Blackrock Herbal Clinic, Cork

23/03/2026

Ninety percent of your body's serotonin (the sleep, cognition, mood neurotransmitter) is made in your gut. Bacteria living in your digestive system manufacture it. Those bacteria eat one thing above all else: fiber. Feed them and they work. Starve them and they can’t. Right now, nearly every American is starving them.

Christopher Armitage has a good take on fibre (and mushrooms) - do your body good, so you can do good! Abd eat some of the lovely fibre-rich spring greens around - nettles, dandelion leaves, chickweed, wild garlic, land cress - recipes to follow

And Mushrooms.

04/12/2025

It's that time of year - flu season has started, so I've plenty of elderberry syrup, immune defender and cough remedies in the dispensary. Get in touch if you are in need!

***CHRISTMAS OPENING HOURS***
Clinic is open 0830-1700 on Tuesday and Friday.
Last clinic date is Tuesday 16th December
& last dispensing day is Wednesday 17th December.

After that, I'll be taking a well deserved rest until Tuesday 6th January when clinic reopens.

Please get your repeat requests in before Wed 17th December!

Please take time to rest for yourself at this darker time of year

18/11/2025

I'm giving a talk on supporting ADHD people with herbs this coming Saturday in Dublin, details below:

IRH Members and non-members are invited to a special talk at the AGM by herbalist Jo Goodyear (she/her), on Saturday 22nd November.

Location: Conference Room, Red Stables, St Anne’s Park, Dublin
Time: 1.15 pm
Fees: Free for members | €25 for non-members
Duration: 90 minutes

ADHD in Clinical Practice:

In this short talk, Jo will outline what Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHA) is from a lived perspective (often very different from what the diagnostic manual says!), what causes this neurological difference and how we can support people whose brains work differently, using our familiar herbs and less familiar lifestyle coaching. She will be digging into polyvagal theory to look at how we as herbalists can better support people with ADHD. The biggest point to understand is that ADHD, despite its name, is not a disorder but a different way of experiencing the world that is not favoured by our current productivity focused society, so how do we work with people to improve their lives, rather than attempt to fit them into "normal" parameters?

Please note: Attendance at this talk can count toward your Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points.

Please confirm your attendance by sending an email to irh (at ) irh.ie

16/08/2025

18/05/2025

Had a lovely weekend catching up with herbal colleagues at 2025 in Wexford

11/05/2025

Crampbark (aka Guelder Rose, Viburnum opulus) draws the eye constantly at this time of the year. Along with Hawthorn (aka Whitethorn, Crataegus monogyna), I think of her as Queen of the May. Her scent pervades the air, both sweet, floral and musky. Although she attracts the most attention now, from pollinators as well as humans, it is not the time to ask if we may harvest her healing gifts. Instead sit with her and the scent alone will relax body and mind, dropping into beingness on these languid, sun-soaked days.

Bark is best harvested as the sap rises and falls, so in autumn or early spring and only by pruning, never stripping bark from the trunk or major limbs.

The inner bark of Crampbark works to relieve cramping in smooth muscles, so is equally useful for menstrual cramps, neck tension, whiplash and intestinal cramping. I use her internally in decoction and tinctures, as well as externally in creams and compresses. Gently effective, tension unwinds soon after application, leaving space in the body for healing.

04/04/2025

***TWO PLANT EVENTS THIS WEEKEND ***
On Saturday, I'm leading a family-friendly all-ages biodiversity cycle along the Marina. Meet at Central Hall Marina Park at 1030, returning there at 12. FREE

I'll be exploring the "good weeds" of the Glen River Park in Cork city this Sunday 11am -1pm, come and join us! Meet by the tiled "snake" FREE (Donations in aid of St Luke's Community Garden welcome)

Google map links in comments to aid the algorithm

25/03/2025

I was out on Saturday exploring Doman's Wood with Douglas Tiday Towns, a lovely steep wooded stream valley with bluebells and wood anemones showing up well under a canopy of oak, beech, hazel and holly. Plenty of medicinal plants in evidence too - Valerian and Meadowsweet amongst them. There was evidence of red squirrels being in residence too (look out for neatly halved hazel nuts; wood mice just chew a hole in one side). The echo have covered the event (see link)

03/03/2025

The truth is that being one with the wild is a threat to those societal structures which depend upon our disconnection from our natural, wild selves, and that those structures feed off the demonisation of our wildness (through both subtle and overt means, “research”, articles, “experts”, apparently unbiased writing, interviews, etc).

This demonisation and “othering” of nature and humans as part of nature is necessary to prevent these structures from crumbling.

So eating wild food is more, so much more than it appears on the surface. It is an attempt to embody and consume that which has the power to take down the systems which enslave all beings in a web of control and disconnection.

Foraging in reverence and respect is actually a big ‘screw you’ to the establishment. And that is why it so incredibly important to reconnect and to remember our natural ways if we are to become real, natural, free Beings-of-Nature once again.

09/12/2024

*** Clinic Christmas Hours ***

Blackrock Herbal Clinic will close at 5pm on Friday 20th December. Please submit requests for repeat prescriptions by Thursday 19th.

The clinic will reopen at 830am on Thursday 9th January.

Repeat prescriptions over the Christmas break must be submitted by Sunday 29th December and will be poured on Monday 30th December

Wishing you and your loved ones a happy, healthy and peaceful winter holiday 🌲🌺

20/10/2024

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-03334-0?fbclid=IwY2xjawGCO85leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRK7SXmyVr3aVtNxa9g5q0HERwSGSj1FmDZWbw7P1DChXcFdrA4tBfNNSA_aem_YCaSMXmUURTSX59rkkPFXw