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Class Level and Curriculum Links
Senior Classes Primary Schools
SESE Science:
Strand: Environmental Awareness and Care
Strand Unit: Environmental Awareness
* Foster an appreciation of the ways in which people use the Earth's resources.
* Come to appreciate the need to conserve resources.
SESE Geography:
Strand: Environmental Awareness and Care
Strand Unit: Caring for the Environment
* Identify and discuss a local, national or global environmental
issue.
* Come to appreciate individual, community and national responsibility
for environmental care.
Junior Certificate English
Along Came Man
Excerpt from "Rua the Red
Grouse" by Patrick Devaney. Published by the Irish Peatland
Conservation Council 1987.
Like a fire in a turf bank that smoulders for weeks, the controversy started in the"Herald" by Finegas' article continued, much to the delight of the vet and bank manager; the Committee had joined battle with the Co-op, alerting the public to what was happening in Drumeen. The cattle dealer, however, was only goaded by this publicity to greater effort; he would have to speed up his schedule. He had been told by the contractor that it was best to let the newly deepened drain by the roadside draw off as much water as possible before attempting the trenches. Now he suspected that was only an excuse to enable the fellow to start work on another job at Drumboy. Judging that the Wild Bog had dried out sufficiently, he ordered the contractor to return.
At first everything went well. Reversing into the bog with its double wheels straddling the western trench, the excavator's metal teeth were soon biting deep into the soft peat. In one hour it accomplished more than two men with spades could have done in twelve. Then disaster struck. Both pairs of rear wheels began to sink. The more the operator tried to free them the deeper they became buried. It looked as if the entire excavator would slowly disappear into the sodden depths. Only when the undercarriage was resting on the shoulders of the trench did the descent cease but there was no telling how long the shoulders would hold.
It took two tractors with steel ropes to pull the excavator onto firm ground. Cursing the day he had first laid eyes on Drumeen Bog, the operator prepared to depart but after the cattle dealer explained his idea about using sleepers as a moveable track, he agreed to try again.
This mishap was regarded by the Committee as a good omen. Nevertheless, they realised that it would only provide a temporary respite, a respite that must be used to mount a new offensive. "If only we could find something unique about the bog," suggested the bank manager to the five members present at a special meeting in his cottage, "some rare flower or butterfly that would swing the conservationists to our side."
"What about the Heath spotted orchid?" asked an
intense young teacher of English.
"No," the vet interposed. "It's not a matter of
any one item; it's the whole complex of plants and animals that
is important. Where else but in a bog like this would you find
a spotted orchid, an asphodel and a sundew growing side by side?
We must emphasise the uniqueness of the bog itself".
"Fine," the teacher agreed. "but that makes Drumeen
no more important than a thousand other bogs in the country."
"Not true," the bank manager shook his head. "There's
hardly a score of virgin bogs left-the others have been spoilt
by drainage."
"Well, so has Drumeen," the teacher's voice was emphatic.
"Only partially," the bank manager insisted.
"Which brings us back to the grouse," said the vet.
"Now what you're doing with them is unique. The grouse have
been wiped out on virtually every raised bog in Ireland. If we
can show that you are on the point of restoring this native gamebird
to his former habitat, then we have a good case to make."
"But will the County Council listen?" asked a smartly-dressed,
middle-aged lady who was active in many public-spirited organisations.
"After all, they won't want to antagonise the farmers."
"We'll have to show them that the interests of the entire
community, and not just a few farmers, are involved," the
vet observed.
"Why don't we get that man who carves things out of bogwood
to carve a grouse out of the oak tree the excavator dug up?"
the vet's son blurted out. "You know, the bird of the bog
out of the wood of the bog-that ought to generate some publicity."
"I think it has to be dried slowly to prevent cracking,"
said the auburn-haired girl with a self-conscious blush. She
had joined the Committee without informing her father.
"You're right," the bank manager's gaze lingered on
her face. "They cover it for two years with wet sawdust.
By the time the grouse was carved, the fate of Drumeen Bog would
be sealed-not that we can't have a grouse carved also,"
he added in order not to discourage the young man.
"Shouldn't we include the Turlough in the area to be preserved?"
asked the smartly dressed lady. "It's an important wintering
area for wildfowl-or so I'm told."
"Yes, for whooper swans and widgeon," the teacher agreed,
"but not for white-fronted geese. These go to turloughs
and bogs further south".
"True, true," the vet tried to hide his impatience.
The members would insist on going off on tangents.
This is how the report sent to the "Herald" summed
up the meeting: "After much lively discussion, the Committee
decided to continue its publicity campaign and to lobby County
Councillors and Dáil Deputies with a view to having that
portion of Drumeen Bog not yet acquired by the Co-op designated
as a nature reserve."
When the cattle dealer read his daughter's name among the list
of those in attendance he was furious. "How could you support
such people against your own father?" he accused.
"I happen to agree with them," she informed him, "and,
anyway, the Co-op has enough turf banks north of the road without
interfering with the Wild Bog".
"Well, well! So you're an expert on bog development now,
are you?" he jeered.
"No," she shouted in a tear-choked voice, "I'm
not an expert. But I know what you're doing is wrong. You have
no right to exploit nature for your own selfish ends."
"For your own selfish ends?" echoed her father. "Who
do you think will benefit from all this? You and your brothers,
that's who."
