Interest in Hedge-Laying
In the past few years, the subject of the destruction of Ireland’s hedgerows has regularly arisen at our monthly SKBA meetings. Having hosted a speaker from Hedgerows Ireland in June of this year, our club was invited to take a stand at the All-Ireland Hedge-Laying Competition in Monasterevin on Oct. 5th. A group of our beekeepers agreed to take this opportunity to support the hedge-layers and likeminded people on Paul Hyland’s Milland Stud farm. Ten of our members, some with family members, attended the event. Armed with a demonstration hive (no live bees!), some bee suits, a smoker, a honey extractor, frames of honey, some wax candles and, of course, some jars of honey, Kazi, Louis, Gerry, Wojciech, Dolores, Vincent, Pat, Rhonda and Kieran represented the Club. Gerry and Louis fielded countless questions on beekeeping, honey extraction and foraging and answered them in down-to-earth terms. Louis’s creamed oil-seed rape honey was tasted and enjoyed by so many people and Rhonda’s luxurious honey cakes were a big hit with the beekeepers and public alike. The Club’s signs included a sign declaring that SKBA supports NIHBS and its aims. The principal aim of NIHBS was explained to many of the attendees who were curious enough to ask. As for the hedge-laying, the skills and artistry of the hedge-laying men and women impressed everyone who attended. Most importantly, each one of the hedge-layers was so keen to talk to the spectators about their work and the various stages of the hedge- laying as they proceeded. There were hedge-layers from all over Ireland and the international dimension to the event added interest; Dutch hedge-layers and English hedge-layers brought their own styles. The adjudicators were English and they shared their expertise at the presentations afterwards. Derryman, Paul O’Hagan, presented his Perpetual Cup to this year’s Champion, Brendan Reddin. Paul, like so many others involved, was very generous with his time and conversed with so many people in attendance and spoke about the tradition of hedge-laying. The relevance of a healthy, strong hedge with growth coming up from the very bottom of the hedge was apparent in the nearby hedges that had been laid one year ago. RTE Radio 1 covered the event on ‘The Claire Byrne Show’ last week and the report can be heard on the RTE Radio Player podcast.
