Portraits of bog people
During my year in Ireland, I have enjoyed taking unexpected portraits of people who have connections to bogs. Below you will find a few of the characters I have met on the bog.
John Mulvihill poses with two of his Kerry Bog Ponies, a breed he saved from extinction after these working ponies lost their place in rural Irish communities.
Cathy Kerwin lives near Lough Boora Discovery Park and often takes her morning walks through this industrially mined peatland that has been reclaimed as a wetland park.
Myfanwy Blisset is a resident of County Kerry who volunteers to monitor water levels at her local preserved bog, Coad Bog.
Jim Murphy is a lifelong turf cutter in County Clare, which means he has cut and dried blocks of peat from his family’s bog to heat this house for 70 years.
Archeologist Gretta Byrne stands on a bog where she has mapped 5,000-year-old stone walls in County Mayo holding by using a probe, like the one she is holding, to push into soil and find the stones.