"Well, I don't want to benefit from it," sobbed
his daughter, "not if it means destroying the Wild Bog and
everything in it," and she ran from the room.
The cattle dealer watched her go in hurt bewilderment. She was
the most precious thing in his life and now this cancer-ridden
bank manager had come between them. Why couldn't the man die
quietly like any normal invalid instead of going about causing
trouble and discord?
The weather remained unsettled, sunlight interspersed with showers,
some of them heavy. Nevertheless, on farms surrounding the bog,
meadow grass was turned into hay or silage, potatoes were sprayed,
calves weaned, sheep dipped and numerous other seasonal tasks
undertaken. In the bog, small flower buds developed on asphodels
and berries reddened on bilberry bushes; algae spread green mantles
over stagnant peat holes, moor-grass grew tall and strong and
myrtle leaves gave off a minty fragrance; caterpillars of emperor
moths fed on the ling, grasshoppers ticked among the sedges and
bees hummed in the cross-leaved heath, which continued to bloom.
Most birds were now well advanced with the rearing of their
young so that, instead of singing, one was more likely to hear
the chugging of Snag the Magpie and her grown-up brood as they
foraged through alders and willows bordering the road, or the
croaking of Badhb as she quartered the bog, looking for unguarded
chicks. The grouse thrived in secret, rarely seen or heard by
humans working nearby. Larec, Hatec and Rocon increased in size
and began to grow tail feathers. Rua and Sorcha continued their
moult, shedding various body and wing feathers as well as their
claws and growing new white leg feathers, though, of the two,
Sorcha's change of plumage was less noticeable. The covey ranged
over a slightly wider area, regularly visiting the road for grit,
but otherwise keeping to the Wild Bog.
On their spread at the north edge of the bog the vet and this
son were clamping turf, building the sods into small oblong stacks
to keep them dry. The vet was happy. Despite his misgivings,
the Committee had scored an outstanding success. It had been
his idea to invite a world famous naturalist, a friend of his
dead wife's, to visit Drumeen and from there it was an easy step
to interest R.T.E. in making a programme with the naturalist
pointing out the unique aspects of the bog. He had emphasised
its importance from a botanical, zoological and historical angle,
asserting with infectious enthusiasm that the bog held within
its mould of peat much of the history of Ireland from the Ice
Age down to the present. He had even, God bless him, found their
elusive rare specimen, the Great Fulvous Bumble Bee, indigenous
to raised bogs. But even that wasn't the end of his surprises.
He had regarded the turlough as a natural adjunct to Drumeen
Bog, part of our wetland heritage that was being destroyed by
drainage. It seemed that the entire area, including the Moving
Bog, was now ecologically important. No wonder the Co-op was
furious. Their letters to county and national papers showed an
increased viciousness; no longer was the Committee a paper dragon.
Their anger was directed more at himself than the bank manager,
whose declining health won him some sympathy.
One person who did not share this sympathy was the cattle
dealer. If anything, his dislike of the bank manager had blossomed
into active hatred, the hatred of the wounded animal for his
tormentor. Things were going much worse for the Co-op than any
outsider suspected. First, there was the matter of ownership.
The fool of a solicitor whom they had employed to check this
out had run into all sorts of difficulties. It seemed that title
to many sections of the Wild Bog was in the names of people living
abroad, descendants of emigrants from Drumeen, and the rest was
probably-but only probably owned by the Land Commission, which,
since the Land Commission no longer existed, meant it was now
public property-that is if it wasn't owned by the Department
of Agriculture. The Co-op had gone ahead with its plans on the
assumption that acquiring title would be simple; now, in the
aftermath of the T.V. programme, there were rumours that the
state would accede to the Committee's demand to have the public
portion designated a nature reserve. If that happened, much of
the money that he and his partners had laid out on drainage and
solicitors' fees would go down the tube. To make matters worse,
the excavator, when it finally returned, had sunk once again,
with the result that the operator was vowing to wash his hands
of the whole deal. Then there was his daughter. Despite his attempts
to advise and cajole, she had kept up her association with the
bank manager. If it weren't for his fear of turning her completely
against him, he would have forbidden her to set one foot inside
the scoundrel's house. But, by God, he wasn't beaten yet, not
by a long shot. If he had to employ men to deepen the trenches
by hand he would do so, and if he had to shoot every damn grouse
on the bog to stop it being turned into a nature reserve, he
wouldn't hesitate a minute.
His elder son listened in silence to these outbursts. He both
feared and admired his father, who, he sensed, regarded him as
a poor substitute for his elder brother. This boy had drowned
in a swimming accident the year before they had come to Drumeen
and his death had turned his father into a hard, demanding taskmaster.
One day the young man hoped to inherit Drumeen Farm, though his
father seemed to think that he wasn't fit to manage even a cabbage
garden. Well, he would show him. If the grouse were an obstacle
in the Co-op's path, then he would find a way to remove them.
Exercises and Activities:
1. Debate: The Bank Manager and two other members of Drumeen Committee have been invited to debate the issue of the bog with the cattle dealer and two members of the co-operative. "This house believes that it is acceptable to destroy a habitat to provide essential employment and prevent emigration."
2. Write the speech a world famous naturalist like David Bellamy might make about Drumeen Bog on television.
3. Find out as much as possible about Grouse and their bogland habitats from the above passage and from wildlife books. Prepare an illustrated report or wallchart on your project.
