How the people of Kilteevan, Roscommon became custodians of Cloonlarge Bog

Eileen Fahey is some woman for one woman. She’s a self described ‘blow-in’ to Kilteevan, Roscommon ( she married Michael ‘a good Roscommon man’) and did not grow up cutting turf or walking the bog but for the last ten years, as Chair of Kilteevan Tidy Towns, she has dedicated herself to protecting and conserving both Kilteevan and the local Cloonlarge Bog.
“A place can change your life”, she says “and this place has”. As she came to love the unique nature of the bog she taught herself about its ecology, learning to identify the plants, insects and butterflies of the land and in the process became a skilled photographer capturing the wildlife of the place for everyone.

Photograph of EIleen Fahey, Chair of Kilteevan Tidy Towns — *Eileen Fahey, Chair of Kilteevan Tidy Towns, on Cloonlarge Bog. Photo Credit: Shane Hynan, visual artist*

In our Heritage Week eco-bog talk and walk in Kilteevan and Cloonlarge Bog on August 16 Eileen shared her own story and how Kilteevan became custodians of the bog and we
captured it.
Listen to Eileen sharing her story and how she connected Tidy Towns to the mission of bog protection. Earlier in the year in June Eileen and Tóchar Stories worked with the village primary school on sharing the joy of the bog with the school’s children who created a beautiful series of artwork around the bog’s butterflies.

Photo of Eileen Fahey guiding a butterflies on the bog walk with the schoolchildren of Kilteevan NS — *Eileen Fahey guiding a butterflies on the bog walk with the schoolchildren of Kilteevan NS. Photo credit Annie Holland.*

Watch Eileen’s presentation at Heritage Week and what she said along the bog walk on the day : “Oh, this place is full of mystery and beautiful ecology, beautiful flora,fauna, soft bog. Lots of interesting things to see all of the time, every single day. There’s always something to be learned”. Part of Eileen’s story is how the bog, and bog walks and paying attention to nature, helped her recover from serious and life-changing illness and disability. For her nature is healing and beyond all the many benefits of bog conservation, to biodiversity and climate change through carbon sequestration, its gift to people is how a walk there, in a thriving bog, can lift our physical, emotional and mental well-being.

Therese Kelly, District Conservation Officer, National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), joined us at the Heritage Week event and shared a wonderful Bog Conservation talk on the how and why of bog rehabilitation. The bogs close to Kilteevan are part of Lough Ree SAC ( special area of conservation) and NPWS begin rehabilitation work on Clooncraff and then Cloonlarge Bogs soon. In her talk ( you can watch it here) Therese showed how the work happens and the process of improving the water flow into the land and why it is done.
The work is being undertaken by a Bord na Móna project team, led by Oliver (Ollie) McGlinchy, and they came to the Kilteevan community event, sharing information with people, answering questions and Ollie even stayed to do the complete Cloonlarge Bog Loop walk with us and the community.

Photo of participants on the guided bog walk — *The guided bog walk with Tóchar Stories, Kilteevan Tidy Town and Therese Kelly NPWS stopped at a local artist’s home within the bog to chat and see the work. Photo credit Katie Smirnova.*

On the bog walk Tóchar Stories naturist Katie Smirnova guided people on the wildlife of Cloonlarge, sharing insights on plant life and also how the plants ( like heather) can tell us a lot about the water table of the land and how dry or wet the bogland is.

Katie Smirnova showing some of the group the wild flowers along the pathway and explaining which species like boggy landscapes and what happens what bogs are rewetted and the birds, insects and flora that can thrive — *Katie Smirnova sharing insights about what the wild flowers of Cloonlarge tell us. Photo credit Helen Shaw.*

You can get a sense of Katie’s walk in a video clip from our videographer Stephen Crilly who was following her and also managed to capture some drone footage of the Cloonlarge landscape.

As we walked along the loop we got an opportunity to ask Therese Kelly about her own personal and professional relationship with the bog and what this type of work means to her. She told us : “I would’ve grown up like a lot of people did in rural Ireland in a turf cotton family, and we would’ve cut our own turf for years. And it was a great way to be able to harvest your own fuel. But I think my studies and my personal life and the job that I’m working in has exposed me to so much more in-depth information about these bog habitats
and how they work and what’s special and unique and important about them. And it’s been a privilege to be able to undertake that personal interest in a professional capacity”.

Photo Therese Kelly District Conservation Officer with the National Parks and Wildlife Service — *Therese Kelly, district conservation officer, NPWS, on the Cloonlarge Bog walk.*

You can visit Cloonlarge Bog and walk the Loop any day, it’s just a few kilometres outside Roscommon town, but do watch out for Eileen Fahey’s nature photography along the loop, like this rare marsh fritillary butterfly she captured.

Photo of a Marsh Fritillary butterfly by Eileen Fahey — Marsh Fritillary butterfly (Photo credit: Eileen Fahey)

And do walk to the peace seat, sponsored by Kilteevan Tidy Towns, with a poem on display – by none other than Eileen Fahey!

Photo of the peace bench on the Old Bog Road — *The peace seat on the Old Bog Road, photo credit Helen Shaw.*

Photo of a sign displaying a poem ‘Being’ written by Eileen Fahey — The poem ‘Being’ written by Eileen Fahey at the Peace Seat on the Cloonlarge Bog Loop, photo credit Helen Shaw

To find out more about Kilteevan Tidy Towns – visit their facebook page and the Kilteevan community website.