Bloomsday in Wicklow: Foresters to explore trees in Joyce's Ulysses
Titled Save the Trees of Ireland, the presentation was written by local Donal Magner, who will be joined by fellow forester Brendan Lacey, for the talk which explores James Joyce's unique approach to trees and forestry.
The pair will trace the arboreal reality and fantasy in Ulysses from the imagined conversations in Barney Kiernan's public house in Little Britain Street, Dublin to Avondale where the rebirth of forestry was actually taking place on 16 June 1904, the day in which the events in Ulysses take place.
Trees are repeatedly referenced in Ulysses, often reflecting the parlous nature of Irish forestry in 1904. The talk delves into Joyce's arboreal world and transposes the narrative to what was actually happening to rescue Ireland's vastly depleted forests at the time. While the customers in Barney Kiernan's public house in Dublin are bemoaning the decline of Irish forests in the 'Cyclops' episode of Ulysses, Avondale Estate is actually being purchased by the State, which begins a new chapter 'to reafforest the land'.
Donal has worked in the public and private sector with the forest service, Coillte and, since 1993, as forestry consultant and forestry editor of the Irish Farmers Journal. He was also a recipient of the RDS-Forest Service Judges' Special Award in 2012 for his contribution to Irish forestry. He is also the environment chair of Rotary Ireland and project manager of Wood Awards Ireland, which promotes sustainable wood use in architecture, engineering and design.
Donal said: 'Joyce was well aware of what was happening at the time to restore Ireland's forest resource not just in Ulysses but also in an essay written on Home Rule in Trieste in 1907. Joyce also writes about the 1903 'cyclone' – as he called it – in the novel and the damage caused especially to trees throughout Ireland.
'This was a tipping point in forest destruction and as a result Professor John Nisbet of the West of Scotland Agriculture College was commissioned by the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction to produce a report on the state of Ireland's forests. Prof Nisbet was shocked by the damage caused by the storm and when he delivered his report, he made an important and visionary proposal, which would shape Irish forest policy for the rest of the century.
'Nisbet said that if the afforestation of Ireland 'be a duty at all, it is the duty of the State and not of the private landowner'. So, the cry to 'save the trees of Ireland,' the fictitious character the 'Citizen' in Barney Kiernan's pub was being met in reality as the first tentative steps to restore Ireland's forests were being taken, which the talk recounts often hilariously as Joyce threw the names of exotic and native species into the novel. These trees can all be found in Avondale.'
Donal and Brendan will discuss the uncertain narrative of Irish forestry leading up to 1922, when Ulysses was published as Ireland emerged from the ravages of the War of Independence and the Civil War. The story is brought up-to-date in the Coillte Pavilion, close to Avondale house, the ancestral home of Charles Stewart Parnell, who features prominently in Joyce's novels.
The talk begins at 2.30pm on Sunday, June 15, in the Coillte Pavilion, and will be repeated on Bloomsday on Monday, June 16, in the National Botanic Gardens, Dublin, also at 2.30pm. Admission is free for both events.
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