Mr John McLoughlin is president of the Tree Council of Ireland, and for many years he has reserved a week in March during which nobody is allowed to think of anything but trees.
But like Oliver Twist to the consternation of the beadle, Mr Bumble, Mr McLoughlin says: "Please Sir, I want some more."
Today, October 19th, is "Tree Day". It seems to be a kind of arboreal Woodstock, a juvenile festival of oak and ash and elm which has crept upon us unawares, and which has been clandestinely conducted each October for the last four years.
The unashamed ambition is to indoctrinate the children of our nation with alien notions on the alleged benefits of trees.
"Trees," say Mr McLoughlin and his friends seductively, "are an integral part of all our lives. They filter the air we breathe, significantly reduce pollutants in the atmosphere, and provide natural shelter for both animals and people."
A propaganda package along these lines, no doubt containing much subliminal material as well, has been infiltrated into every junior educational establishment in the State, and they want the entire school day devoted to it.
The package contains ominous details of "experiments", alluringly described as being "a lot of fun, and an interactive way for children to learn about trees and their environment".
The young people, for example, will be encouraged to apply acid rain to a helpless sapling and watch it slowly die; they will be shown that a seedling deprived of light or air will not survive; and that you can slowly kill a plant by systematically depriving it of water.
There is even a "Tree Day Competition" based on inventive variations of morally deplorable activities such as these.
The movement is clearly quite undemocratic. The Tree Council admits, when pressed, that only 8 per cent of Ireland can be classed as "wooded", compared with an average of 25 per cent for mainland Europe, where such an exercise might thus be justified.
Obviously, in Ireland a Tarmac Day, or a National Concrete Week is more appropriate, during the course of which the energy savings to be gleaned from global warming could be highlighted, and the magnificent shades of crimson, vermillion and scarlet that pollution gives to sunset could be tastefully extolled.
But Tree Day, sadly, seems unstoppable. It can only be hoped that a tree tribunal will ensue, and that in its aftermath Mr McLoughlin and his collaborators will be rightly charged with incitement to science, both before and during the event, and that previous similar offences, allegedly dating back to 1997, will be taken into due account when sentences are handed down.