Donal Hickey: Beautiful aromas in the woods

By Donal Hickey

Walking in woodlands these days you will sense a variety of smells, some pleasant, others not so nice. In the latter category comes wild garlic which you will definitely sniff before you see.

Filling the air, it hit the nostrils in Killarney National Park the other day.

Sections of the old copper mines trail in Ross Island, close to the eponymous 15th century castle, are liberally fringed with wild garlic, with its star-shaped white flower and long, pointed leafs.

The plant is edible, but people picking it should be careful not to mistake it for similar-looking poisonous plants.

Food writer and critic Georgina Campbell says its flavour is less overpowering that the pungent aroma suggests and it can be used in salads.

Wild plants and herbs have been integral to life in Ireland from time immemorial, featuring in the Brehon laws and in early poetry.

Plants have been used for medicinal purposes and there was an age-old belief that the body had 365 parts, with a different wild herb to cure ailments in each part.

Long ago, farmers grew wild garlic, also called ramsons, to prevent disease in cattle. However, as farmers came to realise it took from the flavour of their butter, they dug it up and got rid of it.

Yet, some people like garlic butter. Garlic steeped in milk overnight and then stewed until soft and strained through muslin was reputed to be a cure for lung problems.

Wild garlic

In his well-researched book, Irish Wild Plants, Niall Mac Coitir says wild garlic was also an important food in ancient Ireland.

By law, every tenant had to provide a garlic feast to his landlord every year before Easter, or else pay a fine to the value of one-and-a-half milch cows.

The feast consisted of garlic mixed with cheese and milk.

“In Irish folk medicine, wild garlic was highly valued as a preventative of infection, as well as a cure for coughs, cold and flu to clear the blood of impurities and wounds of jnfection and to cure toothache,’’ he writes.

Anybody thinking of planting it in their gardens ought to be careful, however. It spreads quickly and could soon become a nuisance as a weed.

Among the flowers of May, the bluebell is a favourite.

Now in full bloom carpeting the woodland floor it has, unsurprisingly, long been regarded as a symbol of beauty in our folklore.

While we have a tradition of picking bluebells, it was considered unlucky in parts of England to bring this ‘flower of the fairies’ inside the house.

However, there’s a positive side to the folk tradition in the belief that if you could turn the bluebell flower inside out without tearing it you would eventually win the one you love.