The Bog Cafe | Programme 2024
The Bog Cafe is a three day micro festival celebrating the community, culture and nature of Ardee Bog. This years festival programme is presented as part of the "‘The Turf House’ project, a six month community cultural project supported by Creative Ireland, Create Louth and the Department of Culture.
Friday 20th September
Morning: School Visit
Pupils from Ardee Educate Together will visit to the Turf House and engage with the artwork they created for the Bog Cafe ‘Dream Bog.’
Please note this event is for school participants and their parents only.
14:00: Turf House Launch
What is a Turf House, how were they built and who lived in them?
Join Friends of Ardee Bog, members of the Ardee Bog community and special guests from the Bog Bothy project for tea, cake and an informal chat about their newly constructed Turf House on Ardee Bog.
In 2024 Friends of Ardee Bog received a Creative Communities grant from Creative Ireland to build a Turf House on Ardee Bog. In this event we invite guests to learn about Turf Houses, how they were built and who lived in them, and find out how Friends of Ardee Bog have re-imagined this type of traditional home as a space for informal education, making, gathering, and bog conservation - right in the heart of Ardee Bog.
We are delighted to welcome guests from the Bog Bothy Project, the Irish Architecture Foundation and 12th Field to chat about the Bog Bothy Project and share their insights from working with communities across Ireland to build spaces on bogs.
Booking essential: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/turf-house-launch-tickets-1006865099617?aff=oddtdtcreator
18:00: Bog Radio LIVE for Culture Night.
Bog Radio is a collection of audio work broadcast on our once off Bog Radio “Bog-Cast” event. Stick in a pair of headphones and tune into stories, music and sounds from Ardee Bog.
Listen LIVE on the 20th of September at www.ardeebog.ie/bog-radio
Saturday 21st September
11:00 Walk with the Irish Society of Water Diviners
Friends of Ardee Bog are delighted to welcome members of the Irish Society of Diviners to Ardee Bog and to offer a limited number of spaces to the public to join us and watch the society conduct their work.
Divining and Dowsing is an ancient practice, going back to the earliest records of human life on earth, that seeks to reveal the unseen and hidden in the world around us. Members of the Irish society of diviners will visit the location of the Turf House on Ardee Bog to discover the direction and flow of underground streams, establish lines of geopathic stress and signs of habitation throughout the site.
Please note this is not an interactive workshop. Guests will observe the society conduct their work and will be given space to ask questions after.
Catered Lunch will be provided for all guests after the walk.
Booking Essential: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/walk-with-the-irish-society-of-water-diviners-tickets-1006888238827?aff=oddtdtcreator
14:00 Print Making Workshop and Pop Up Zine Fair
Take part in our DIY print workshop in the woods and explore the imaginative possibilities of zine-making with a pop up zine fair curated by the Underground Zine Archive. Play with collage, mono printing and natural printing techniques and explore the stories, questions, images and materials collected by Friends of Ardee Bog as part of the process of Deep Mapping Ardee Bog.
What is Deep Mapping? Deep Mapping is a form of counter cartography that invites people to capture the different meanings and experiences that are associated with particular places.
About the Artists
Sophie Coyle is a Dundalk based visual artist, musician and gardener.
Iseult Aiken is an Ardee based visual artist and teacher.
Bryony Archer is a trainee geographer, graphic designer and organiser with Friends of Ardee Bog.
Helen Flanagan is a multi-disciplinary artist and writer from Ardee.
About the Underground Zine Archive
The Underground Zine Archive is a pop-up project for weirdo, bootleg and punk zines run in association with Drogheda Zine Fair. The collection took shape at local gigs, zine fairs and radical bookshops with the aim of creating a mobile, socially engaged space to browse zines and contribute to conversations around DIY culture. The Underground Zine Archive thrives on upheaval, change and unstructured learning.
