Back in 1999 a little tree made a very big name for its self, when workmen downed tools, refusing to chop down a little Hawthorn tree, believing it to be a fairy tree.
The building project was a multi-million pound motorway project. The Clare County Council were forced to alter the course of the motorway to accommodate the fairy tree, because of the widely held belief that to chop down the tree would bring very bad look on whoever did this.
This isn't the first time that is has happened either.
Twenty years earlier on a massive factory project was brought to a stand still when machinery broke down on several occasions while trying to remove another fairy tree. This was eventually relocated to a nearby field.
There are many such stories of people refusing to cut down fair trees because of the widely held belief that something bad could happen.
The story of how foresters from Ulster tried to chop down a skiough, a fairy bush, only to break their hatchets on the sacred bush at every attempt is another. But where did these come from?
The Celts were well known for their respect for the natural world, but they had a special place in their hearts for trees, believing that the souls of the dead waited in them until they were reincarnated.
In Germany if you we're caught even damaging Royal trees, the punishment was to replace the damaged part of the tree with your own flesh.
Even the Celtic written language, Ogham, is represented by different trees, a different species for each letter.
Ogham seems to either be a variant of the runic systems or the Roman alphabet, although some believe it could have originated from a form of sign language. Originally only consisting of twenty letters, five extra were added at a later date.
Ogham was at one time said to be used for divination this was called Crannchun or "casting the woods", as each represented letter was marked onto a twig from its corresponding tree. Another variation of this was to use a bag, shaking the marked twigs before drawing out one in answer to a question asked to them.
Thirteen of the fifteen consonants are associated with the Beth-Luis-Nion tree calendar.
To the Celts every tree was sacred, symbolising the cosmic tree, which represented the three planes of existence.
Wherever three trees were found entwined, growing as one, was considered to be an extremely sacred place to both the Celts and Druids. Many people have reported over the years seeing fairies at such places, some even being transported to the Celtic underworld.
People still say that sometimes you can see fairies at the base of the trees, resting under its branches as they travel too and from distant tribal battles.
But a fairy tree is more than just a solitary hawthorn standing alone, either near a well or in the middle of a field. There are actually three different trees.
Some Celtic bards called these three individual fairy trees the fairy tree triad of Britain.
The trees which grow naturally in the same habitat seem drawn to each other.
The trees are oak, hawthorn and ash, although in some earlier myths Alder is also described as a fairy tree, this is most likely due to a reshuffling of the chieftain trees some time before the seventh century poem "Crib Gablach", when the Alder was replaced by the Ash. The Alder became relegated to the status of peasant, while the ash joined the chieftain trees.
But it is the oak, ash and hawthorns, which seem to have this magnetism, drawing one to the other, like lovers
LOVE
The fairy trees are also associated with enchanted love. Pierre Duois for instance retells an old tale of how an oak tree was so taken by a couple's undying love for each other, which had been declared under the great oak, that it turned the couple into twin trees so as to be able to spend eternity in each others tender embrace. It is said that they can still be heard whispering to each other, when they think no one is around.
Through out Scotland the hawthorn was a "trysting" place, a meeting place for lovers, Robert burns was famous for his liaisons beneath one not far from his home.
CLASH OF THE ASH
According to Nordic Mythology the Ash of Odin, which was known as Ygdrasill, the terrible ones horse, it was also known as the world tree, which grew at the centre of the world.
Ygdrasill is said to be the source of life and wisdom. Its branches support the sky, reaching up to the realm of the gods, while its roots reach down into the underworld.
The Greeks also held the Ash tree as sacred. Poseidon who is more commonly known as the sea god was originally known as the ash-god before he become associated with the oceans. At this time the ash-god was the second god of the Achaean trinity.
