Emerald Isle

DO YOU KNOW WHY

---

Back in the late 1970s I lived in Santa Clara in California and it was on my return home that I immediately understood why Ireland is referred to as the Emerald Isle. My memory of that return home was reinforced when I visited the lily pond area in the Botanic Gardens.

In school I was taught that the first reference to the Emerald Isle, in print, was ‘When Erin First Rose’ by Irish poet William Drennan (1754-1820)

When Erin first rose
From the dark-swelling flood,
God blessed the green island
And saw it was good;
The emerald of Europe,
It sparkled and shone,
In the ring of the world,
The most precious stone.
In her sun, in her soil,
In her station thrice blest,
With her back towards Britain,
Her face to the West,
Erin stands proudly insular
On her steep shore,
And strikes her high harp
Mid the ocean’s deep roar.

---