NATIONAL TREE WEEK 2018 (March 4th to 11th)

‘ASCENDENCY LANDSCAPES IN POST-INDEPENDENCE IRELAND’

(Abridgement and elaboration of a Talk presented by Ted Cook at Macroom Library, Tuesday, March 6th, 2018)

Macroom Castle c. 1877, facing west above its’ 200 acre emparked Demesne

The presentation commenced with a question put to the participants (numbering 57) – Who recalls the ‘Great Storm’ of October 16th 1987 that hit England and Wales? Surprisingly few hands were raised – fewer again were aware that Hurricane Midge struck the U.K. near precisely to the very hour, 30 years earlier to the day, that Oephelia’s severest gusts hit Ireland.

Details of Dr. Oliver Rackham’s research in the wake of ‘Midge’ were elucidated (see ‘Field Walk along the Munster Blackwater’, November 2017 on this website). Included in Rackham’s lists of those Trees that withstood the 1987 Hurricane that wind-threw circa one quarter of the entire hardwood resource of the U.K. were the hollowed out Veteran and Ancient Trees.

These tens of millions of Trees that did succumb ‘were poorly planted 300 years earlier’ and to grasp this proposition, we must remind ourselves of the frenzied destruction of the English Parklands and Demesnes in the earlier years of Cromwell’s so-called ‘Common Wealth’ (1649 – 1656). Decapitation of King Charles I was the introit to the reign of terror against the ‘Aristocracy’, unleashed by Cromwell and his fellow fundamentalist Iconoclasts. Those ‘polite’ Landscapes of the Royalist faction, themselves deeply symbolic of Feudal Overlordship, became the target of the self- proclaimed ‘Lord Protector of England’ – himself of subsistence farming roots.

On his accession to the British throne in 1660, King Charles II and his loyal magnates proceeded in haste to recreate the Designed Landscapes of Wood Pasture and Deer Park throughout the period of his reign until 1685.

According to Cork County Council’s research, there remains in Ireland, c. 6,000 Demesne/Designed Landscapes – with 1,000 in County Cork’s 7,457 square kilometres, many of which serve as Golf Courses; Public Parks (or both) and Private Estates.

Twilight of the Ascendency

Bence-Jones has defined the ‘Ascendency’ as ‘the Lords and Landlords and their families ‘that held political power up to circa 1880.

Mitchell (als. Abbé MacGheoghegan) in his ‘History of Ireland from the Treaty of Limerick’ surmises that six sevenths of Ireland supported 13,000 Estates, many with Demesne Land (and associated Mansion).

Both Elizabeth Bowen (‘Bowen Court’) and Mannix Joyce (‘Atlacca and Dromin Parish’), in their scholarly research, trace the origins of land confiscation and regrant during the Cromwellian and Williamite periods – in the former, Cromwell unilaterally granted away millions of Irish acres in lieu of payment to his army. In the latter, land was conveyed by ‘Crown Grant’ – in both instances, grantees covenanted to maintain and promote the ‘English Lifestyle’ and sublet only to ‘Loyal Unionists’. (In the manner of ‘Propter Decorum’, enunciated by the Norman Conquerors of Britain during the 11th – 14th centuries). ‘Proper Decorum’ extended to the specific style and design of the grantees’ landholdings under the Emparkment Statutes. In the summary ‘Munster Blackwater’, we traced the introduction of the English Beechtree to Ireland via the Earl of Wicklow’s Nurseries at Shelton Abbey during the 1680s – by the 1740s we note Beech, in addition to both small leaved Lime (and Tilia X europea) and Spanish Chestnut being planted in the ‘replicated’ English landscapes.

Tree-lined Avenues, themselves symbolic of an indefinitely ‘secure’ future for the ‘Anglican-Irish’ appear during the latter reign of George III – and take off in the 1830s (Victoria). Participants were introduced to the 1794 publication by Samuel Hayes who laid out Avondale Demesne (County Wicklow), whose descendant C. S. Parnell inherited (‘Coppicing and Woodland Management in Ireland’). In his tours and recording of many Irish private Parks from 1760s, he notes a predisposition for Ash; Oak and Spanish Chestnut – but he deplores the practice of grazing coppiced lands and general failure to fence out livestock.

Parnell, incidentally, was the descendant of the Mayor of Congleton, Chesire (a draper) who purchased an Estate in Ireland c. 1660, from Cromwell’s confiscations.

