From what I can see it's an evergreen climber that has completely smothered two trees. Although it's hard to see whats going on.

It looks like an ivy, Hedera helix or Hedera hibernica. Since you're in Ireland maybe Irish ivy, Hedera hibernica but to compare:

Irish ivy


English ivy

My first thought was Hedera hibernica.
http://www.wildflowersofirelan...
https://iwt.ie/wp-content/uplo...

thanks very much, for certain it is an ivy then going by the pictures. I'm very new to this and think of ivy as more the traditional angular pointy leaf shape which this plant does not have so i didn't immediately think it was ivy. good to improve my knowledge.

Yurii said:thanks very much, for certain it is an ivy then going by the pictures. I'm very new to this and think of ivy as more the traditional angular pointy leaf shape which this plant does not have so i didn't immediately think it was ivy. good to improve my knowledge.

The lobed leaves are the juvenile climbing stage, by the time it flowers it has switched leaf types. So basically the same plant can have two different leaf shapes.

sooby said:

The lobed leaves are the juvenile climbing stage, by the time it flowers it has switched leaf types. So basically the same plant can have two different leaf shapes.

wow i never knew a plant could do that. Im finding plants and gardening more and more fascinating.

one more question kind of related.
im hoping to next year for the first time grow some vegetables in a raised bed in this garden.
i will probably have to go for some that can tolerate partial shade as theres plenty of trees about, those ivy covered trees being the worst offenders.
i am wondering whether ill be able to grow anything at all though as it seems a pretty dark garden much of the time, i'm torn because i love nature and no doubt those trees are probably home to millions of insects. But at the same time i badly need to get experience in growing my own food.
If i cant grow anything through lack of sun I will have no choice but to have the trees and also the ivy removed. But if it comes to that i will plant a couple of trees somewhere else and also take cuttings of the ivy and again plant it somewhere else.
But just in your opinions looking at the photo do you think growing some veg looks possible?
In case it has any bearing the garden is south west from the house.

If the grass is growing OK it may not be that bad, it does look sort of OK other than a few bare spots that may not be related to the amount of light.

Here's a list of shade tolerant/liking vegetables from Gardeners World:

https://www.gardenersworld.com...

sooby said:If the grass is growing OK it may not be that bad, it does look sort of OK other than a few bare spots that may not be related to the amount of light.

actually theres probably a bare spots because i was messing about doing a bit of digging some time back. true enough the grass and weeds certainly have no trouble whatsoever growing here so hopefully that's a good sign.

Perhaps if you removed some of the ivy, more light would filter through the trees...?