Literature and lreland's Trees project is aiming to produce an archive aboutthe tree in lrish writing and culture writes Dr stephen o'Neill, MU'sDepartment of English
The snow is famously general over lreland in james joyce's The Dead, a whitenessblanketing "treeless hills". joyce alludes to an woodland absence, prompting us toask,where's the tree in lrish literature?
A research project Literature and lreland's Trees is looking to build a populararchive about the tree in lrish writing and culture, We want to know about your favourite literary tree - in Gaelic orEnglish, in any genre or literary period. What type of tree is it? How does the literary work make it memorable?
The aim is to identify how trees connect with us through memory and story. Doing so is more vital now than ever beforeas we see forest fires across Europe and as the lrish government plans large-scale tree planting as part of its climateaction strategy. in times like these, to echo the poet Adrienne Rich, we must listen to "and talk about the trees"
Although lreland remains the least forested country in Europe, its culture has long done such listening. in ancientlreland, species such as the oak, hazel and yew were prized as "nobles of the wood". Felling a sacred tree brought severepenalties.