Children create new artwork to tell story of Cloncrow Bog
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Classmates and friends Alessandro Coffey and Johaan Linto at the new boardwalk entrance designed by fourth class at St Anne’s NS, Tyrrellspass.Image 3 of 10
Fourth class pupils from St Anne’s NS, Tyrrellspass, in front of the boardwalk entrance they designed mentored by artist Annie Holland and the Tóchar Community Stories project.Image 4 of 10
Amber Flanagan wearing a badge of her artwork, which now forms part of the new boardwalk entrance to Cloncrow Bog.Image 5 of 10
Hugo Davis with his artwork of ‘Devil’s Matchstick’ on the new boardwalk entrance to Cloncrow Bog. Photo by EUGENE DUNBARImage 6 of 10
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Katherine Kennedy pointing to her artwork in the boardwalk panel her class designed for the entrance to Cloncrow Bog.Image 8 of 10
Ryan Sheridan pointing to the newt he painted for boardwalk entrance designed by his class at Cloncrow Bog.Image 9 of 10
Ethos leader Eugene Dunbar with pupils explaining the nature they can find on the bog.Image 10 of 10
Artist mentor Annie Holland creating badges for fourth class from their bog inspired artwork. Photo by EUGENE DUNBARChildren from the primary school in Tyrrellspass have created their own artwork to show and tell the story of Cloncrow Bog, supported by Ethos, the local volunteer bog conservation group, and Tóchar Midlands Wetlands Restoration.
The 24 children, from fourth class in St Anne’s NS, were mentored by artist Annie Holland under the Tóchar Community Stories, a two-year community engagement project.
The children, with their teacher Laura Lynch and Eugene Dunbar from Ethos, began learning more about the history, flora and fauna of their local bog in late March.
They then spent a day with Annie, Eugene and Laura exploring the bog loop, learning to identify plants, butterflies and birds native to it, and then began working with Annie on developing their own pieces.
The artwork has now become a new entrance panel to the bog loop boardwalk and on Monday June 9, the schoolchildren celebrated the installation at the bog and got to tell their own stories by sending postcards of their artwork to those they feel should know more about saving the nature of the bogs.
Cloncrow Bog is a Natural Heritage Area, and is one of the few remaining intact raised bogs in the midlands. It has a unique variety of highly specialised plants and animals that survive in this vanishing habitat. It covers 234 hectares and the trail is a 3.5km circular walk, starting and finishing in Tyrrellspass, and going through the unique peatland.
Ethos (Everything That Tyrrellspass Has On Show) is the local volunteer group who are community custodians of the landscape and habitat. They have created a QR code guided trail from Tyrrellspass Castle back to the village, for which local people share the story of the village and the bog.
Tóchar is a wetlands restoration project, co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund Programme. It is managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and supports wetlands restoration initiatives.
Tóchar Community Stories is the scheme’s public engagement, community, culture and heritage initiative working with people living close to bogs and wetlands in the Just Transition Midlands region (Laois, Offaly, Kildare, Westmeath, Tipperary, Galway, Roscommon, Longford).