Indeed, written evidence of Ireland's herbal traditions can be found as far back as the early 1400s, although given our land's oral tradition, it is likely that herbalism existed long before various scribes got to the point where they could write down what they knew. But the most interesting point to all of this is the willingness of a modern Irish population to turn back to these ancient remedies.

"The fact that complementary medicine is a massive growth industry points to the fact that it is working for the public, " said Helen Begadon, course director and founder of the Irish School of Natural Healing. "People are finding that their needs can be served by returning to natural principles rather than medical intervention, because the natural approach is safer, with no side effects."

Some common Irish remedies to medical conditions include the use of nettle and red clover as blood cleansers (as a defence against certain skin conditions), as well as hawthorn berries to treat heart maladies, and plantain (not to be confused with the tropical banana-like fruit) which is used to treat upperrespiratory conditions.

"All drugs came at first from herbs, and herbalism was once orthodox medicine, " said Begadon. "But, over time, the pharmaceutical industry began to extract the active ingredients for its drugs, a practice which can lead to side effects. But, it has to be stated that complementary medicine is not against medical treatment - it is instead a different philosophy on healing, and two systems have to learn to work together."

Even though they are entirely natural, herbs can nevertheless be very powerful; which is why it takes a professional practitioner to correctly administer herbal treatments. To this end, the Irish School of Natural Healing runs a number of courses aimed at training its students to the highest standards.

The first of these is a fouryear programme entitled Professional Training in Master Herbalism. The course is designed to prepare the student for clinical practice as a Medical Herbalist in the tradition of Master Herbalism founded by Dr John Ray Christopher (one of the world's most renowned herbalists). The part-time course, which features training from Dave Christopher, son of Dr John Ray Christopher, takes place over a series of weekends and saturdays throughout each academic year at the school's campus in Portlaoise. Much of the coursework involves herbalism and natural healing, although there are modules in such non-invasive medical areas as iris diagnosis and live blood-cell analysis. In addition to the academic aspect of the course, some 400 clinical training hours are also required before the programme can be completed.

A second, two-year, course in Nutrition and Natural Diagnostics is also taught at the school. This course is designed to teach the subject of nutrition from the point of view of vitalism.

According to the school, "the underlying principle is that human beings are designed to enjoy a diet derived from living fruits vegetables grains nuts and seeds and prepared in a form as near to their wholesome growing state in nature as possible." Iridology is also taught as a natural non invasive diagnostic tool.

While some people might disregard complementary medicines and herbalism as being too "alternative", the reality is that high-level discussions are already underway between practitioners and the Irish educational system. Indeed, a meeting recently took place with HETAC (the higher education authority) to try to compile a working group which could establish standards of training in complementary medicine. This could then lead to the development of validation and accreditation processes for qualifications in this growing area of medicine.

For further information on courses at the Irish School of Natural Healing, visit www. herbeire. ie or phone 057 8682567.