The Bog Cafe
The Bog Cafe was a three day community arts and eco festival celebrating the ecology of Ardee Bog and the different people and groups locally and around the country working to protect and reimagine Ireland’s peatlands.
The Bog Idol
Our friends, art collectives the HiVis Witches and Spooky Beore, worked with us for the duration of the festival to make a bog idol inspired by the Gortnacrannagh idol, found in a bog in Roscommon. The project commenced with the removal of an invasive pine tree from Ardee Bog. The artists worked with the public over the weekend at the festival and created a sculptural bog idol and bog butter and led the installation of the idol on the bog at the closing ceremony for the festival.
Learning
We hosted a series of educational talks and walks with our friends; Padraig Fogarty from the Irish Wildlife Trust, the Barn Owl Project, Peter Philips from Bird Watch Louth, the Curlew EIP, Field Recordist Dean McDonnell, Dr. Kate Flood and local historian Brian Rogers. We also shared the work of our friends the Drummin Bog Project, the Community Wetlands Forum, Ardee Library and Ben Malone from the Community Waters programme.
Space
We hosted the Bog Cafe in the old church on John Street in Ardee. The space was a place for different people and groups to meet and chat and share their creative approaches to Peatlands restoration and conservation. It was also a place to share art work made by the local community, we created artwork with young people in local schools and host music and poetry. Our friends the Armagh Rhymers shared their bog oak sculptures of the saints and crane head hand bells.
participants and collaborators
Friends of Ardee Bog, Scoil Mhuire na Trocaire, Ardee Educate Together National School, IPCC, Irish Peatlands Conservation Council, Dean McDonnell (Field Recordist), Richard Timsworth (Louth Beekeepers), Padraig Fogarty (The Irish Wildlife Trust), Ardee Active Retirement Group, Yohan Riou (Old Ireland in Colour), Culture Night, Louth Barn Owl Project, Ben Malone (Local Authority Waters Programme), Kate Flood (Girley Bog Meitheal), Peter Philips (Birdwatch Louth), Curlew EIP and Birdwatch Ireland, Jinx Lennon, Sophie Coyle, Paul Callan, The Armagh Rhymers, Ardee Library Service, The Community Wetlands Forum, Coole Farm, Jules Michael and Cathy Fitzgerald from The Drummin Bog Project, Nuala Leonard, HiVis Witches, Spooky Beore, Niamh McDonnell (Plenitude), Brian Rogers, Iseult Aiken.
the bog cafe was supported by the Arts Council of Ireland
