Donal Hickey: Landscape pretty as a picture with wild flowers

Donal Hickey: Our roadside ditches and hedgerows are aglow with wild flowers.

The memory of an Englishman whose colour photography made an immense contribution to Irish tourism comes to mind this summer as our roadside ditches and hedgerows are aglow with wild flowers and plants.

John Hinde would have a field day photographing the landscape of the west, which is ablaze with the reddish-orange montbretia and red-belled fuchsia, among many other delights.

Fuchsia has become an emblem of West Cork and a trademark for its food, but that exquisite part of Ireland cannot claim exclusive ownership as the plant is also found, thankfully, in neighbouring counties and many other places. In Irish-speaking districts, the fuchsia is known as deora De (tears of God), apt enough in the current circumstances perhaps.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, John Hinde, who died in 1997, and his small team of photographers captured images which showed Ireland to be a land of perpetually blue skies, thatched cottages, cocks of hay, a flower-bedecked landscape, freckled-faced boys and red-haired girls.

These romanticised images were used in millions of postcards which went all over the world. There’s one of a classic beach scene at Owenahincha, which could be sold as an image of the Costa del Sol, so idyllic is tLahe scene.

The postcards sometimes featured the two afore-mentioned flowers, but the irony is these flowers are not Irish at all. Fuchsia is a native of South America, whilst fiery montbretia has more complex origins in South Africa.

As is often the case, it is believed both flowers were introduced by gardeners before eventually getting established in the wild and brightening our summers. Hard to imagine the Irish outdoors without them now as they form a rich palette with foxglove, honeysuckle, wild roses and bramble, among others.

Talking about bramble, some blackberries I picked the other day looked ripe but were bitter to taste, so it will be a few more weeks before they are ready for harvesting.

Also growing rampantly on roadsides and fields is the poisonous ragwort whose yellow flowers blend well with the brighter montbretia and fuchsia. Ragwort is out of control in many areas and, from time to time, there are calls from farm organisations on the National Roads Authority and county councils to remove it.

The plant can be toxic to livestock and farmers also have a responsibility to remove it, or face penalties for failing to do so. There was a time when gardaí went around the country reminding farmers of their responsibility to eradicate the plant. Teagasc can advise on how to remove ragwort.

By the way, wouldn’t it be an interesting study for a photographer to revisit and picture again the locations of Hinde’s pre-digital images to show how much the landscape has changed in a half-century!