Jane Goodall’s lasting bond with Ireland mourned after her death

Dame Jane Goodall died at the age of 91 while still active on a speaking tour, a loss marked by tributes from global leaders and conservation groups. Irish commentators and organisations immediately recalled her engagements with Irish audiences and the messages she delivered about youth, responsibility and hope.

One of Dame Jane Goodall's most quoted recent connections to Ireland came when she addressed Ireland’s Citizens Assembly on biodiversity loss by video in November 2022. In that address, she told assembly members that “My greatest reason for hope is the young people” and urged that empowering young people through education and action was essential to confronting environmental decline. Irish reporting highlighted how she framed science and compassion together in simple terms for a civic audience.

Goodall’s ties to Irish academic life were also formal and longstanding. Trinity College Dublin awarded her an honorary degree and hosted public events where she encouraged audiences to act locally and to mobilise young people for change. Coverage of her visits to Trinity noted her trademark mixture of field anecdotes and practical calls to action, reminding listeners that individual choices add up.

Her words to Irish audiences were consistent with the messages she carried worldwide. She often said that what people do every day makes a difference and that despair can be overcome by small local actions and by energising young people. Those refrains were reflected in speeches and interviews given in Ireland and in formal addresses to Irish civic and educational bodies.

Born in England, she travelled to Kenya in the late 1950s and began the fieldwork in Tanzania that would change how scientists understand chimpanzees and human behaviour. Her observations from Gombe in the 1960s documented tool use and complex social lives among chimpanzees, challenging long-held ideas about the divide between humans and other apes.

She founded the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977 and launched the Roots and Shoots youth program to mobilise young people around conservation and humanitarian projects. Over the decades, she received numerous honours for her science and advocacy, and continued to travel and speak well into her nineties.

Watch the National Geographic's full documentary "Jane Goodall: An Inside Look" here: