Madam, – Eileen Battersby wrote (Summer Living, August 6th) about the noxious senecio jacobaeaand the need to eliminate it. I was given a great dislike for this plant from a very early age, but I always knew it as a buachalán. As best I can determine, this was the name used by most people in Ireland, and it seems the use of ragwort as a name is part of the continuing determination to eliminate all things native and unique from our language.
Buachalán, ragweed or ragwort are all common names for senecio – but buachalán or buachalán buí is ours. – Yours, etc,