Cork's 'robot trees' removed after years of criticism and high costs
The CityTrees, moss-filled, high-tech air purifiers installed in 2021 – were taken down early this morning from their locations outside Dubray Books on Patrick Street and the City Library on Grand Parade. While the devices are gone, their hexagonal wooden bases remain, continuing to serve as public benches, which many locals have long joked was their most useful function.
Billed as sustainable 'moss walls' designed to filter fine dust from the air, the five CityTrees were installed by Cork City Council at a cost of €355,000, funded through a €55 million National Transport Authority scheme aimed at promoting cleaner air and greener transport. The German-designed units were said to clean the equivalent of air breathed by up to 7,000 people per hour. Cork City's much-criticised 'robot trees' have been removed, bringing an end to a four-year saga of controversy, mounting maintenance costs, and persistent questions over their effectiveness. Pic: Cork City Council
However, from the outset, the structures were dogged by controversy.
In 2023, a University College Cork (UCC) report, commissioned at a cost of €2,500, failed to find conclusive evidence that the devices meaningfully improved air quality, in part due to readings being taken on low-pollution days.
Atmospheric scientist Dr. Dean Venables of UCC had previously warned that while the CityTrees might have a limited localised effect, they were unlikely to have any real impact on citywide air quality. Pic: Cork City Council
Labour councillor Peter Horgan went further, calling the devices 'the most expensive benches ever purchased by a local authority' and slamming the lack of transparency around their purchase. 'We'd have been far better off planting real trees,' he said, describing the moss machines as 'monstrosities with LED screens.'
The annual upkeep of the units added fuel to the fire, costing the council over €17,000 each year. Frustration grew among elected members, who said they were kept in the dark about the decision to purchase the devices, with some resorting to Freedom of Information requests to uncover cost and maintenance details.
For now, what's left behind in Cork is not cleaner air, but five pricey wooden platforms, reminders of an ambitious project that never quite took root.
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RTÉ News
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Irish Examiner
04-08-2025
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Daniel MacCarthy Glas, whose donated archive will be unveiled in the Cork City and County Archives in Blackpool later this month as part of the Daniel MacCarthy Glas Archive and Exhibition. The collection comprises an estimated 1,500 unique items including personal letters, manuscripts, photographs and drawings from Daniel and other family members. HISTORY HUB If you are interested in this article then no doubt you will enjoy exploring the various history collections and content in our history hub. Check it out HERE and happy reading 'The scope of the collection is immense, documenting a range of topics — from the MacCarthy aristocratic lineage, to 19th century poetry and historiography, the Irish nationalist movement, the history of early modern Ireland, the French Revolution of 1848, the British Empire in India and South Africa, emigration, and the Great Famine and its dire impact on the local population in West Cork,' Mr McGee said. However, it includes one document Mr McGee described as of 'immense cultural and historical significance' — a 1784 family pedigree of the Gaelic prince Jeremiah MacCarthy (Diarmuid an Dúna) compiled by the famous poet/schoolmaster John Collins of Myross, known as 'the last bard of Munster'. Written on parchment in a combination of both Irish and English, the pedigree bears the wax seal of John Butler, a former bishop of Cork and later Baron Dunboyne, who was a controversial figure. Historian Michelle O'Mahony and senior Cork City Council archivist Brian McGee with two of the collection of paintings which have been donated to the State as part of the archive. Experts say it is one of very few original manuscripts in existence from Collins or any other Gaelic scholar from the period. The pedigree has been subject to a detailed process of transcription and interpretation by Cornelius Buttimer, formerly of UCC. Daniel MacCarthy Glas's family was directly descended from the princes of Carbery, the MacCarthy Reaghs and the MacCarthy Glas, based at Togher Castle near Dunmanway in Co Cork — the 'Glas' differentiating this branch of the MacCarthys from others in the region. His grandfather emigrated from Cork to England in 1763, and Daniel was born into a wealthy Irish Catholic shipping and coal merchant family in London in 1807. Educated to a high standard, he was very well-read and well-travelled, was a fluent Irish speaker, and took a major interest in his ancestry and in Irish history, writing two important books: The Life and Letters of Florence MacCarthy Reagh (1867); and A Historical Pedigree of the Sliochd Feidhlimidh, the MacCarthys of Gleannacroim (1875). He contributed historical articles to The Nation and various journals during the Irish historical awakening of the 19th century. Senior Cork City Council archivist Brian McGee and historian Michelle O'Mahony — who helped secure the Daniel MacCarthy Glas archive from the US — with some of the paintings which have been donated to the State. Many of his works involved painstaking research through State papers and other records, and he was in regular and detailed correspondence with celebrated Cork historian Richard Caulfield, the first librarian at UCC, and with a large circle of other Irish antiquarians, archaeologists, and early pioneers of Irish scholarship during the Irish historical awakening of the 19th century. He was also a noted philanthropist, sponsoring the education of students in Dunmanway, helping Catholic institutions, and helping to preserve historic buildings and monuments such as Togher Castle and St Patrick's Church in his native Dunmanway. Some of his family were poets and writers, and some held important positions, reflecting the fact that they intermarried with the British elite. His father-in-law, for example, was Rear-Admiral Home Riggs Popham, who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He invented a flag signal code adopted by the British royal navy in 1803, which was used by British naval hero Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar to keep navy tactics secret. Daniel was very close to his daughter-in-law, Alice, who kept all his letters, writings, notes, and notebooks. The archive then made its way to Oregon over a century ago, where it was kept safe by later generations, finally ending up with a descendant, Susan MacCarthy, who agreed in 2017 to donate it to the state. Mr McGee said the complex process of repatriating the archive was started a number of years ago, and it was successfully concluded thanks to the efforts of Dunmanway historian Michelle O'Mahony, Mervyn O'Driscoll of the school of history at UCC, Nigel McCarthy of the McCarthy DNA Project, and the archivists of the Cork City and County Archives Service. Ms O'Mahony said she is delighted the collection is ready to be unveiled. 'It is of immense importance to Cork City, Cork county, nationally, and internationally. There was a lot of work involved in cataloguing it, and I'm just delighted to see it finally going on display,' she said.
