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Standing under a flyover, sheltered from the rain, the garda on the motorway looks somewhere between bemused and amused when I tell him I’m going to Athenry to report on Christmas trees. He waves me on and wishes me a good day all the same. Essential services, you see.
Upon arrival, Martin Lynskey informs me we’re actually in the parish of Killimordaly – not Athenry. We need to get that cleared up, first and foremost. To make that mistake on my part, I concede, would be a mortal sin!
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When Irish Country Living visits Galway Christmas Trees at Meadow Lane Farm, it’s during the Level 5 lockdown. Only delivery and click-and-collect options for the Christmas trees are permitted. At this time, the Lynskey family are waiting with bated breath for a Government announcement to see in what way they can operate throughout December.
By the time you read this, restrictions will have eased and people will be out on the plantation picking their trees again – plenty of open space for social distancing is a silver lining. Picking your own tree is the premise on which Galway Christmas Trees is based.
Martin, his wife Jacquie and their son Luke, explain the changes they had to make this year. There’s now a booking system on their website to help disperse numbers, they have a drive-through click-and-collect service and they’re open for longer hours. It’s daylight hours for going out on the plantation, but the yard is now floodlit and open until 8pm to collect a pre-cut tree.
“They come in and we give the kids a bit of red ribbon,” Jacquie says. “They’ll pick a tree they like and tie the ribbon on it. Then there’ll be lads out there with a chainsaw, they’ll cut it down. The kids can see it being cut down and they can help to bring it in. They can actually help to put it through the netter, too.
“They get involved in the whole process and that’s what families love. People come here for the experience and the tradition.”
Galway Christmas Trees is very much a family affair, from the families who visit to the Lynskeys themselves. Martin and Jacquie have three children. The aforementioned Luke has a twin sister, Emily, and they also have an older sister, Eleanor.
I find it actually impossible to get my head around Christmas shopping or even sometimes putting up our own tree
Luke, at 20, is already heavily involved in the business. Having completed a chainsaw-operating course, he’s one of their main “chainsawers” out on the plantation. It’s also very much their extended family who help them keep the show on the road during busy periods.
For the Lynskeys, Christmas is quite different to “the norm”. Christmas is a time when it’s all hands on deck, and that’s not in terms of putting up decorations or making the “big dinner”. As the business is all-consuming towards the backend of the year, ironically, they can be late themselves putting up their tree.
“I find it actually impossible to get my head around Christmas shopping or even sometimes putting up our own tree,” Jacquie laughs.
Their busiest times are the last two weekends in November and the first two weekends in December, but people come right up to Christmas Eve. They have a contingency plan for 24 December, however, Jacquie explains.
“I try and give Martin that day off, because he doesn’t get out at all over Christmas. Normally, as a family, we try and go off into Galway on Christmas Eve. But what we have done for the last few years is, we’ve left a tree or two down at the gate.
“We don’t say it explicitly, but if someone was to ring us we’d just say take the tree at the gate. You wouldn’t want anyone stuck, because sometimes people coming home need a tree at the last minute.”
Twist of faith
With its family appeal and cheery atmosphere, it’s hard to believe Galway Christmas Trees actually arose from what was, originally, quite an awful situation. Running a small suckler herd, in 1993 Martin planted 7,000 trees under contract with the European Forestry Growers. The following year he planted a further 11,000 trees. In 1998 the company went into liquidation, leaving Martin with a load of trees and nothing to do with them.
“I was left with these trees. It went totally wrong,” Martin recalls. “I sold them under contract – four or five acres of trees – and the company went into liquidation five years later. I didn’t know what to do with them. I was going to burn them.
“I tried the wholesale side of things, selling them to anyone who wanted to buy 20 or 30 trees. But that was a disaster. It was a tough, tough auld business. I just said to Jacquie, ‘We’ll stick up a sign at the head of the road’.
“That’s all we did,” interjects Jacquie with a knowing smile.
