Ireland had one of the highest incident rates of asthma worldwide, with 80% of Irish asthmatics also possessing pollen allergies. These figures are expected to further increase due to climate change and urbanisation. Despite concerns pollen monitoring has largely gone undocumented in Ireland for many years, while much of Europe continued to advance monitoring/modelling approaches. Therefore, the aim of the thesis is to bridge this gap and establish a functioning pollen network in Ireland. Chapters 1-2 introduce the theory and instrumentation used in the project. Chapter 3 focuses on the traditional monitoring of airborne pollen, primarily in Dublin city. Prevalent pollen types and seasonal trends were noted – highlighting a bimodal season, dominated by the allergenic Betula and Poaceae pollen. The first pollen calendar for Dublin was created, indicating potentially high exposure periods for allergy sufferers. Prediction efforts were further explored in Chapter 4 which explored the use of regression and classification models for forecasting Betula and Poaceae pollen. Due to the lack of extensive monitoring data, classification models were found to be more reliable, with accuracies ranging from 61-67%. Chapter 5 investigates the potential of utilising real-time devices for pollen monitoring (WIBS), promising results were found for total/Urticaceae pollen (r=0.73). However, influencing interferences were noted. The synergy between pollen and pollutants has been linked to increasing pollen allergenicity. In Chapter 6 IR spectroscopy was used to examine compositional changes to pollen samples during exposure to hydration, particulate, and gaseous pollutants (O3 and exhaust fumes). Differences were observed in protein, lipid and carbohydrate composition. Confocal microscopy was used to determine if these changes could lead to difficulties in identification when using real-time fluorescence sensors. Changes in fluorescence intensity were observed for hydration and particulate matter exposure but not gaseous exposure. Additional work is required to determine any changes in emission maxima. Overall, this thesis addresses the need for pollen monitoring in Ireland, presenting valuable insights into pollen types, seasonality, forecasting, real-time monitoring, and the potential impact of pollution on composition and fluorescence detection.