Cllr David Ford MLA, Alliance Assembly Member for South Antrim, helped Antrim schoolchildren to plant some young, but historic trees, as part of Tree Week, 2000. At Springfarm Primary School, David helped schoolchildren to plant trees that he had grown from acorns and conkers in his own garden
David Ford said:
“The trees we have planted may be young, but their parent trees were very old. I have no doubt that some of the parent trees were growing when the Castle was burnt down in 1922, and given the size of some of the trees in the Castle Park, some were probably there when the United Irishmen were at the gates of the Castle in 1798.”
“My family and I gathered the conkers and acorns from which these trees have grown from the Castle Grounds just before the army base was extended. Now that they have grown into young trees, I have passed them to some local schools so that these historic trees may continue to grow to maturity in the Antrim area.”
David is a member of both the Environment Committee and the Agriculture & Rural Development Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and works tirelessly for the people of South Antrim in both committees.
ENDS