If you’re unaware that Ireland is among the most deforested countries in Europe, then I suggest you get out more – literally.
Little is left of the ancient woodlands that once stretched from Malin to Mizen. In their place is farmland, which despite often being characterised as green and lush, is effectively devoid of biodiversity.
The Irish have a love-hate relationship with trees. They play a central role in the island’s folklore and many of its cultural and sporting traditions, yet your typical Irish pastoral scene tends to feature bare rugged mountains or a tapestry of farmland separated by neat hedgerows.
Things are at least better than they used to be. At the turn of the last century, only 1.5% of Ireland’s land base was forested, while these days it’s more than 10%.
As one academic study funded by the Republic’s Council for Forest Research and Development noted: “Each period of historical transition (in Ireland) seems to have been accompanied by a new round of deforestation.”
Warfare, land reform, and what the same study describes as a “land hunger” on the part of many rural Irish, accompanied by a “lingering mistrust of outside organisations”, has not helped the trees’ cause.
Add to this the fact that the tradition of tree planting in Ireland has long been associated with the landed gentry and you begin to understand why the landscape is so bare.
Efforts to redress the historical dearth of trees and woodlands are nothing new.
Kildare horticulturist and renowned garden designer John Joe Costin, who introduced the late taoiseach Charles Haughey to the pleasures of tree-planting, recalled in a past edition of the Journal of the Irish Garden Plant Society how almost a century ago, nationalism and the ideas of Gaelic revivalism chimed with the goal of returning the Irish countryside to its ancient state.
The early 20th century movement that sought to afforest Ireland nominated November 29 1919 as the inaugural Irish Arbor Day.
They also created an anthem, sung to the tune of Thomas Osborne Davis’s A Nation Once Again, the chorus replaced with Plantation Once Again.
It’s unclear whether the arboreal anthem was sang last week when President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina helped plant 2,000 native trees in grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin
The trees, planted in conjunction with the Office of Public Works, are part of the One Hundred Million Trees Project, a community-driven volunteer project that has as its aim to plant 100 million native variety trees throughout Ireland over the next decade.
It’s aimed at fostering environmental sustainability, creating greater biodiversity and combating climate change.
Since it commenced in 2022, the 100 Million Trees Project (100MT) has led to 220,000 trees being planted across the country. This year, the project is planning to plan 550,000 trees across 230 sites between November and May.
100MT was set up by Richard Mulcahy, along with his brother David and sister Tina.
“The planting of trees is of vital importance in combatting climate change and helping to restore the essential biodiversity which is needed to sustain our planet,” the president said.
“I am delighted that this new mini forest has been planted in Áras an Uachtaráin, which joins a significant number of sustainability measures which we continue to take on the grounds.”
Such actions alone won’t solve the biodiversity crisis but it’s a promising start.
