Helen Shaw, Tóchar Stories Curator

Just before the Halloween school break Tóchar Stories and the Ballydangan Bog Red Grouse Project partnered with Camcloon NS  Co Roscommon to create a week of bog wonder and artistic storytelling with the school’s children. We joined forces with Ballydangan Bog leaders Pat Feehily and ecologist David Fallon to share the story of the children’s local bog and invited Longford artist Sophie Carroll Hunt to mentor the children in creating their own imagined version of the bog in a school collage using multi-media and mixed printing techniques.

The week started on Monday in the classroom with teacher Louise Gallagher and her 4th, 5th and 6th Class students when Pat and David brought in some companions to help tell how birdlife is at the centre of their bog conservation story.

The Ballydangan Bog Red Grouse Project started in 2009 because members of the local hunting club, Moore Game and Conservation Club, wanted to do something about the declining numbers of Red Grouse on raised bogs in the region. They worked with Bord na Móna on a bog conservation plan, got support through the community employment scheme,  and the nature restoration work has not just helped conserve red grouse numbers but the bog now boasts 8 of the red-listed curlew on it. To help the children envisage these birds Pat brought in some stuffed versions ( historic models donated to him by people) so the children had a mini ‘dead zoo’ and a real sense of the fragility of what ‘red listed’ and extinction means.

On Tuesday we headed to the Ballydangan Bog, just minutes from Camcloon NS, and Katie Smirnova  nature conservationist with Tóchar Stories joined Pat Feehily, in a guided bog walk and talk with the children.  Katie showed the children how bog heathers are essential for the habitat for the birds while Sophie encouraged the children to take notes of what they saw and hear and collect images for the art.

Camcloon NS Principal, Katie Feehily (Pat’s daughter-in-law) joined us for the bog walk morning and after lunch, back in school, Sophie and Katie began working with the twenty-one children on exploring how they would shape and make their version of the bog.

Sophie used mono and screen printing as art forms and worked with the idea of silhouettes of the birds – particularly the red grouse and curlew – and the children described a sensory experience of the bog – what they saw, heard, tasted, smelt and felt.

Sophie, Katie and the children worked together all Wednesday with just a welcome break for hurling outdoors, exploring techniques, learning more about nature with Katie and beginning to make their bog collage.

On Friday the children arrived dressed for their Halloween celebrations and the school break and Katie Smirnova shared stories of the will o’the wisp and the ghostly lights often described by travellers over marshes and bog. Local priest Fr Michael Molloy called in to see the children’s collage and shared his own stories of growing up when children had to bring their own sods of turf to school as it was the only heating in the school.

As the bog collage went up on the wall Sophie, showed the children how to make badges of their art images so they could take them home.

Katie Smirnova joined with the children in the Samhain/Halloween spirit by dressing up in her Red Grouse headset.

The final bog collage assembly brings together a week of fun, exploration, creativity and learning and while it stays in the school to remind the children of their bog week< we can see just how super it turned out below.

Thanks to Camcloon NS, pupils and staff, for welcoming us in and a special thanks to the pupils of 4th, 5th and 6th class who partnered with us and Ballydangan Bog Red Grouse project on the week.
You can find out more about Ballydangan Bog Red Grouse Project here https://www.ballydanganbog.com