We need to thank the Irish Oak!

 This iconic crane in the background is one of two that tower over the city of Belfast, when built they were the biggest in the world and still I believe they hold the record for lifting the heaviest weight which was said to have bent the crane by 30cm, known as Samson and Goliath, they are part of the ship yard that built the Titanic!

These cranes or the Titanic probably wouldn't have been built if it was not for the Irish oak tree, during the Spanish Armada times the English came here and made their boats out of Irish oaks, they looked for specific trees that were a certain age and V shape and they would have cut these to go at the front of the British navy boats making the fronts of the ships practically indestructible and was perfect for ramming enemy ships, it was all about how the grain of the oaks ran in the branch union that made them as strong as steel.

It was said there were approx 2000-3000 Irish oak trees used for each navy ship.

With all the ship building going on in this part of the Emerald Isle back in the 1500s all these skills were developed and remained here and carried on into the making of the Titanic and these cranes.

These are stories I've picked up on my travels in searching out the last of our ancient Irish oaks, kinda sad though how little there are left and also kinda sad how we glorify the making of great ships and cranes when really yards like these were setup to wreck and ruin mother nature, our whole way of life is built upon the destruction of mother nature.

Before anyone goes political on this post and starts giving off about the English, the Vikings came and did it too and the Celts and first Irish settlers came here also due to the rich resources of trees, when they landed it was said that the land mass of Ireland was 80% forest and the Celts and Irish settlers slashed and burned millions of acres for farming.

Then after all of these Islands and the rest of Europe has been deforested all nationalities of these islands went to America and contributed together in the native American holocaust and the complete destruction of forests the size of countries, most of America was forests and now it's gone, a massive country flattened in the name of so called growth and economy! 

The lunatics are running the asylum! 

Right back through history and still today we are all just as bad as each other in how we've contributed to destroying mother nature.

Lets not look for who to blame, lets get active and get planting and chanting, so easy to become infected by someone else's negative actions, antidotes is what the Buddhas teach and its antidotes to the madness of this world thats going to sort it.

Its time we all planted some native Irish oak trees right here in the Emerald Isle!

Bit ironic that the Oak in Ogham is known as the King tree and a sign of strength and power and our oaks where at the fronts of the ships that led the British navy to rule most of the world at one time.

Definitely some Ogham magic going on there!

#phantomplanter #communityspirit #Titanic #belfast