By Bill Power
The recent felling of seventy trees in the centre of Mitchelstown is a loss that should have the community screaming with outrage. That’s what happened back in January 1901, when 31 young lime trees were cut down in George Street at a time when the town was surrounded by hundreds of acres of native trees.
Two nights later, a public meeting was convened in the Town Hall by the parish priest, the Venerable Archdeacon William Rice, to denounce what he described as ‘a wanton and dastardly outrage’ committed on the townspeople. Leading members of the community, including all his curates, solicitors, doctors, bankers, shopkeepers, farmers and even the Church of Ireland rector, joined in a chorus of protest, which, with their names, was reported in the ‘Cork Examiner’.
The good and patriotic Archdeacon described the tree-cutting as ‘a villainous outrage committed by some wretch’.
Full story in this week’s Print & Digital Edition
