Irish Hedgerows: The Way and the Truth

There are many different types of woody plant that make up the famous Irish hedgerows (privet is only one…). I only know this because I was told it and given my inability to identify almost any plant species and my rather remarkable lack of drive to learn them, I'll never be able to know this for sure. Whatever the species, every plot of farm and pasture land between Doolin and Carlow, Ireland is boxed in by these things.

Here's what I found to be most charming about this: every few hedged in areas was the house. It's the norm to have sheep and cows living tangentially to the house (and the neighbors' houses, and the road, and the little town…).

According to some various and probably completely sensationalistic and unreliable internet sources, backyard chicken raising in suburban areas is only now making a comeback in the U.S. and the snobbish laws prohibiting poultry in these areas are being overturned.

Where is it that the U.S. went astray? I can understand moving all large livestock out of downtown New York City to the pasturelands outside of Manhattan Island when the intensity of land usage for people alone grew to its present state (a cow has to walk a little from time to time). I can imagine keeping pigs and cows out of the suburbs today (not necessarily the exurbs, though). But chickens? Even two or three without a rooster? These laws look to be written less to protect animals or property than to simply sterilize the landscape.

There are many dogs that bark almost nonstop within earshot of my house. There are some folks that blast White Snake (poor bastards) while passed out in their backyard. I imagine that this happens in other towns as well. And in these other towns, barking dogs and 80s hair metal, for some reason, are lawful while chickens may not be.

Keep barking dogs legal too, but ban White Snake.

This mixture of pasture land and suburban or "small town" living is reflected in France (outside of Paris, no less), northern Germany and Switzerland. That's only my personal account. This was also the practice, in my youth, in some of the small towns in Michigan. However, I, along with everyone else of my age, called these the homes of rednecks. Over the next generation, the older folks died off and severed the last ties with the land their forbearers brought with them from the old country. Those homes (now shacks) are now in the hands of "white trash" – the chickens and goats replaced by supped-up cars and hot tubs they can't afford, or have been abandoned letting more farm land go under a housing development.