Ireland

Coronavirus won't stop Killian and his Wild Ireland

Bears look on as Wild Ireland, Dundrain, Burnfoot, Co. Donegal open after lockdown to the public Picture by Hugh Russell.
Bears look on as Wild Ireland, Dundrain, Burnfoot, Co. Donegal open after lockdown to the public Picture by Hugh Russell. Bears look on as Wild Ireland, Dundrain, Burnfoot, Co. Donegal open after lockdown to the public Picture by Hugh Russell.

DONEGAL solicitor Killian McLaughlin is determined that Covid-19 will not smash the lifelong dream he realised last year when he opened Wild Ireland on the border.

He re-introduced wolves, bears, boars and many other animals back into Ireland centuries after they became extinct.

His dream, the Wild Ireland Sanctuary sits back up against the border, just outside Derry. Opened in November last year, he has three brown bears, a lynx, Barbary Macaque monkeys, mink, foxes, cranes, wild boar, even a golden eagle and many other animals, native Irish and foreign.

In the years leading up to the opening, he overcame many challenges to rescue the animals from all over the world. However, now he is facing one of his biggest challenges yet in coronavirus.

In the first four months since opening, Wild Ireland proved an almost instant success, drawing attention from all over Ireland and Europe. Then came the first crisis, the March Covid-19 lockdown.

Re-opening in June, Mr McLaughlin managed to rebuild quickly. In recent weeks, an RTE documentary series Return of the Wild helped re-establish the Donegal sanctuary as a major visitor destination. But, just when things were starting to look up, Donegal plunged into Level Three coronavirus restrictions last week.

However, resilient as always, he is confident he can keep the wolves from the door – the wolves being Oisín, Fionn and Fergus, three magnificent animals who, with the bears, are among the star attractions of Wild Ireland.

“Up until last night (last Thursday when level three restrictions were introduced), I was actually ok. Wild Ireland is outside; we have one thousand metres of path and we limited the numbers to a maximum of 200. That allowed five metres between every individual person, never mind social pods we were doing fine.

“It was low risk so from June it was a reasonably good couple of months, a lot of good feedback from people. Then last night the refunds started happening so money we had in the bank had to be refunded.”

A walk through Wild Ireland with Mr McLaughlin is enough to show his passion and love for the animals, from the foxes to the barn and snowy owls, even to the Guinea pigs. They’re all his friends, he calls them by their name and he’s determined nothing will separate him from them.

“There are four animal staff here, all experienced as they have to be to work with dangerous animals. Wages have to be paid then the bears beat between €500 and €600 worth of fruit and vegetables every week; we buy in fresh meat, fresh fish, fresh chicken, fresh turkey, nuts, seeds, greens, hay straw. That all has to keep coming in.

“The animals are blissfully unaware but there are no government grants; we rely totally on what’s coming in the door and my wage, the money I was making as a solicitor,” he said.

He admits coronavirus is a worry.

“It’s all money, money, money; I’m really concerned about the future. But we’re still open and we’re outside and we’ll keep going.

“People can’t travel but now that things have settled down after the opening, now maybe it’s a great chance for local people to come in and see what we have here; it would be a lovely time for them to visit and then we’ll welcome others back when the coronavirus is all over,” he said.

Wild Ireland can be contacted at: info@wildireland.org.