"Palms" for Palm Sunday - where the Irish "Palms" come from

In  a previous post I reproduced an article written in 1909 by J.N. Kelly, which you can read here.  He pays tribute to the Palm Tree and amongst other things, encourages people to plant them in their gardens.  He also discusses the Palm Tree in connection to Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) honours the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem when palm branches were strewn in his path. Thus on Palm Sunday, palms are used to decorate churches or carried in holy processions. However, as he notes - as it is not possible in many places to obtain the real palm, substitutes have to be used. Speaking for myself, I may say that I never saw a palm tree in Ireland, yet I know that branches of the Irish yew tree were used as substitutes on Palm Sunday. 

The following article from the Catholic Press of  June 8, 1916 (see here) talks further on the substitutes the Irish had to use in lieu of real palms for Palm Sunday.

"Palms" for Palm Sunday. Where the Irish "Palms" come from.

Palm Sunday in war time, says our London correspondent, suggests many things. To take the superficial things first, one could not help noticing this year that many more people than usual seemed to be carrying home palms at midday from the churches. A generation ago the distribution of palm was confined to Catholic churches, but the ritualistic section of the Church of England imitated the custom, and it has spread from them to such an extent that it is quite a common feature in Protestant places of worship in the large towns, at all events.

Thirty or more years ago the "palms" distributed were not real palms. As an old North of Ireland man said the other day: "When I was a boy we had what was called sally-rods." They were branches of a kind of early-flowering willow, which is variously known as the common sallow, the goat willow, and the palm. The English name of sallow, and the Irish saileach are possibly both derived from the Latin salix, but this word or its equivalent is common in all European languages. The traditional custom of calling this tree a "palm," and using it on Palm Sunday, is also very old and very common; but its origin I do not know.

However, it was not until about 30 years ago or a little more that genuine palm leaves began to be imported for use in the churches on Palm Sunday. I remember the query being raised when Turkey joined in the war whether this would prevent the supply of palms coming as usual. Obviously it has not, but the majority of the imports probably come from Italy, and not from Palestine. What is more surprising, perhaps, is that they were not more interfered with by the increase in freightage.

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Jesus entering Jerusalem,the crowd are waving palms.

This is a card my husband's great aunt, Thelma Edney, received at Sunday School. She was born 1907, and lived at the  time at 66 Mary Street in Richmond.  As you can see from the back of the card, below, this was produced in 1914. Other cards that she had were produced in 1916, so this would have been the time frame in which the cards were  given to Thelma. Thelma died in 1982.