Large crowd hears of unique qualities of raised bogs in Heritage Week event

The attendance at the The Living Bog event in Streete was larger than the organisers had expected (they even had to send for extra chairs on two occasions), and they are delighted with how it went.

People travelled from Dublin, Athlone and even Galway for the talk, and there was a huge crowd of locals there to hear all about the LIFE restoration Project from ‘The Living Bog’ by Ronan Casey (public awareness manager), on the flora, fauna and natural balance of bogs from Tríona Finnen, National Parks and Wildlife Service, and the role of bogs in Irish culture and tradition from Manchán Magan.

Streete is beside Garriskil Bog SAC, one of 12 sites The Living Bog is restoring nationwide thanks to the EU LIFE Programme.

The large crowd heard of more than 200 plants and animals unique to Garriskil, how the LIFE project will restore the bog (which is one of Europe’s largest remaining raised bogs) and also the unique history of the bog, which was said to have been crossed by St Patrick at one time in its 10,000-year history.

A sombre note was struck when those in attendance were shocked to learn that of the 320,000 hectares of raised bog mapped in the midlands in the mid-1800s, just 1% of that is now said to be active, living raised bog.

It was the first in a series of Westmeath events that Ronan and his team are planning.