There is talk of a Millennium Forest being planted. Many countries, no doubt, have the same idea. But first, might we not put some thought and a quick bit of work, into the idea of a forest to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the setting up of this State? Many of those who took the anti-Free State side, even, could see the virtue of a forest to mark a major over turning after 700 years or so.
Some old timers used to refer to those centuries, naturally and sincerely, as The Captivity.
And when Dev came into power in 1952, as several of our historians have told us, he was surprised to find what work had been done. Dev pushed a bit harder, some will claim, to develop the Treaty position. In Geneva, at the League of Nations, he would be as conscious as his predecessors in that city of the great experiment that we were not there to carry on the argument with our neighbour but, as one put it "while we might be rather conscious of our hard won freedom and independence, we were also Europeans, representing an ancient Nation and were prepared to deal with every problem on its merits. Anything less than this would have been a betrayal of the character and will of the Nation."
And in the case of this plantation, we could remember. "And the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations." Just now there is greenery all around us, some claiming that the tenderest colour is that of the beech leaf, others cherishing the oak. Many are just developing in sheltered places. And, of course, the not so elegant horse chestnut is quite magnificent in the long lines through the main road in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. A few years ago a woman now living in Australia wrote asking for a picture of these in bloom as her souvenir of Dublin. Bushes are showing too, and the elder is even pushing out bunches of flower buds.
Good news for Michael Coote, President of the Alzheimer Society, who is, when off duty, a splendid maker of not only elder flower wine but also of elderberry wine. And generous with it. The first should be kept for one year, the second for two, if you can wait. But tomorrow, May Day, is tea day, as you all know. Get your neighbours to pay a pound or more for a cup of tea with you, and send it on.
With as much extra as possible. They're in the phone book.