The Ballyhoura Heritage and Environment Group were thrilled to welcome over 70 people to Griston Bog to take part in the Bring a Sod event. Bring a Sod was hosted as part of the Ballylanders Pattern Festival, adding an afternoon on the bog on Saturday 16th August to Ballylanders already vibrant social calendar.
The afternoon was curated by Ciara Moynihan, creative partner to Ballyhoura Heritage and Environment as part of the Síolta Glasa Creative Climate Action programme funded by Creative Ireland and Limerick City and County Council.
Over the past year, Ciara has held creative workshops on the bog inviting the Ballyhoura Heritage and Environment board and the local community to relate to the bog in a new way. Through dance, drawing, poetry, storytelling and song, participants have explored the themes of water in the bog; carbon sequestration; biodiversity; and what Griston bog means for us today.
The Bring a Sod event was a celebration of the bog as a source of warmth, heat and life by honouring the cultural practice of turf cutting. Comhaltas Ballyhoura played a stunning selection of tunes, arranged by Ciara Flanagan, to open the proceedings while each person placed a sod of turf on the growing stack in the centre of the main platform. The music drifted across the bog as it would have over a century ago, when according to the Dúchas folklore collection, the pipe band played to lead the people of Ballylanders out to the bog to commence the back-breaking work of turf cutting.
Following this recognition of tradition and heritage, Bring a Sod offered many activities that connected people to the value of the bog as a source of life – for clean water, air, a mitigator of climate change, and community health and wellbeing. The outdoor classroom was transformed into a live community collage using chalk to write and draw on the brown walls, expressing why the bog matters to us today.
Veronica Santorum, eco-art practitioner and textile artist, facilitated community weaving with native plants respectfully foraged from the bog and surrounding areas. The weaving will be on display until Saturday 23rd August. A highlight for all was seeing the striking willow figure ¨Saorlaith¨, originally made by Veronica and decorated by children at the Cork Carnival of Science, cloaked in bog-life with her cloak sprawling out over the heather in her natural habitat.
Tom Fox, member of the Friends of Griston Bog Working Group, displayed his wildlife photography in a uniquely uncategorised way, as he said that nature does not make divisions or categories out of insects, mammals, fungi, plants etc. but rather they all co-exists interdependently. Tom´s photography exhibition provided the perfect backdrop to sharing stories of local wildlife over the delicious refreshments provided by local businesses in Ballylanders.
Tucked away in the bird hideout was a sound installation, created by composer Sara Walmsley, including sonifications of photos of Griston Bog by Maria Kerin. The audio piece included voices such as Joan O´Neill, Ballyhoura Heritage and Environment board member, sharing ¨The bog to me is my home, my life, beauty¨.
After ample time for exploring the various activities, everyone gathered on the main platform to share their memories of time spent on the bog. As Paddy Hyland put it ¨Teamwork was necessary. A ravenous appetite had to be addressed. The sense of achievement and work well done was therapeutic and satisfying.¨ Traditional music carried these stories into the openness and closeness of the bog air, as Comhaltas Ballyhoura finished the afternoon with ¨The geese in the bog¨.
Ballyhoura Heritage and Environment would like to thank all who attended and look forward to seeing if they can make Bring a Sod an annual event coinciding with the Ballylanders Pattern Festival and Heritage Week. The success of the Griston Bog Creative Climate Action project has been defined by harnessing the power of cultural heritage, community memory and storying place through embodiment, movement and music.
Our stories intertwine with the bog.
It is where memories are preserved, where the breadth of our vision expands, as our breathing deepens and bodies soften lightly into suaimhneas (peace, tranquility) and home.
Photo credit: Michael D. Walsh