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This Story comes from Irelands longest serving Ambassador to China Declan Kelleher who is now retired . I had heard about his connection to this willow tree in recent years and luckily managed to catch him on a recent visit to Beijing .

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Declan’s words:

My name is Declan Kelleher , I was ambassador of Ireland here in Beijing from 2004 to 2013.

Shortly after I arrived I realized that were were very fortunate to have an embassy compound centrally located in Beijing

That we had a green compound , we had trees , we had greenery we had grass and we had this willow tree .

One morning I noticed a team of workmen were beside the tree with a chain saw and I found that they were going to cut the tree down.

We agreed that they would remove the limb and leave the tree . So the limb was removed.

It was a diseased limb but the tree has stayed , the tree has prospered, and flourished and has grown .

And you can even see where the diseased part was. Then I noticed that a new limb has grown beside it .

This tree is a good testament to the importance of nature and the importance of relations between Ireland and China .

 

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#4 Old Ash – A Real Survivor

#5 Tree Rings of Life

#6 A Very Weird Elf

#7 Old Crabapple of Wenhua Dian

#8 Standing Fast

#9 Feeling Good – Tree Song

#10 Forest Breath – Tree Story

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#12 Bee Tree (Part 1) Sycamore

#13 Winter Apples

#14 Ancient Yew Trees

#15 Once I Counted Birds

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#18 Strawberry Tree

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#20 My Leylandii

#21 Chestnut Repotted

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#23 Ethan’s Tree

#24 Holding Trunk of Time

#25 Our Mother’s Legacy

#26 It Blossomed

#27 Always Trying To Hold Each Other Up

#28 Wollemi Pine

#29 Barrow Willow

#30 For What We Might Become

#31 Sheltering Beech

#32 Millennium Monkey Puzzle

#33 Monterey Cyprus

#34 Struggle On, Struggle On

#35 Like A Chestnut

#36 Head and Shoulders Above

#37 An Dair Sean 

#38 Trees for the Forest 

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#40  I Feel at Peace 

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#42 Unusual Bauhinia

# 43 Bamboo – Munro

#44 St Anne’s Oak

#45 Angie’s Umbrella Tree 

# 46  Berna’s Umbrella Tree

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#48 Apple Tree Swing

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#50 Forest Bathing 2

#51  Mulberry -when Swiss watches were almost made in Waterford

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#53 Oak We absolutely love it！

#54 Pre-Famine Timber

#55 Slogged Apples

#56 Ash  Determined to stay put

#57 Best Apple Tart in Headford

#58 Apple Tree of Clonmel

#59 Horizontal Arbutus Unedo

#60 Euonymus Zones

#61 How big they can get

#62 Autumn Maple

#63 The Magic of Moss

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#65 Liquid Amber 

#66 Hardmount Chestnut

#67 Silver Birch – a gentle lovely ending

#68 Keeping Black Bird Company

#69 Tulip Tree

#70 Itea Iliciafolia

#71 Silver Birch Moonlight

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#74 The Tree House

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#83 Willow – Branching out 

#84 Tree Bee Hive 

 

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Open Call for your …just a minute Tree Story on video 

Memory Palace of Tree Stories is a socio-ecological art practice which invites you to tell a story or share information about trees . It is a creative-led social enquiry of how we can live well for both personal and collective wellbeing. Your story can be any kind of tree story , a personal tree story, an ecological tree story , an environmental tree story, an historical tree story or even a botanical tree story. I do hope you can contribute a comment on how we can live better with the greater community of life.

 

The year 2024 we continue to gather your stories in the form of one minute videos and we are really looking forward to hearing your tree story . I can be contacted directly on this platform or on the contact page on this website. 

Niamh Cunningham