Due to expansion of the school,Limerick School of Art and Design,Clare Street campus, plan to make the courtyard with its old chestnut tree into a canteen.They plan on cutting down the tree during the summer break when no students are around.Until quite recently our building housed a notorious Magdalene Laundry, under the auspices of the Good Shepherd Convent.Hundreds of women were held here as slaves often on the basis of having become pregnant,sometimes on their potential for losing their virginity and sometimes for their poverty.There is to date no memorial for these women and the tree is the only living witness in the building here as to what went on.A tree is a spiritual being- in ancient times it was death penalty to cut down a tree; these days those in power dont consider this important but I believe it has more importance than we can ever imagine to save the tree.All over the world now there are people fighting against tyranny; we request that LSAD makes other plans for a new canteen and leaves the tree in peace as a nuturing growing creative living icon of Clare Street.