This workshop is presented as part of our project, Deep Mapping Ardee Bog, which is supported by Create the National Agency for Collaborative Arts and the Arts Council of Ireland.
16:00 Frogspawn Tea Demonstration and Tasting
Join our youngest member Robin for a demonstration on how to make Bubble Tea. For children and parents.
Booking essential. Please email ardeebog@gmail.com for more information.
18:00 Pop Up Shebeen with Spooky Beore
Do you like COCKTAILS? Do you like MOCKTAILS? Are you partial to a POTION?
Your friendly local ditch HAGS Spooky Beore have emerged from the watery depths and have settled their greedy eyes upon the fruits of the hedgerows. Autumn is upon us and the sweet fruits of the harvest are ripe - Blackberries, Sloes, Elderberries, Rosehips for all. Celebrate Croms Time with a TWO HOUR HAPPY HOUR with a throwback to Coole Sports Day thrown in for good measure.
Drink a potion and PLAY A GAME. You might even win a PRIZE.
20:00 An Evening at the Turf House
Our host Fanny Split McGee, your local panto dame from only down the road, will be hosting an evening at the Turfhouse, serving up BOG BODY realness alongside..
The ARDEE BOG MUMMERS with their new play
“The Turf Man, the Devil and the Ditch Hag”
A SURPRISE SITE INSPECTION with Art Collective come Coven come Construction Company the High-Vis Witches.
Traditional Musician Brendan McCreanor and special guests present a new music work inspired by the music and traditional culture of Ardee Bog.
Scary night walk to Churchtown Pub for pints.
Booking Essential: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-at-the-turf-house-tickets-1007573087227?aff=oddtdtcreator
Sunday 22nd of September
11:00 Dance Workshop
Experience the transformative power of dancing outside in a field with your Friends (of Ardee Bog) and Yves Lorrhan.
Yves is a black artist who immigrated from Brazil to Ireland in 2019 with over 26 years experience expressing their voice through dance. Yves practice involves exploring their identity, how they present to the world, how the body navigates political spaces and how dance can serve as a conduit for social reflection and social change.
This workshop is curated by Go Dance for Change, an intercultural collaborative platform producing social spaces that use dance as a primary tool to connect people.
Booking essential: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/dance-workshop-tickets-1007537500787?aff=oddtdtcreator
13:00 Pot Luck Lunch
Sunday Lunch! Bring a dish to share at our long table. All welcome.
Let us know if you’re coming ardeebog@gmail.com
14:00 Listen to the Bog with the School of Wild Listening
You’ve heard of the Bog, but have you heard the Bog? Explore Ardee Bog through the practice of environmental listening with the School of Wild Listening. Join the School of Wild Listening’s director, artist Robert Coleman, for a very special Sound Walk on Ardee Bog.
The School of Wild Listening is a platform dedicated to exploring and sharing the practice of ecological sound art and music.In an era marked by ecological disconnection, the act of listening becomes a powerful tool for reconnecting with the natural world. This listening not only offers insights crucial for cultural transformation but also becomes a form of artistic expression, allowing us to engage creatively with the biodiversity and climate crises.
Booking Essential: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1007554240857?aff=oddtdtcreator
16:00 Forest Bathing and Closing Ritual
Say goodbye to this years Bog Cafe with an early evening Forest Bathing Workshop with MyElement. Explore the bog as a sensory experience, wind down, breath, hug a tree, commune with the trees and make environmental art in this years closing activity.
Forest Bathing, or shinrin-yoku, is the art of taking time to connect with the forest, absorbing all it has to offer through all the senses - sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Relax, unwind and commune with nature in the MyElement bog forest.
This session will be led by Fiona Crawley, a forest bathing practitioner, gardener and social care worker.
Booking Essential: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/forest-bathing-tickets-1007569707117?aff=oddtdtcreator
This Years Bog Cafe Programme is Supported by Creative Ireland, Department of Culture Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Louth County Council, and Louth Arts Office.
