Speakers and Abstracts
Dr Eoin Lettice
Biography
Eoin is a Lecturer in plant science and Principal Investigator at the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Science (BEES) and the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) at University College Cork. His research interests include plant pathology, biological control, soil biology, sustainable agriculture as well as the role of urban trees and green spaces. He is PI and Co-PI on a number of ongoing projects in the areas of sustainable agriculture and urban trees/green spaces. His research has been funded by the Irish Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, Department of Agriculture and Enterprise Ireland, amongst others. Eoin is Co-PI on the "UCC Open Arboretum Project" and the Research Ireland-funded "Irish Tree Explorers Network" projects which make use of the accredited UCC Arboretum for research, teaching and outreach. Eoin is a vocal advocate for urban trees.
Dr Claire Nolan
Biography
Claire is a postdoctoral researcher on the ITEN project, specialising in public archaeology, cultural heritage and landscape studies. Her research explores the social and ecocultural value of the historic environment. Drawing on her academic and professional background in both archaeology and psychotherapy, her work seeks in particular to gain a greater understanding of how heritage assets directly influence individual lived experience, wellbeing and environmental awareness. In this connection, Claire has a special interest in the archaeology and cultural heritage of trees.
Mary Dillon
Biography
Mary Dillon is the coordinator of the Heritage Keepers programme for Burrenbeo Trust. Mary has a broad interest in all aspects of heritage. She has a degree and masters in Archaeology from NUI Galway and has worked in many different aspects of archaeology from excavations to archaeobotany. Mary is passionate about environmental issues and biodiversity and has a PG Diploma in Environmental Protection from Sligo IT and a certificate in Field Ecology from UCC.
Abstract/Title
Practical, Sacred and Enduring: Trees and Wood in the Archaeological Record
Trees have played a vital role in human societies throughout history, providing not only essential resources but also deep cultural and spiritual significance. This presentation delves into the archaeological evidence of the various roles trees and wood played, examining how pollen analysis and preserved wood remains shed light on the evolution of Ireland’s forests and the ways past societies managed and utilized woodland resources. Wood was essential in everyday life, used in tools, dwellings, transport, and as fuel. Waterlogged sites, such as crannógs and trackways, preserve remarkable wooden artifacts, offering insight into crafts and technology. Beyond practical use, trees held symbolic and ritual importance, evident in archaeological records, historical texts and mythology. By examining archaeological and environmental evidence, we can better understand the vital relationship between past societies and trees.
Niamh Guiry
Biography
Niamh Guiry is a PhD Scholar at the School of Law, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, jointly funded by Taighde Éireann-Research Ireland and the Environmental Protection Agency. Her PhD research explores the interrelationship between the SDGs, global environmental governance, and evolving patterns of international law-making and seeks to evaluate the effect of the SDGs on the implementation, interpretation, and elaboration of international law. Niamh holds a BSc in Microbiology and an LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. She is currently an Assistant Lecturer at the UCC School of Law and a Research Fellow with Earth Systems Governance.
Abstract/Title
Using Ireland’s Past to Rethink Our Relationship with Trees
Prof Finola O'Kane
Biography
Finola O'Kane is a landscape historian, architect, and Professor at the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy, University College Dublin. Her books include the prizewinning Landscape Design in Eighteenth-Century Ireland: Mixing Foreign Trees with the Natives (Cork, 2004), Ireland and the Picturesque: Design, Landscape Painting, and Tourism, 1700–1840 (PMC/Yale, 2013) and the recent Landscape design and revolution in Ireland and the United States 1688-1815 (PMC/Yale, June, 2023). She has also published widely on eighteenth-century Dublin, Irish urban and suburban history and plantation landscapes, with the co-edited volume Ireland, slavery and the Caribbean: Interdisciplinary perspectives published in 2023 by Manchester University Press. She was elected a member of the RIA in 2017 and has recently been appointed one of six Senior Fellows of Dumbarton Oaks for 2024-2027 by the Trustees of Harvard University.
Abstract/Title
Kilcash Castle and Coole Park; framing the tangible and intangible heritages of two great designed Irish woodlands
Ireland has a long and rich bilingual arboricultural tradition. Trees have inspired poems and songs in both Irish and English and literature has exerted a reciprocal effect on landscape design, interpretation and representation.
