A one-man mission to record the songs of every Irish bird species …
In 2024, Seán Ronayne published his award-winning memoir, Birdsong, and a documentary of the same name. He lives near Cobh, in his native Co Cork, with his Catalan wife, Alba, and their baby daughter, Laia. @irishwildlifesounds
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PARENTS?
My parents both worked very hard. They spent all of their free time with me and my brother. They set me on my journey into loving nature and ornithology. My father is very quiet and my mother could talk about a loaf of bread for an hour. That’s my parents in a nutshell.
YOU’VE SPOKEN ABOUT NEVER BEING ABLE TO FEEL STILL AS A CHILD, BEFORE YOU KNEW YOU WERE AUTISTIC, HOW DID YOU HANDLE THAT?
What made me feel different was other kids’ reactions to me … and the fact that everyone loved watching a bunch of English millionaires running around a football pitch after a ball. I couldn’t understand that. What was fascinating to me were the birds flying outside the window and the insects buzzing around our flower meadows. I couldn’t understand why other kids weren’t interested in that.
HOW DO YOU SEE YOUR PARENTS’ INFLUENCE IN YOUR LATER LIFE?
My father and his father were both interested in nature, so that filtered down through them. My first memory of a bird is my grandfather pointing out a magpie to me. I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was. My mother bought me books, binoculars and telescopes, and she would listen to my rambling stories, even though she didn’t really know what I was talking about.
DID YOUR SCHOOL MAKE A BIG IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE?
I excelled in school, but I didn’t like it. I struggled with the social element, and I didn’t want to be there. When you’re a kid, if you don’t fit that mainstream box with your haircut, the way you speak and the things you like, you get picked on. Kids are brutal.
WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU’D GROW UP TO BE?
I never aspired to be successful or earn lots of money. What I wanted was to work with nature, but I didn’t know how to. I didn’t want to be a vet because I thought I wouldn’t be able to cope with the animals that I couldn’t save.
WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST STRENGTH AT WORK?
I don’t work. I share stories about the things that I love and I get compensated for my efforts. I’ve recorded 200 birds and the more I listen, the more I realise how little I really know about them. It’s a constant learning journey that can’t end as long as I’m breathing.
IT WAS YOUR WIFE ALBA WHO ENCOURAGED YOU TO BE ASSESSED FOR AUTISM, WAS THAT A HUGE ACT OF LOVE?
Oh, yes. All Alba has ever given me is love and support. Sometimes, she even sacrifices too much.
DID IT SERVE YOU TO BE DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM?
I had suspicions anyway and it had been suggested to me when I was younger that I might be autistic. But it matters greatly to know who you are. Having that diagnosis of autism changed my life because now I know why I have obsessed over very distinct topics all my life. I know why I could never look people in the eye growing up. I found it so hard to make friends because all I wanted to talk about was birds and I’d try to mimic other people’s behaviours, but that didn’t work either. I felt like a loser, but when I got the diagnosis I was able to forgive myself and it gave me a lot more confidence. It allowed me to see the positives, like my extreme focus. I don’t believe that I’d have been able to go to the depths I’ve gone to on this project were it not for my autism.
“There’s nothing I love more than standing in front of 1,000 people in a theatre and telling them about birds.”
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR FRIENDSHIPS NOW?
I don’t have many friends, and I’m happy with that. I find humans complicated and stressful. I don’t meet anyone for coffee or to hang out. The person I contact the most is also autistic and also into birds; he’s the one I speak to the most because we’re mirror images of one another.
DO YOU PREFER A CROWD OR SOLITUDE?
I hate crowded places. To this day, I still don’t understand group dynamics. I shrink. I don’t know when it’s my turn to speak or how to continue a conversation and I’m really not interested in any conversation that’s not about birds. But, I’ll tell you what, there’s nothing I love more than standing in front of 1,000 people in a theatre and telling them about birds.
YOU BUY YOUR CLOTHES WHEN …
I never buy clothes. I just wear them out and then my mum says, “Jesus, Seán, you’ve been wearing that shirt for years. I bought you a new one.” I like clothes to be soft, loose, nothing tight or cold.
YOUR FAVOURITE SHOES?
I have a pair of shoes from Tommy Bowe and my toes are going to pop out of them.
DO YOU USE SKINCARE PRODUCTS?
I’ve been using Ringana skincare. Everything’s completely organic, it’s not tested on animals, and the bottles are biodegradable.
YOUR EXERCISE ROUTINE INCLUDES …
I used to go to the gym five days a week, but now we have a six-month-old baby I’ve broken out of the gym routine and got into the quite bad habit of eating chocolate instead.
YOU MOST RECENTLY READ …
Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty and it’s honestly the most utterly beautiful thing I’ve ever read. The thing that blew my mind was the fact that he was 14 when he started writing it. He won the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing and was the youngest ever recipient. He’s also autistic and he writes about growing up surrounded by nature and struggling in society, so I really related to it.
YOU MOST RECENTLY LISTENED TO …
The Louis Theroux podcast. I think he’s fantastic. One of the things about my autism is that I like patterns and I get into comfort zones where I read the same things, wear the same things, eat the same things all the time and it’s the same with music. I’ve been listening to the same three Kila songs on repeat for about a year.
YOU DEAL WITH A SETBACK BY …
When my routine or my pattern is broken unexpectedly, I can become very erratic and very illogical. I need to step away and go into nature. I go to Roche’s Point peninsula and as soon as the cliff walls are behind me, and I just have the shoreline, Atlantic Ocean and sea birds, everything settles. My mind clears, I’m recovered and recharged, then I can go back.
CAN YOU SPEAK A FOREIGN LANGUAGE?
I can get by with Spanish, but Alba’s first language is Catalan, which is very different. I want to become fluent in that because Laia will be. When I listen to Catalan, I can understand about 70 per cent, but then I can reply in Spanish, so it needs work.
HAVE YOU ENJOYED THE SUCCESS THAT HAS COME WITH THE BOOK AND DOCUMENTARY?
There are two parts that I really cherish. The first is when people stop me in the street to say they’ve bought a pair of binoculars, or they’re pointing out birds to their kids, learning birdsong. The second, which has been so important to me, is parents of autistic children thanking me for giving them a voice. Parents and kids bring their books to me to sign and that’s very special because I didn’t have that person when I was a kid. I didn’t know what autism was. To be that person now and to give those kids someone to look up to, that’s a privilege.
HOW ARE YOU FINDING FATHERHOOD?
Laia is such a light in our lives. We almost didn’t get there, but we’re so grateful. To see her looking at the bees and the birds, and with such interest, is such a beautiful thing. I love it.