Westport Eco-Congregation, an ecumenical group representing St Mary’s Church and Holy Trinity Church, Westport organised a Tree Walk on Sunday 12 June 2016. Westport Eco-Congregation is in the process of applying for an Eco-Congregation Ireland Award and has been visited by Sr. Catherine Brennan, Catholic representative on the ECI committee. Muriel Barry from the Westport ECI group provided us with this report of their Tree Walk event in Westport.
A Journey of Discovery on the Mall Tree Trail, Westport
Sunday, 12th June, was a bright sunny day in Westport with the musical hum of the ‘Hooley’ in Westport House drifting on the air. About 25 adults and children joined Eco-Congregation after 12pm mass to discover the Tree Trail on the Mall.
The Tree Trail was created by Westport Tourism Organisation with the support of the Town Council. Dr Sue Iremonger identified the trees for the project.
People set off along the trail beginning at No.1, a Sycamore, opposite the Presbytery. Every tree had a black label with a number and then the common name, Latin name and Irish name of the trees.
Our Eco-Congregation group issued Tree Trail activity sheets to everyone who attended and pens to those without. The exercise was to read down through the activity sheet of 13 questions relating to the trees. Then they had to begin at No.1 and make their way along the South Mall to the Fairgreen and back along the North Mall to the last tree, No.70, a Whitebeam, opposite Tuohy O’Toole Auctioneers. All the time, they were discovering the trees by the river and looking for answers to clues in the activity sheet. Tree Trail answer sheets were also supplied.
Acquaintances were made and people ambled along talking and laughing while on a journey of discovery together. What was there to discover? Well, many people, though local, didn’t know the trees had labels to identify them. They never guessed that there could be almost 70 trees along the North and South Mall. They were amazed that there could be 18 different sorts of trees. Many didn’t know that there is a board across the street from the Post Office with a town map on one side and a board of images and information about native Irish Trees on the other side.
Most importantly of all, people don’t usually have time in the day-to-day running around that has to be done to look at the trees by the Carrowbeg River and really enjoy the beauty they have to offer. Of course, that beauty changes with the seasons, so it is fair to say that the trees keep giving right through the year.
At the end of the activity, people said how much they had enjoyed themselves and the company and fun of the people they were with. Two men, Tony King and Frank Murphy, met for the first time at the starting point. They joined up to do the activity and an hour later, they were still to be found approaching trees and making notes with the thoroughness and dedication of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson!
We were fortunate that the day was so good for the activity. It helped people to relax and enjoy it. The only lesson to be learned was in future, I think, we would probably hold it after the evening mass on a Saturday. The reason for this is that we found, on the Sunday, that the number of people who joined us was relatively small. After 12pm mass, families are preoccupied with getting Sunday lunch sorted before family members scatter to matches and events going on in the locality.
We are already looking forward to holding a Tree Trail in the autumn when the trees will have a whole new display for us with the change of season. We also hope to have copies of the Tree Trail (with answers) available at locations in the town centre so that locals and visitors can pick up a copy at a time of their choosing and go on their own journey of discovery!
‘Trees‘ a poem by Joyce Kilmer.