The sad loss of a majestic Mayo tree and all its glory

by Auld Stock

“CAD a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad? Tá deiread na gcoillte ar lár.”

Those words in Irish are still as uppermost in my mind as they were over seventy years ago when they were recited to us by Bro. Cyril in St. Patrick’s National School.

I am by no means a prolific Irish speaker but a rough translation of the above words mean “what are we now going to do with the cutting down of our forests?.”

Those words came tumbling back when I read about the the cutting down of a very old tree on The Green in Castlebar.

If this majestic tree could speak what stirring tales it could tell. . . the last of the British army leaving Castlebar, the signing of the Treaty, the Civil War, the visit of Michael Collins to the county town, the rousing reception given to our county footballers as they held the Sam Maguire aloft after defeating Laois in the 1936 All-Ireland final.

Glorious moments, now sadly lost forever, echoes of another time in Ireland when the pace of life was much slower and Castlebar had about one-third the population it currently has.

In the 17th century Ireland had several huge forests.

In Mayo one of the biggest forests in the county was located at Lisnacirca (the fort of the chickens) on the Belcarra road, opposite the county soccer pitch.

When Belcarra’s Joe Blowick was a senior minister in the Inter-Party Government in the late 1940s and early 1950s he devised a plan to grow trees in each county in Ireland. Regrettably, when he left office, his grand plan wasn’t followed through.

Ireland has less trees than any country of its size in Europe. The trees grown in Mayo are transported down south whey they are used to create jobs.

We shouldn’t be surprised at this, it is merely another kick in the posterior for the people of Mayo and other counties in the west.

The trees in Ireland were cut down by the Brits, sent across the Irish Sea and used in the building of boats which played a major role in the setting up of the British Empire. This was the era when Britannia ruled the waves.

It genuinely upsets me when I see our ancient trees being chopped down, a lifeline with another age.

“I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.”

Those touching words were written close on 150 years ago by the poet Joyce Kilmer. They are as relevant today as they were all those years ago.

Phil Harris, a great American singer, sang a song seventy years ago, the title of which was “Woodman spare that tree, touch not a single bough.”

I’m afraid no one bothered to take Phil’s sensible advice.

The tree which was felled at The Green was described as “dangerous.”

*Strictly speaking, the large green area opposite Áras an Contae, is The Green. The pathway between Rock Square and the Church of Ireland is The Mall.

The word mall is said to have come from and old English game called pall mall where the participants had to drive a wooden ball down an alley and through a ring. That’s one explanation of the word mall, there may be others.