What will Ireland look like in 2119? If current trends continue it might strongly resemble the Connemara of 1919 – the land stripped to bare rock by ecological disaster and a hyper-exploitative social system. As we celebrate Joe Heaney’s 100th anniversary, let us consider himself, and the writer Máirtín Ó Cadhain, as members of a distinguished lineage of indigenous spokespeople who issue warnings to the world based on the experience and wisdom of their own local societies. Both Ó hÉinniú and Ó Cadhain counterposed the desperate social history of their places with what they both termed “life” - the vitality of community which goes beyond the human to embrace an alternative vision of the world.