There are two periods of the year when green Ireland becomes green-and-white Ireland: first with the blossoming of the blackthorn, most welcome sign of spring to come, and now in June, when some parts of the country show hedges solid white from the elder flowers, later to become the lovely dark red or purple berries. Last Sunday, driving through Meath, literally miles of roadside hedges were topped by a continuous curtain of the white umbels, as the flowers are referred to. All much whiter than and richer than those around Dublin. Naturally. The elder plant, writes Richard Mabey in his Flora Britannica, has always swung between veneration and distaste. "It is hard to see how this mangy, short-lived, opportunist and foul-smelling shrub was once regarded as one of the most magically powerful of plants. If you burned it you would see the Devil. But, grown by the house, it also had the power to keep the Devil at bay. And it could charm away warts and vermin." Severe words there: the leaves may stink (and help to keep flies away), but the flowers are good to smell, and even better to eat - fried in batter or, more easily, along with the rashers in a pan. Just put them face down in the hot fat, retaining the stalks for easy removal. They crisp up beautifully.
Elderflower wine-making is a regular with some friends. There is also a sparkling version (don't know how to do it), and a firm in England which marketed it as elderflower champagne was forced by French champagne interests to stop using the name a few years ago. In autumn the berries are often made into wine, as well as the usual jams and jellies and tarts, mixed with blackberries and apples. The wood has many uses. Children know how easy it is to take the pith out of the twig and make a peashooter of it. Not all the wood is soft. That of old trees is white and of close grain. Some trees may reach about 60 feet. One large tree stands in what was once a kitchen garden. Charles Nelson in his great book Trees of Ire- land writes: "Both flowers and elderberries are abundant in season, and for that reason we cannot despise this tree."
There was a mediaeval belief that Judas hanged himself on an elder, also known as bour-tree. And that the cross of Calvary was of elder too. "Bour-tree. Bour-tree crooked roang/Never straight and never strong;/Ever bush and never tree/Since our Lord was nailed on thee."
In yesterday's Eye, John Hewitt's line about the corncrake "whetting his voice among the upland whins", appeared with "voice" changed into "vice".