Bogs provide food and shelter for many wild creatures, but what about people? It might surprise you how many items in your house or kitchen cupboard come from bogs. Try to think of some by yourself then check the poster overleaf. How many things on the poster do you find at your house?

Furniture & Souvenirs in Bog Wood

Wood that has been preserved in the bog for thousands of years is often found during turf cutting. Most of the wood is Scot's pine, which is a softwood that in the past was twisted to make ropes, used for thatching or for torches. Bog oak and yew are especially sought after because of their strength, texture, hardness and beauty. When polished yew wood is a deep orange-brown colour and bog oak is jet black.

Three hundred years ago, carpenters in Killarney, Cork, Dublin, Lisburn and Belfast began making furniture from bog wood. Fine pieces were made for the drawing room such as cabinets and
occasional tables. These were decorated with Irish emblems such as shamrocks, harps and wolfhounds. Less expensive furniture was also made from bog wood for everyday use such as beds, stools, dressers and spinning wheels.

From the 1820's bog oak was used for making souvenirs for tourists, especially to Killarney. These included high crosses, harps, jewellery, buttons and shirt studs. Some of these were embellished with gems, silver and gold. Other small practical items were made including work boxes, candlesticks, letter openers and book stands. All were carved with shamrocks and other motifs depending on their size.

Carving in Bog Wood

Today bog wood has a particular value to sculptors. Artists such as Michael Casey from Longford and Ronnie Graham from Galway can see beautiful creatures and forms in the twisted, knotted shapes of the wood found in the bog. Before it can be used, bog wood must be dried, for up to two years. The final sculpture is the result of sanding,
rasping, shaping and polishing with beeswax.

Turf Crafts

Fresh turf has been sculpted into thatched houses, faces, castles and animals of the bogs. Working with wet turf can be very difficult because the pieces made shrink a great deal as they dry. Fresh turf can hold up to 20 times its own weight in water.

When fresh turf is dried and compressed it can be made into peat briquettes which people burn to heat their homes or it can used to make gifts. Two businesses in Ireland Owencraft and Island Turf Crafts use compressed peat to make celtic jewellery, crosses, animal figures, bookends, clocks and wall plaques.

Peat briquettes have also been carved and painted by artists around the country to be sold as souvenirs.

Plant Crafts

The willow and alder trees that grow in fens are woven into baskets that can be used for shopping, storing turf or bedding pets. Willow and alder have also been used to make fish traps.

In the past flowers collected from the bog were dried and pressed to make pictures. Florists collected the scented stems of bog myrtle to use in flower arrangements and gardeners used to use bog moss plants to line flower baskets. Nowadays people grow bog plants commercially to use for plant crafts, or use alternatives in gardening ensuring that our wild bog flowers and mosses are
safeguarded.

Traditionally rushes were hand woven into St Brigid's Crosses in February which were hung in cow byres to increase milk production.

Alternative Medicine

Taking a bath in hot peat is good for your health, especially if you suffer from stress, aches and pains. Herbalist Ita Wrafter from Kinnitty in Co. Offaly is in the process of setting up a peat bath house which will be used in the treatment of many ailments including arthritis and rheumatism. Only peat 8,000 years in age or more will be used in the treatment as this contains the minerals and substances which can cure. Already Ita uses "peat packs" to ease localised pains and aches. These can be heated in the microwave and applied to sore areas for instant relief.

Clothing & Textiles

In Finland the brown fibres found on the underground parts of bog cotton plants are used for making clothing. The fibres can be carded together with wool or spun into yarn for knitwear and fabrics. The yarns can be knitted to make socks and caps. The cloth has excited designers who make expensive and unusual clothing. One of the companies actively producing
clothing is Kultaturve. Wearing this special clothing has hygienic value. The bog cotton fibres bind and neutralise secretions from the skin such as sweat, salts, impurities and smells. And clothing containing bog cotton fibre is warmer than pure sheep's wool clothes.

Soap

Peat soil is used as an ingredient in hand made soaps produced by Gallúnac, Co. Clare. The company claim that the peat in the soap has deep cleansing and exfoliating properties that make it ideal for gardeners.

Extracts from bog plants such as cranberry have been used to scent soaps produced in America.

Food & Drink

Cranberries and blueberries or bilberries are picked for food from bogs. Cranberry is used to make cranberry sauce, traditionally enjoyed with turkey at Christmas, but it is also used in juices and yoghurts. Bilberries are beautifully sweet and have a much wider range of uses. They are lovely in tarts, crumbles, muffins, jams and yoghurts. Fermented bilberries make a wonderful liqueur.

A lot of people

associate the scent of peat smoke with the boggy areas of Ireland. Peat smoke has been used to smoke and preserve salmon and to flavour whiskey.

Because people love the smell of a turf fire so much one company in Ireland has produced turf incense houses. Inside, these have a slate stone and small sods of turf that can be lit to give the genuine smell of turf anywhere in the world!

Paper

People made paper from peat in Ireland as far back as 1835. In 1903 the Callender Paper Company in Celbridge diluted moss peat and ground it into pulp. It was then put into a press. The paper was glazed and polished as it passed from the press. The brown paper was made from two-thirds peat fibre and one-third paper pulp. It was used for postcards and as wrapping paper. People bought the postcards to send to their friends because they were unusual. Nowadays these early peat postcards are very collectable.

Hand made stationery is enjoying a revival in Ireland. A number of companies mix a small amount of peat or heather flowers in the pulp they use to make the sheets producing a textured paper that is lovely to write or paint on. -

Catherine O'Connell