'The name ‘síoraí’... is an old Gaelic word...that means everlasting and enduring'
For me personally, the tree epitomises what the group is about really in terms of something positive coming from something awful and devastating – a new beginning. And I guess it is what it says it is, it’s a tree of hope, a way of bringing people together for something quite positive really. So, I think it’s really symbolic on lots of levels for me personally. And it’s such a symbol of the North East as well, which I think is also really nice, that that one tree that got felled down has got lots of little trees now all over the North East potentially.
And it’s a way of bringing people together through something mindless and horrible happening. And I think that again links back to the Tree of Hope group where people who’d never known each other beforehand have all come together in their own way to remember their loved ones and we’ve ended up doing something really positive has grown out of that.
The name ‘síoraí’ … is an old Gaelic word, that Irish Gaelic word that means everlasting and enduring. And it just really stood out as something that represented the tree, but also the loss of our loved ones, but also the, I guess, that love and the relationship that we have for them as well. It’s everlasting, whether they’re here or not, it’s a constant. And I felt that really related to the actual tree as well. So yeah, it was, it just seemed to fit. It was a really good fit, I think, for the tree, for the group, for the coming together of the group really, because that had become a new constant or a new constant feature, touching base with that particular group.
So, it just seemed to fit across the board really for the tree, for the group, for the grief. Yeah, and obviously the old Irish words were particularly meaningful to me with my dad being from Ireland and that being a really, I guess, a really strong part of my background and my culture and the way that I’ve been brought up. And I suppose since losing him as well, I think that’s become more important because it’s how do you continue that? How do you embed that and make that part of my life now, but also how I will continue that for my children and what have you? It’s nice to have those kinds of links to their heritage for the future as well. So it was, I think it particularly spoke to me in terms of it being an Irish word, but it felt really fitting for the tree itself and what the group represents and loss as a whole really, as a whole experience.
Geraldine Astbury was interviewed in 2025 as part of the Trees of Hope Project