Comments on: Palm Trees in Ireland?

By: Laurie

Laurie — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:47:22 +0000

The folklore in my family history is that a great grand uncle was responsible for some palm trees being re-located to Ireland. He owned a sailing ship and took many people from Ireland to the Oakland, California in the 1800′s during the famine. It would be interesting to figure out if the species of palm at the southern end of Ireland can be traced back to any Palm which are found along the route to Oakland. I read an article which speculated that the Irish palm are the same palm found in Africa – when the continents were formed, Ireland was split off from Africa; hence the Irish palm are native plants. That maybe true for the palm in the Burren. But I thought I read that the palm in the southern part of Ireland are a different species which would lend credence to my family story and they may have come from South American.

By: How I Nearly Blew Off a Cliff in Ireland But Lived to Tell the Tale « Stowaway

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 13:07:26 +0000

[...] share with you that things were tense. After all, despite the Gulf Stream current that keeps the western Irish coast unusually warm, this was still January, and we were dressed in our winter coats and gloves, and this was a small [...]

By: Joan Thomas

Joan Thomas — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:40:57 +0000

Well, if it’s neither a palm nor a tree, does that mean it’s a shrub? Anyway, it does look like a palm tree and it does seem out of place in Ireland. Certainly adds to the mystique of the Emerald Isle!