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12th. October 2006

Ó hArgáin calls for planting of ash trees on National Tree Day

Kilkenny’s Deputy Mayor, Cllr. Seán Ó hArgáin has called for a national and local campaign by farmers and individuals to plant more ash, in an attempt to improve the supply of the tree most vital to our oldest national game, and to improve the environment. Cllr. Ó hArgáin was speaking after a visit to Coill an Fhaltaigh, a millennium forest on the edge of Kilkenny city on National Tree Day. He accompanied the thirty children from his class in Gaelscoil Osrai.

“The National Tree Council has declared 2006 the year of the ash tree, and this is vital for the future of hurling. At present many hurl manufactures in Kilkenny and throughout the country are having to travel to Eastern Europe to source supplies of the timber, largely because of the fall-off in growing native broad-leaf trees in Ireland. We know from the history of this area that a huge amount of woodland has been wiped out in the last few hundred years, best documented in the Irish song from just over the border in Tipperary,
‘Cill Chais’, which asks, ‘Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmad?’ (What will we do without the timber?). The message from this song and poem, written in the 1790’s remains true today.

I would appeal to local farmers and individual gardeners to look carefully at planting ash and other broadleaf species. They are vital to our air quality, and the general quality of our environment. Although the payback time for those getting involved in forestry is much shorter for evergreen species, our traditional species create a long-term investment which will be worth the wait.”

Cllr. Ó hArgáin concluded by calling on the Government to considerably increase the grants available to farmers, in order to encourage the planting of native broadleaf species.

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