Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Brian Birmingham took time from his busy schedule to celebrate National Tree Week.With the help of students from Knocknagree National School near Mallow a silver birch was planted at Lifetime Lab which will eventually grow to a height of sixty feet.

Tree in cities, gardens, parks and woodlands make our increasingly urban life more bearable and they feature in all major developments. Tree Week 2009 will invite you to focus on the harmony and pleasure that trees and wood bring to our life experience and contribute to creative projects in whatever way you can.

Students from Knocknagree NS lend a hand as Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr.Brian Birmingham plants a silver birch at Lifetime Lab,also pictured are l-r Mervyn Horgan Lifetime Lab,Michael O Brien and Michael Goulding Cork city Council.

The silver birch is slender and paper white and this with the fine network of dark branches ending in thin drooping twigs gives the tree a very dainty appearance.Covering the delicate looking branches of the silver birch is its foliage, shimmering diamond shaped leaves, toothed on their lower halves. As well as bark colour, the leaves of the birch are good providers of seasonal colour, green for most of the year, with a welcome vibrant flush of yellow colour before shedding in late autumn. Because of the light and dispersed nature of these leaves, silver birch allows a fair quantity of filtered sunlight to brighten the ground beneath. This allows us to under-plant the tree if desired (heathers anyone). The flower of the silver birch is a nondescript catkin, a dangling cylindrical bloom that is followed afterwards by winged seeds.The fruits mature in June being gradually dispersed great distances by the wind until the onset of Winter.  This, plus the fact that the tree grows well even on poor soils, makes it a popular colonist of forest clearings, pastures, and fallow land. The silver birch is a light-demanding tree and stands up well to both frost and the suns heat.

2009 sees 25 years of National Tree Week and the theme ‘Our trees Our Culture’ has been chosen to celebrate the event.When we look at our history, our literature and poetry, our music and art we find trees and what they represent to us embedded into our identity and expression. Trees have always been part of the world’s mythology and Ireland has its own symbols and legends. To the ancient Irish and into recent history certain trees, for example, oak and hazel were associateand raths can evoke respect to this day.

Have you ever wondered why people say ‘touch wood’ to ward off bad luck?  The Celts touched trees as they believed it warded off evil spirits. Our Celtic ancestors worshiped trees, they had sacred groves and single trees, these sacred trees have survived today at Holy wells.The earliest form of writing in Ireland was Ogham, a tree alphabet, which can be found carved on standing stones. This had twenty letters, each corresponding to one of our native species. The protection of trees also formed a core part of our ancient legal system, the Brehon Laws. d with knowledge and others, the ash and rowan with protection. Fairy trees

Our sense of place finds expression in our place names, which today identify towns, villages and town lands, many of which come from trees and woods. We are all familiar with Kildare (Church of the Oak) and of course Co. Derry itself.  In fact of the 62,000 place names on the island of Ireland 1,200 are associated with oak. Co. Mayo is ‘the plain of the yew trees’. Co. Roscommon is the ‘St. Comáin’s Wood’ and Co. Monaghan the ‘place of the thicket’. Original names and translated derivatives can be found on all our signposts, maps and almanacs. Indeed they can still be a source of cultural dispute.Another imprint made by trees on our cultural identity is the use of trees for surnames. Names in Irish such as Cullen or Cullinane come from Cuillen – holly, Darragh or Mc Darragh from Dair (oak), Quill from Coill (wood) as well as Irish names in the English language, Ashe and, Woods.

Trees feature in our poetry in both languages.  Cill Cais is the most often quoted poem in both in Irish and English:

‘Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad?  Tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár’

’What will we do for timber; the last of the woods are gone’.

The Tree Council of Ireland is a voluntary non-governmental organisation which was formed in 1985, to promote the planting, care and conservation of trees in both urban and rural areas.

Further details are available at www.treecouncil.ie