The famed woods of Tipperary's Kilcash Castle, both a great Butler landscape and a great poem in Irish, remains a place where a fruitful exchange of designed woodland and two languages occurred. Coole park, once acclaimed for how its trees framed views of wild swans, now conceals those vistas with Coillte plantations. This paper seeks to understand the linked legacies of trees, language and landscape design at these two important national sites. It will address how the assessment of a country's heritage might accommodate more of such present and past woodlands, which remain a highly significant, if sometimes intangible, aspect of Ireland's cultural identity
Dr Barbara Doyle Prestwich
Biography
Barbara is a Plant Biotechnologist and currently Head of Plant Science in UCC. Her research is focused on Sustainable Crop Food Production, the medicinal value of plants and the value of plants in society more broadly. Her interest in the importance of STEAM literacy in society began > 20 years ago when she worked with the ‘Bridging the Gap’ program in UCC in 2004. To date she has worked with 00s of members of the public on STEAM-related outreach activities. Over the years, she has mentored students in the BT Young Scientist competition, published in the Irish Times, Irish Examiner, RTE Brainstorm, Agriland, Farmers’ Journal and contributed to two TV programmes. Her STEAM-based outreach activities have been funded by UCC Green Campus, Research Ireland and the European Union. She led the team that won the University Cross Campus Award for STEAM activities in 2023. And more recently in her outreach activities she has partnered with the CRESPO Foundation, The Crawford Art Gallery, The Glucksman Gallery, Tree Council of Ireland, Coillte, National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Office of Public Works.
Abstract/Title
Branching Out: How Trees Cultivate STEAM Literacy
Dr Darach Lupton
Biography
Darach Lupton is Curator of the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Kilmacurragh and the JFK Arboretum and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Botany at Trinity College Dublin.
Darach graduated from the School of Horticulture at the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland in 1998; he went on to study Botany at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 2002. He remained at Trinity were he completed his PhD. in 2007.
In early 2011 Darach moved to the Sultanate of Oman, where for 10-years he managed the department of Botany and Conservation at the Oman Botanic Garden; he established a national programme for ethnobotanical research in Oman, collected many thousands of plants, discovered many new botanical records and described two species new to science.
Darach has worked in numerous exciting parts of the world including Belize, Guyana, Uganda, Tanzania, North America, Jordan, Oman and of course Ireland. These experiences have fuelled his passion for the promotion of botanic gardens and horticulture as essential tools for global plant conservation.
Abstract/Title
Ancient Giants: A look at the History, Diversity and Conservation Challenges of the World’s Conifers
Dr Niall Farrelly
Biography
Dr Niall Farrelly is a Senior research officer with Teagasc with over 25 years’ experience working in the area of applied forest ecology with the aim to provide a greater understanding of the ecological relationships of forest ecosystems, and the basis for managing these sustainably.
I am a National coordinator of notable of notable DAFM funded projects, GeneSIS, FitForests and AdaptFores. His research covers model forest and tree species suitability, yield and response to environmental change, particularly climate change adaptation, forest resilience and climate change. Dr Farrelly has instructed and trained students in various aspects of post graduate training and he has a passion for all things trees and the outdoors.
Abstract/Title
An appreciation of trees and forests and their role in climate change adaptation
Sarah Hourigan
Biography
Sarah Hourigan has a background in applied psychology, health research, nature-based therapies (i.e. forest bathing, forest therapy, wild therapy & ecopsychology) and is passionate about making the outdoors as accessible and inclusive as possible. Sarah is the current National Woodlands and Nature Project Lead working with Mental Health Ireland, closely supported by Get Ireland Walking, Coillte and other partners to deliver and grow the Woodlands for Health programme & to promote a culture of nature-based wellbeing through other exciting projects across Ireland.
