“Save the Trees of Ireland”: Ulysses and Ireland’s Imagined and Actual Arboreal Narrative

Donal Magner and Brendan Lacey explore James Joyce’s approach to trees and forestry in Ulysses in Avondale on June 15 and in the National Botanic Gardens on June 16. Entitled “Save the Trees of Ireland,” Magner and Lacey explore the arboreal reality and fantasy in Ulysses from the imagined conversations in Barney Kiernan’s public house to Avondale where the rebirth of forestry was actually taking 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, Co. Wicklow, is being purchased by the State, which begins a new chapter “to reafforest the land.”

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 in the Phoenix Park. This was a tipping point to Ireland 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 the nation’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,” by 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 explores.

Both talks begin at 2.30pm in the Coillte Pavilion Avondale on Sunday, 15 June and the National Botanic Gardens on Monday 16 June. There is no admission charge.