Coolattin Estate in South County Wicklow

Hayes’ ‘model Irish Estate’ was the 56,000 acre Coolattin Estate in South County Wicklow, a ‘coppice with Standards’ Forest regime. (see photo of Coolattin House with its’ 124 rooms at the heart of the Demesne). But the ‘Cult of Appearances’ allied with the Ascendency’s scandalous Private Luxury in an island reduced to Public Squalor, was ipse facto doomed to disintegrate.

Because ‘Title’ to succession was contingent on producing a Male Heir (Condition Precedent), and in an earlier summary (Castlefreke Estate) we observed that entitlement could proceed through a ‘son- in-law’ who adopted the Family name, the principle of ‘Propter Decorum’ demanded the Male Heir Apparent serve in the Crown Forces abroad (e.g. America 1777; Crimea and the Boer War in South Africa).

Progressively, fewer Male Successors-in-title were returning from battlefields.

The ‘Body Blow’ to the ‘Ascendency Landscape’ was the ‘Great Hunger’ of ‘Black 47’ – though, as shared with our listeners, Famine and associated Typhoid and Cholera had already surfaced in 1818 and 1833 in Munster.

Between the obscene excesses of the Landed Class and their ravenous Middlemen and the imposition of Church Tithes (levied by Proctors), the Tenants in their millions were bereft of the wherewithal to pay rents to the ‘Big House’.

Under the 1849 ‘Encumbered Estates Act’, 10,655 Estates went to the wall by 1870. In 1852 there remained 700 Landlords with Estates in excess of 5,000 acres, who owned half of Ireland’s 20 million acres (more correctly 48% of the island).

A newly emergent British Merchant Class acquired many Irish Estates, under the 1849 statute, at knock down prices – and being entrepreneurs, the first to go were the valuable hardwoods – the former late Medieval Parklands were cleared for Cattle ranching. Dr. E. McCracken’s published papers of 1954 and in a subsequent masterly contribution to the Cork Historical and Archaeological Journal, describes ‘the Holocaust of Trees’.

Gladstone’s Land Acts (at Parnell’s behest) laid the blueprint for the breakup of Estates during the 1880s (with Windham’s 1903 Land Act to follow). Freehold titles became vested in the Tenant farmers – many of whom had long associated hardwoods with Landlordism. The ‘Holocaust of Trees’ accelerated. Shamefully we read in an account of the Sale and clear-felling of Castlefreke’s Old Growth Oakwoods, valued at £3000 during 1920 (‘Jasper Wolfe of Skibbereen’. Collins Press. 2008).

Recalling Samuel Hayes’ appeal in 1794 to all shades and aspirations within ‘Irish Life’ – ‘we can never be too careful of the Trees we already possess’, one of the first enactments by our New State in 1923 provided for the Compulsory Acquisition of the remaining Estates and Demesnes – but with little or no provision for Tree Preservation.

Clearly it was this 1923 Statute that prompted scores of Ireland’s remaining Landed Families to gift their Estates to the State or directly sell to syndicates – in the hope that their ancestral ‘Old Homes’ would be preserved in perpetuity. Among the leading Anglican Irish Families to ‘surrender’ their Demesnes in 1924, were Lady Gregory of Coole Park and Olive, Lady Ardilaun of Macroom Castle, who sold at a nominal price. Killarney National Park was bequeathed the State by the Bourne- Vincents and latterly the Smith-Barry sisters (Evlyn and Rosemary) placed their ancestral Fota Island Demesne in Trust, as did the De Courtenays their Newcastle West Parklands in County Limerick.

The large crowd who attended the Ascendency Landscapes talk by Ted Cook in Macroom Library

VETERAN TREE ECOLOGY:

As Peterken and Rackham have observed, trees within the Forest rarely reach over-maturity (veteranisation) due to the natural and intense competition within such ecosystems.

Ireland’s remaining ‘Ancient’ and ‘Veteran’ Tree resource are to be found in our former ‘Ascendency Landscapes’ – they grow as solitary Specimens mainly. What do we understand when Rackham (The Ash Tree 2014) writes – ‘one 200-year-old Ash can be a series of ecosystems for which 10,000 x 50 year old ashes are of no use at all’? Again in his 1986 publication of ‘Trees and Woodlands’, Rackham, as the acknowledged Global authority on ‘Historic Ecology’, tells us that one ancient Oaktree supports more Biodiversity than 5,000 x 100 year old Oaks.

