Cobh 'Nature Boy' is loving life as book sends message of hope

Nicknamed ‘Nature Boy’ because of his obsession with nature and birds, Cobh native Seán Ronayne always felt different and found it hard to fit in.

However, an autism diagnosis when he was 32 meant that his life finally started to make sense.

Now, Seán, aged 36, is in a great place. His debut book, Nature Boy: A Journey Of Birdsong And Belonging, has recently been published. His second album (of ambient bird song) entitled Hope will be released when his first child is born - the due date for his daughter Laia’s arrival is October 25.

Also, Seán’s documentary, Birdsong, was well-received when it came out earlier this year.

But to get to this happy place, Seán went through a lot of suffering.

He almost lost his life when he contracted meningitis at the age of 18. After being violently ill, he was taken to CUH and the prognosis was not good.

“My family came in to say ‘goodbye’ to me. It was bizarre. I was conscious but in another world. I thought one of the doctors was my aunt. I should have died.

“But Professor Mary Horgan, who came into the hospital on her day off, diagnosed me and thanks to her, I survived.”

While the experience of being seriously ill was traumatic, Seán says: “It changed me for the good. 

It made me thankful for life and made me realise that you don’t know what’s around the corner.

“It made me embrace my life, and I guess it propelled me further on in my journey to become an ornithologist and to explore and understand as much as I can.

“It also encouraged me to open up to people and to try and talk to them more.”

What comes across in Seán’s compelling book is how hard he was on himself. At 28, he was still finding his way while his contemporaries were more established in their careers.

“That’s the price I paid for following a career that I love but that is quite niche. It took me time to find my feet,” he said.

“It wasn’t just my career. I wasn’t yet diagnosed with autism at that time of my life.

I’ve always found it easier to be in nature rather than in human circles. 

"I used to feel like an oddball. Even simple conversation and group dynamics were things I never understood. The social lubrication of chit chat wasn’t there with me.

“I thought I was this strange guy and beat myself up over it. I move differently in the world.

“Understanding that, and the reasons behind it, and knowing there are other people like me, was very forgiving and enlightening. It made me understand myself and deal with life better.

Everything became a bit brighter when I got the autism diagnosis.

Seán had been using alcohol as a crutch, to overcome his social anxiety. Realising that his drinking was problematic, he gave it up for six years.

“I’m a different person now, happy in myself,” he said. “I just have one or two drinks now and then, socially.”

These days, Sean, who studied zoology at UCC and has a Master’s in marine biology, is a busy freelance ornithologist. He gives talks, he does the occasional bird survey, and has been working on his book.

In 2018, he moved to Barcelona with his partner, Alba, a Catalan native. There, he began recording birds and wildlife in earnest.

The couple returned to Ireland (Alba first met Seán when he was working in a Cork bar) in 2020. Seán embarked on his project to sound-record all of Ireland’s regularly occurring birds, bringing him all over the country in search of rare and elusive species, some of which are on the cusp of extinction.

In the Sahara desert as part of their travels, Seán proposed to Alba in the middle of the night in a sand dune.

She accepted, thank God. It could have been awkward being stuck out there if she didn’t.

Now, with a child on the way and a career in nature, Fota-based Seán is hyper-aware of climate change and the crisis facing humanity. He says he is hopeful.

“But I don’t think people want to talk about climate change directly, because it’s scary, isn’t it?

“What I want to do is to show people how much beauty there is in the world. I want to woo people into taking action rather than scare them. I think there is still time.

“I also think that most people are good people who want to do good in the world. Without hope, what do we have? 

You have to be hopeful and fight for what you believe in. That’s what I’m doing. It’s why my album is called Hope.

Seán’s book is the accumulation of life experiences – from a near death experience to living with autism, and sound-recording approximately 200 species of birds. It’s about falling in love with Alba, the light of his life, and learning how to open up emotionally. There are also accounts of the couple’s travels in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Nepal.

At the ‘Beyond the Pale’ music festival this year, Seán gave a talk on birds and led a guided walk in nature. He admits that he was apprehensive about addressing the “young trendy crowd. I thought they would think I’m a nerd and that they were not going to listen to me. But I couldn’t believe it when about 150 people came on the walk with me.

“It was an incredible hope-giving moment because I realised that the young generation care too.”

Nature Boy, by Seán Ronayne is published by Hachette Ireland.