10. Peace and Reconciliation Tree
A vast canopy shades a white metal bench encircling the twin trunks of a common lime tree in a hotel garden near Belfast.
Welcome to The Street Tree! This is the tenth in a series of pithy illustrated posts about great individual trees from Britain and Ireland. I’ll be posting at least one a week over the coming months.
The Peace and Reconciliation Tree, actually a pair of common limes growing together, is discreetly tucked away in the garden of the Dunadry Hotel. It is a dramatic tree with a large, shady canopy – the ideal spot for a private discussion. It is under this tree where Tony Blair, David Trimble and John Hume were pictured on the final day before polling closed in the referendum that would enable the Good Friday Agreement to be enacted.
Species details
Common lime
Tilia x europaea
Where to find it
Dunadry Hotel, Islandreagh Drive, Dunadry, Antrim BT41 2HA
///rust.nutty.habit | 54.698537, -6.141027
Common lime notes
It was May when the leaders met under the canopy of this common lime, too early for the fragrant flowers that appear in June, and the honeydew that starts to drip in July. Honeydew, the sticky substance that coats pavements and cars beneath lime trees in summer, is a euphemistic term for the excretions of Eucallipetrus tiliae, the lime aphid.