In his 2016 (English translation) ‘Hidden Life of Trees’, P. Wohlleben provides ample science that demonstrates how senescent (O.A.P.) Trees impart disease resistance and climate adaptability to an upcoming generation; mycorrhizally (nutrient-sharing and messaging via root networks). As he says ‘A 500 year old Tree has surely had few surprises in its life’.

The function of Fungus in nature is to break down dying organic materials – none so visible as the Decomposer Fungi on dead and dying Trees that drive the ‘Growth and Decay’ dynamic. (Saprophytes – Sapro = Decay). Relays of progressively rare and vulnerable Saprophytes, associated only with veteranising Trees alongside Decomposer Insects (Saproxylic), many of them ‘Red Data’ Long-horned Beetles found only in the rotting trunks – (whose larvae can take several years to develop) are critical to Woodland Continuity.

But ‘keystone’ Saproxylic Insects are not endowed with mobility – few can fly or walk. Hence, successive habitats for our rarest Veteran Tree occupants are utterly dependent on our zero tampering. The ‘Call of the Forest’ urges us to ‘not just do something – sit there’. Consequently, Ireland’s ‘Ascendency Landscapes’, apart from being the ‘Jewel’ of Irish Tourism (and in time Eco- Tourism, the fastest growing ‘spend’ on the Planet), are home to species that the Global Forest loses at Life’s universal peril.

All development should contribute to Nature’s recovery – our 2014 Forestry Act (enacted May 2016) has failed our Veteranising and Dying Pillars of Nature regardless that the Act purports to preserve all Trees over 150 years old but exempts Dead Trees; Dangerous Trees; Trees impacting on the E.S.B. network; Trees within 30 metres of a house; Trees within Urban Districts and County Boroughs; Trees that impeded road maintenance, etc., from this 150 year rule. O.P.W. drainage Schemes are exempt.

In conclusion – ‘Many Trees in cities and forests worldwide are in trouble. Insects, diseases and pollution are not the major causes. The major causes are mistreatments by man. Mistreatments are linked to misunderstandings about Trees. Give Wildlife a chance’ (Alex Shigo, 1984).

Written by Ted Cook, transcribed by Conor Nelligan

(Talk lasted 105 minutes - author acknowledges Library Service)

The planting of a Limetree following the talk at Macroom Library

Ascendency Landscapes – Post Notes

In early Feudal Law, inheritance followed Primogeniture – where the first born male was entitled to succession. The legal devise of a ‘Will’ did not exist. A deceased landowner’s Widow enjoyed a ‘Life Interest’ in one third of the Estate under Feudal Dower.

Throughout the Period of Confiscation and Resettlement (late 16th – mid 18th century), the ‘Planters’ held land under ‘Entail’ where each succeeding Male Heir held his Estate in trust for his first born son.

‘Noblesse Obligé’ was introduced during the Library presentation. As practiced among the French Aristocracy and adopted by the Normans (having settled and established the Dukedom of Normandy), the ‘Nobility’s Obligations included Benevolence towards the lower tiers of Feudal Society. The ‘Big House’ certainly adhered to ‘Propter Decorum’ – less so ‘Noblesse Obligé’.

Several Estates in Ireland, North and South, remain in the same Families since time immemorial, e.g. Slane Castle Estate (Coyninhams); Birr Castle Demesne (Rosse/Parsons); Curraghmore, County Waterford (Beresford-De Paors); Westport House (Brownes); Florencecourt (Fermanagh) and Baronscourt (Tyrone); Doneraile Court (St. Ledgers)’ Carton Estate (Mahons); Castletown House Demesne (Fitzgeralds) are examples of Estates that were acquired by the State – also Woodstock and Mount Congreve (County Kilkenny). Ballyseedy (Blennerhassetts) near Tralee was acquired mainly by Public Subscription in 1993 and now vests in the Local Authority under Forest Service Management. Several former Estates are designated S.A.C. (Special Area of Conservation) – these vast once private enclosures evolved as Nature Refugia, e.g. Killarney National Park’s Old Growth Oakwoods; Glenveagh National Park, County Donegal (respectively the Herberts and Adares). In Northern Ireland Lissan (Cookstown); Mount Stewart (County Down); Belvoir (near Belfast) and Gosford Park, among many, provide Public Amenity to their local Communities.

Austin Clarke’s elegant capture of these ‘Ornaments’ is apt – ‘for the house of the Planter is known by the Trees’.