Abstract/Title
The Impact of the Woodlands for Health Programme
Woodlands for Health (WFH) is a 12-week woodland-based guided walking programme for adults availing of mental health services and supports in Ireland. WFH is an accessible and sustainable way to engage with nature, as part of a toolkit for supporting mental health and well-being. The national partners of WFH are Get Ireland Walking, Mental Health Ireland, and Coillte, and it is facilitated by additional programme partners through local steering groups. This presentation will outline the programme’s origins in 2012 and its development into a national initiative aimed at enhancing mental health through nature-based interventions. The presentation will also provide an overview of the programme’s design, the collaborative model employed to engage participants, previous evaluations and plans for the expansion and sustainability of the programme throughout 2025.
Dr Susannah Chapman
Biography
Susannah Chapman is a Lecturer in Sociocultural Anthropology at University College Cork. Trained as an environmental and legal anthropologist, she has a keen interest in plant-human relations, food systems, and environmental governance. Her work asks questions about the signification and care of plants but also the coloniality, biopolitics, and translational practices of contemporary efforts to regulate, conserve, and transform plant life, including trees. Her interest in these questions is rooted in a general fascination with plants and her prior experience working on many different kinds of farms, from diverse polycultures to simplified monocultures, across the United States. She has written on the loss and recuperation of apple tree diversity in the United States, the propertization of horticultural supply chains in Australia, and the regulation of plant life in The Gambia.
Abstract/Title
Between the generic and the specific: Reflections on naming and knowing trees
Ray Ó Foghlú
Biography
Ray is Hometree Project Lead on the Wild Atlantic Rainforest Project. He also delivers Hometrees farm Forest programmes, where he works directly with farmers to integrate native trees into their farm systems. He is a woodland conservationist. His background is in Environmental Science, specialising in Forests and Water Quality. He worked for a decade with An Taisce, Ireland’s National Trust, on various environmental programs. He is a contemporary Nuffield Scholar, with the research topic “Acquiring Social License to return Trees to the Irish Landscape.” Last year, he co- authored “Under Summer pastures,” a book about Ireland’s remnant temperate rainforests. He has a regular feature in the Irish Farmers Journal talking about native trees and biodiversity.
Abstract/Title
When it comes to trees, the problems are rarely technical, they are cultural
Gabriella Chisholm
Biography
Gabriella Chisholm is a research assistant for the ITEN project. She is graduated from UCC with a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Environmental Science. She has a background in Environmental Consultancy, with a expertise in environmental impact assessment and is a graduate member of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management. Gabriella has a special interest in sustainability and engaging people with environmental science through the medium of trees.
Dr Rosari Kingston
Biography
Dr. Rosari Kingston specialises in integrative herbal medicine, with a special emphasis on Irish traditional medicine. With an M.Sc. in herbal medicine and a PhD focusing on Irish vernacular medicine, she bridges traditional knowledge and modern science. Dr. Kingston teaches about the Irish Healing Tradition at the Department of Folklore & Ethnology, University College Cork. She is a member of the Irish Institute of Medical Herbalists. Dr. Kingston’s research integrates scientific studies with traditional wisdom, as evidenced by her book "Ireland's Hidden Medicine" and numerous peer-reviewed publications. Her unique perspective combines academic rigour with an appreciation for folk healing practices.
Abstract/Title
The Ash Tree in Irish Traditional Medicine: Historical and Medicinal Significance
The ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior), deeply embedded in Irish cultural heritage, exemplifies the vital relationship between humans and trees. From its sacred status in 8th-century Brehon law to its extensive therapeutic applications documented in the National Folklore Schools Collection, the ash demonstrates remarkable versatility in traditional medicine, particularly for treating rheumatism. Modern scientific research validates these traditional uses, with studies confirming its anti-inflammatory properties. As we face challenges like ash dieback, this tree's story emphasises the importance of preserving traditional ecological knowledge and understanding our ancestral connections to trees, which can inform modern therapeutic solutions and sustainable practices.
Sophia Meeres
Biography
Sophia is a landscape architect, tree lover and mapper, with expertise in planning for trees outside the forest. She has advised a number of local authorities on development of county tree management strategies and teaches about Irish trees and woodlands, biodiversity and landscape at UCD. Sophia is currently heading an initiative on UCD’s own campus trees, funded by the UCD office for sustainability and co-organizing a project on ‘trees outside the forest’ supported by UCD Earth Institute. She is currently working with the Tree Council of Ireland to address the need for better policy and planning for trees.
Abstract/Title
Planning for Trees in Ireland