Noxious weed blighting Mayo's landscape despite its 'bandit' status

A colourful plant outlawed under strict government legislation almost 90 years ago because of its potential to poison livestock is now more plentiful than ever despite its still prohibited status.

Yellow crowned buachallán (ragwort) reigns supreme in town and countryside. It sprouts in fields, along roadsides, in housing estates, even on the occasional chimney.

It is conspicuous too along the verges of the Lough Lannagh walk in Castlebar, most strollers probably blithely unaware of its bandit reputation.

Some years ago, I wrote in The Connaught Telegraph about a buachallán that could be seen blossoming gloriously (or should that be ingloriously) on the chimney of a business premises in Castlebar’s Main Street.

I recall genial publican Mick Byrne getting a great kick for months from asking customers if they knew where the Main Street interloper was located.

Ragwort, commonly known as the buachallán, is potentially poisonous to cattle and horses.

It’s still an offence under the 1936 Noxious Weeds Act to fail to stop the spread of ragwort and other noxious weeds such as thistles and dock.

But the offence still carries a stiff maximum fine for those prosecuted and convicted.

In truth, few, if any people, are prosecuted these days.

Long gone are the times when gardaí cycled the roads of rural Ireland keeping an eye out across stone walls for the noxious interlopers.

Some years ago I assisted in a documentary programme on Midwest Radio entitled ‘The Blight of the Buachallán’.

Contributors included retired vets, a former District Court Judge (the late Bernard Brennan), horticulturist Matt Shaw and former gardaí John Kelly from Knock and John Duggan.

All outlined riveting and sometimes humorous tales of the war – now ended in all but name - to rid the countryside of ragwort and its equally unwanted brothers, thistle and dock.

Retired vet Charlie Lydon said there was good reason for farmers to dread and get rid of the buachallán because it was poisonous to livestock.

And horticulturist Matt Shaw explained why the ragwort is enticing to cattle and horses to eat at a certain stage in its growth.

Matt explained how strangely, sheep are immune to the toxic affect of ragwort and can safely eat it. This meant that in olden days sheep were put out to graze as a buachallán control measure.

In a non-mechanical and non-chemical era it was hard work to get rid of buachallán, thistles or rock.

But farmers and their families, conscious of the law and the risk of prosecution, put their backs into the task.

And a quite a back was needed in the case of the buachallán.

I remember as a 12 year old risking junior hernia by attempting to pull buachalláns from the ground, roots and all. It was a gut-wrenching exercise, not to be recommended.

Actual prosecution for breaches of the 1936 Act were the exception rather than the norm but they did occur.

Judge Bernard Brennan, one of those interviewed for the programme on Midwest Radio, spent 20 years on the cench as a District Judge on the Western Circuit.

He was deeply interested and versed when it came to agricultural matters.

By the 1980s, when he served as a judge, the problems of noxious weeds and the number of prosecutions were in steep decline.

However, at one court sitting in 1988 he “declared war on noxious weeds”.

“It’s a total disgrace to see lands covered in weeds,” he thundered. “If I had my way the fines would be much larger.”

A field of ripe buachalláns, bright yellow in the sunshine, is pretty to look at.

I’m told some tourists are fooled into thinking that cash crops are being grown.

Pity that buachallán is not marketable.

If so Ireland would be enjoying a bonanza.