by  Des Rohan 1992

Source: Fas Teamwork Scheme

Scheme Sponsor: Athenry Project Society

Leader Mrs. Marie Fahy

The countryside around this area of the parish is one of varied landscape. Rolling hills/eskers, left behind by retreating glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age are the most salient features of these beautiful parts. Green pastures, winding hedgerows, woodlands and scrub and of course, the ubiquitous stone walls adorn it with a kind of serenity. However, sizeable pockets of peat land – of significant economic and ecological importance – are worthy of note on this occasion.

Two Types of Bog

There are two types of bog in Ireland – blanket and raised. Blanket bogs are shallow and occur, chiefly, in mountainous regions. The other type i.e. raised bog, is predominant in the Central Plain (the bog of Allen, for example). The bogs in our vicinity are of this latter kind, so called, because they are raised above the level of the original plain by the growth of peat of 5,000 years or more. Peat or turf is undecomposed plant material. Climatic changes in the prehistoric past eventually gave rise to low temperatures and heavy rainfall. These conditions deprived the plants of oxygen and inhibited their growth. Sphagnum moss encroached, holding the water like a giant sponge, trapping nutrients from that wetness and releasing acids.

Turf Cutting

Turf cutting has been carried out for generations in Ireland. There are virtually no major coalfields here. And since the 17^th century the wholesale clearance of native forests has removed one indigenous source of fuel (timber). The traditional method of cutting made little impact on the environment……..

The annual turf cutting ritual commenced in late spring/early summer. Cleaning the turf bank was the first step negotiated. It consisted of digging off the top vegetation to a depth of a foot or more with a spade and disregarding the scraw. A neat rectangular “bank” was thus ready for the sleaner. Raised bog was cut by driving the slean horizontally into the damp peat – unlike the downward vertical cutting of the blanket bog. There were two kinds of slean – the wing slean and the breast slean, this latter was used to mark benches. The “sleaner” threw the sods (fod) to the “wheeler” who loaded them on to the wooden wheelbarrow and carried them out a distance, knocked them in rows and hurried back for the next load. Sometimes the bottom of a bank would yield stone turf, regarded as the best quality turf of all. The foidin bos was the sod of turf thrown by the sleaner into the bos/palms of the hands of his helper. The sods were piled in a pyramid close to the bank when there was no room for them elsewhere.

Weather

The weather was an important factor in the subsequent saving of the turf. If it was fine the turf would be fit for turning – by hand or fork – in a few days. Afterwards it was lifted and made into groigins. Later clamps would be constructed. The smaller or broken turf would be piled into dumhachans. Finally, the dry product was carted to the roadside where a large reek (some) 20ft or 40ft long (and c. 5ft high) was skilfully built. Buyers were usually easy to find. They came mostly from towns, or a haulier might buy a large amount and do his own trading in the market place. Needless to say there was always enough of this fuel for private combustion.

1940’s Emergency

During the Emergency of the ‘40’s demand for turf greatly exceeded supply. Convoys of lorries came here from as far away as Tipperary and Limerick in search of turf – any kind, including the spairteach. They collected and delivered to the national depot in the PhoenixPark…. In the latter half of that decade (‘40’) large contracts of bogland were opened and divided into many plots by the Land Commission. The Derrough Bog, which had been part of the Richardson Estate included up to 60 acres of untouched bog. The recipients of new plots were, for the most part, from outside the parish – from Turloughmore, Cashla, Carnmore, Lisheenkyle, Carnaun, Castlelambert, Ballyskeagh, Cussane, Castle Ellen and Monivea. Thus, for a month or two in the summer traffic in our locality greatly increased. From early morning to the setting sun they came and went in sidecars and traps, horse carts and donkeys, bicycles and “Shanks mare” with the slean and the spade, the barrow and the boggey.

Introduction of Machinery

 “All’s changed, changed utterly” since the introduction of machinery. Big machines which cut and extrude long “sausage” turf or the rectangular “hopper” turf have virtually made the poor slean redundant. The recently developed Difco machines can now be attached to a tractor.