“Let the neighbours come in and pick a tree before I shut this down,” Martin says, “because I was just so demoralised.”
From this humble beginning, born out of desperation, Martin and Jacquie saw potential. “I sold 50 or 60 trees that year; it was lovely,” Martin reflects. “The following year that doubled, and every year since I think it’s been growing, bar one.”
Now, Martin has nine acres under five varieties of tree. The average size of tree he sells is around eight feet and takes eight years to mature – a foot a year. He also runs a drystock enterprise alongside the trees.
“I keep that as simple as possible, I kill about 12 or 13 cattle a year,” he says. “I suppose I’m the envy of a lot of people. I can live off the land. I’m probably one of the few farmers, outside of dairy, that’s full time. I run about 35ac here. The nine acres under trees – that’s my focus, that’s where my wages are.”
Luke quips with a laugh: “He gives out because he only gets paid once a year though!”
Martin, himself no stranger to a bit of ball-hopping, says a lot of people ask what he does for the rest of the year. He was working part-time in Boston Scientific, before giving that up six years ago to focus on the trees full-time.
The plantation is not automated and he does all the pruning by hand, so it’s quite labour intensive. In January he’s preparing the ground for planting; February he’s planting; March and April, weed control; from May onwards, pruning, disease and pest control and keeping the grass down and then, once October comes, it’s planning for Christmas.
They also have a policy that for every tree sold they plant three more. Martin is a member of the Irish Christmas Tree Growers, one of very few in the west of Ireland. The organisation recently said that sales of real trees soared during lockdown.
Community spirit
Talking outside – the rain held off for the occasion – the Lysnkeys observe that, normally, customers would be drinking tea, coffee and mulled wine here, but this year it won’t be possible. Instead they have erected the necessary sanitising stations, etc.
Through general chat the Lynskeys convey a great sense of community in their local area, and a typically Irish one at that. Taking some pictures, Martin laughs, saying there’ll be “some slagging” about this from the neighbours. So neighbours, if you’re reading this, take it handy on him!
Down through the years the Lynskeys have seen the same people returning time and time again for trees. They see families grow, grow up and even start. One year a couple got engaged out among the trees. They got married the following December and planned to come here to take their wedding photos; only storm Desmond put paid to the idea on the day. They return every year now, with their children.
Luke made a fortune on holly one year. I’d give out holly free if I had some
Going forward Martin says he wants to make this “the place to come for your Christmas tree” and keep the focus firmly on the tree, not on introducing other elements such as Santa’s grotto.
As per, Jacquie finishes his sentence: “With Santy, it’s glitter and it’s presents, whereas here the kids they get to just run out in the open, in nature and there’s no distractions. They love it.”
Studying financial maths in NUI Galway, Luke says as the operation has been running his whole life, it’s all he knows. Jacquie reminisces that when Eleanor and Emily were younger, they used to make and handout tree-shaped cookies. Martin reminds Luke of a lucrative side business he had, one year, at a very young age.
“Luke made a fortune on holly one year. I’d give out holly free if I had some. So I said to Luke, anyone that wants holly, will you give them a bit? He gave it to the first customer, anyway, and they said, ‘How much is it?’ We said, ‘Oh no, it’s free’. They came back and gave him a fiver. He copped onto it like that.”
“I’m a bit old for that now,” Luke reasons ruefully.
What stands out about Galway Christmas Trees is the craic they have amongst themselves and with the customers. Leaving, part of me wants to come back and experience the set-up in full flow.
On the other hand (and quite contradictorily), I almost feel guilty walking around the plantation, being regaled with Christmas anecdotes, getting a little glimpse of Christmas cheer when the country is so devoid of it in many ways.
Thankfully though, others are now able to have a similar experience. It may not be exactly like past years, but festivities can still get underway.
I meet a different garda on the way home. He knows where to go if he needs a Christmas tree.
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