Michael, 99, helped to grow Irish forestry

A MAN as strong and old as some of the trees he’s planted was honoured yesterday for his remarkable service to Irish forestry over 70 years.

Michael McNamara, the country’s oldest forester, who turns 100 in July, was presented with a specially struck medal by the Society of Irish Foresters, which he helped found.

Mr McNamara, who led the afforestation of Ireland and fought for the rights of forestry workers, began his career with the Irish Forest Service in 1935.

He worked in state forestry for more than 40 years in forest manage-ment and land acquisition.

After his retirement in 1976, he began a career as a consultant forester and made a major contribution to the emerging private forestry sector for another two decades.

“We are delighted to honour such a distinguished forester as Michael McNamara, who was born in 1912, the year the Titanic sank and two years before the outbreak of World War II,” said John McLoughlin, president of the Society of Irish Foresters.

“He is a true forestry pioneer who has contributed enormously to the success of forestry in Ireland in his work for the state and later in developing the fledging private sector.

“He continues to have an avid interest in the forest industry and his wise counsel has been of huge value to many in the forestry sector over the years.”

A native of Cratloe, Co Clare, Mr McNamara’s interest in forestry began when he started a three-year forestry course in Avondale College in 1935.

In 1939, he was selected to travel to Germany to further his studies, but the outbreak of the war cut short the course.

He returned to Ireland and began work as a forestry foreman in Kilbeheny, where large-scale afforestation of the Galtee Mountains was taking place.

At the time, Ireland had less than 2% forest cover and Mr McNamara led the establishment of the state’s “new forests”.

He recalls gunshots being fired over his head by some aggrieved landowners as he cycled to a planting site early one morning. “The registered owners had sold a large stretch of land and the money was paid over.

“However, some of the sheep farmers who sold the land wished to retain the hill for grazing and when I told them that this wasn’t possible they threatened me and gave me 10 days to get out.”

He was promoted to assistant district inspector in Navan, Co Meath, in 1948 and was promoted again a few years later to acquisition inspector in Dublin, working as a negotiator buying land from farmers.

He remembers a case in Tipperary where he had to wait a year to close a deal when a farmer refused to sell land because he wanted to have a large holding to impress his fiancee’s relatives.

Mr McNamara was elected president of the Society of Irish Foresters in 1963 and later promoted to divisional inspector of acquisition, with responsibility for the south.

He married Mona and they had two children, Fergus and Conor. Mona died in 1969, after which Mr McNamara moved to Cork.

He found love again and married Marie O’Connell, a secondary school teacher in Cork, in 1972.