Cutaway Bog

Cutaway bog has been either reclaimed for agriculture or abandoned to the waters and the wild. Left this way plant life would accumulate sufficiently to create a second generation of peat. Camog bog is a good example of this.

It appears that pear has covered ancient woodlands of native oak, pine, yew and birch. Undecomposed tree trunks and branches are found occasionally at the bottom of turf banks some four to seven metres down. There are vernacularly referred to as bog deal.

Turf cutting and drainage sometimes reveal the old shell mud or marl (known as “dob bui”) which was, in fact, the bottom of ancient shallow lakes upon which the bogs usually formed.

Plants and Animals

There is a unique combination of plants and animals in our bogs. One of the strangest of plants is the sundew which has evolved a way of supplementing its diet by trapping insects and other small creatures. Butterwort and bladderwort are also insectivores. The spectacle of the heathers in full bloom is indeed, most lovely and a strong argument in favour in conserving some of our remaining peatlands. The rare white ling grows in our habitat as do the reed mace.

The lovely ceannabhan or bog cotton takes over the low banks for several weeks in mid -summer. Myrtle green and bracken brown are always around, while the yellow-orange blossomed gorse (aiteann) is a picture of delight in Hetcheen Hill, (Hetcheen-from aiteann), on the roadside at Camog (Bengarra) or along “The Bog Road”. Hazel, silver birch, honeysuckle, holly and rowan are especially colourful on autumn.

Birds

Our bogs support small numbers of birds. Snipe, curlew, meadow pipit and skylark breed here during the summer. A few red grouse nest among the taller heaths (cearc fraoigh =the heather hen –grouse). A pair of mute swans nest in Loch Taidhg every summer now – probably refugees from Loch na-Inse. Wild duck are other visitors. One must mention the magnificent display of white water lilies in Loch Taidhg in July.

Rabbits

Rabbits were everywhere before myxomatosis ended their scurrying lives. But the native hare is still around. Foxes trespass in search of vermin, while the common lizard lurks among the groigins.

A visit to the bog on a fine day can be an exhilarating experience. Never mind the gag in your hand and heel, or the trallach in your wrist or your aching back. The clean air, the soft gentle breeze, the aroma from the heath and whin, the sweet song of the lark and the evening “bleat” of the bullan leine should not be missed.

Natural Appetiser

The bog is a natural appetiser. Our memories go back to the days when the pace of life was slower. A long shrill shout from one of the hills called us home to the dinner. We all knew instinctively whose family or meitheal was being summoned to the table. The evening meal was another treat. We called it the Roisin. Mother or sister would transport this tasty morsel o’er the fields and ditches or dangled across the handlebars of a rudge. It consisted of tea, sandwiches, currant cake, boiled eggs, and apple tart ferrels for the finish up. We would seat ourselves on a dry spot with our backs to the starboard side of a turf clamp and chat away to our hearts content about the hurling match against Cussane the previous Sunday or about the war in China. A neighbouring turf man would pop over across the marin drain and add his comment.

Bog Destruction

Bogs have been destroyed by over exploitation and drainage all over Europe. Finland, Sweden, Russia and Ireland have some left. Experts say that even ours are threatened with extinction. Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from the Dutch experience. In the Netherlands where all the original peatland has been cut away over £10m has been spent by them in restoring one raised bog one fifth of a hectare! The Dutch foundation for conservation of Irish bogs has raised money to purchase some of the most threatened areas of raised bogs. Should we not conserve some of the bogs in our parish before it is too late?

Finally, the problem of indiscriminate dumping in our bogs and woodlands should not go unnoticed. All kinds or rubbish-from paint cans to plastics, from washing machines to car wrecks- are dumped everywhere. This is one aspect of our parish life no-one can be proud of.

Artefacts found in local bogs:

Deer snares, Duidini, coins.

Boglands:

Lenamore, Cormacoo, Derrough, Curralane,Cuddoo, Currandoo, Shudane, Cloonkeen, Ballyboggan, Camog.