-year period into Glenveagh national park in Donegal, according to Mr Seamus Brennan TD, chairman of the National Millennium Committee. The committee awarded £50,000 to the conservation project, with additional funding from the Heritage Council and Udaras na Gaeltachta.
The board of Scottish National Heritage has issued a licence to allow the golden eagle chicks to be brought from Scotland and released into Glen veagh, with the intention of establishing a viable breeding population. It is hoped the first golden eagles will be flying free over Co Donegal this time next year, and that by 2010 up to eight pairs will be breeding. They will be fitted with a numbered wing tag and a small radio transmitter to monitor their movements.
The project has been planned for over a decade, and is co-ordinated by the Irish Raptor Study Group and the Curlew Trust. Mr Lorcan O'Toole, a conservationist with wide experience of birds of prey and of reintroduction programmes in Scotland, is project manager.
Golden eagles have a six-foot wing-span and are usually seen from mountain roads or when hill-walking. They became extinct in Ireland due to hunting, persecution and habitat change, and the last pair appears to have bred in Glenveagh in 1912. The last breeding pair was found on the north Mayo cliffs in 1912.