Today, 165 special visitors from Weimar, Germany, were officially welcomed to Galway at a tree planting ceremony in Terryland Forest Park. Weimar is a former European Capital of Culture and this group endeavours to visit the former Capitals of Culture to plant a Tree of Friendship, something it’s done for the past 25 years. Of course, the 2020 visit didn’t work out at the time because of the pandemic. But they didn't forget Galway all the same!
In Terryland Park on 6 September 2024, three separate pine trees – native Irish pines thought extinct for a thousand and a half years – were planted. In 2021, scientists from Trinity University revealed through DNA analysis that they were alive and promoting them widely across the country. Fresh stock has been introduced from Scotland hundreds of years back but the native stock is older than the last ice age that ended 10,000 years ago.
Photographed are the Mayor of the City of Weimar, Peter Kleine, the Mayor of the City of Galway, Peter Keane, the Deputy Mayor of the City of Weimar Ralf Kursten, Travel Group Coordinator Hatmut Eckhardt.