west offaly heritage | new media new audiences

The local success of Sculpture in the Parklands - by Sarah Reusche

2010-08-21T20:27:00.000+01:00

How to be a Bord na Mona worker - by Lucia Lopez

2010-08-21T20:26:00.000+01:00

Belmont Mill: A stewardship story - by Sara Emmenecker

2010-08-21T20:24:00.002+01:00

Memories of Bord na Mona - by Shana Weinberg

2010-08-21T20:23:00.003+01:00

Voices from Lemanahaghn - by Al Lees

2010-08-21T20:23:00.000+01:00

A visit to Larry's Old Time Village - by Amy Atticks

2010-08-21T20:22:00.002+01:00

Everyday bread - by Erin Boyle

2010-08-21T20:21:00.000+01:00

A walk through Irish history - by Anya Ventura

2010-08-21T20:14:00.005+01:00

Boglands in transition - by Kathryn Higgins

2010-08-21T20:14:00.002+01:00

video map

2010-08-21T20:06:00.002+01:00

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Final Thoughts: on the Product

2010-06-23T19:36:00.010+01:00

53.2162 -7.76421
Sunday June 12, 2010

The product I ended up creating was a short movie which combined archival photographs of Bord na Mona with stories from 3 men whom I interviewed. Because of the short time period and my discomfort in wanting to create my own story, I decided the best way to use the interviews was to allow them to speak for themselves. I wanted to avoid a dry history of Bord na Mona-that's something that people can read for themselves if they were interested. The special and interesting part of my experience was the lived experience, of having within one's life time seen a company move in, expand a rural area, and then go through a decline. I took these 3 men's interview to create an arc of a story-the company moving in, how this changed community, focus on the company's expansion and decline, and see the broader impacts of Bord na Mona on the area. In some ways I feel that the memory piece allowed me to avoid a lot of complications and gave me more leeway about the story that the video told-in other ways I felt at times uncomfortable slicing these men's stories to create my own. I think elements of this are present in any project which is so heavily invested in a small community-and part of this is a result of not having enough time to go back to individuals to make sure they felt comfortable. The same sorts of ethical issues arose in my thoughts about using archival footage of people. So the question is, how to balance a product driven environment with respecting the stories and lives of the individuals you work with.

Ties to the Land

2010-06-23T19:35:00.003+01:00

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Thursday June 10, 2010

Today I interviewed our neighbor about living in Offaly and his familial links to the land. Michael could trace his family history back seven generations living on one plot of land and could link some of the homes on the property to his father and grandfather. Thus far my research and thinking had been largely focused on the towns in West Offaly and how Bord na Mona and its large scale industry has transformed these villages. The emphasis has been largely socio-cultural rather than environmental. Michael’s interview today, and his thoughts about history and heritage being place-based-down to the exact plot of land his ancestors used to farm and cook their meals-has made me realize that I need to really emphasis the long agrarian connection to emphasize the shift industry had on the landscape and the people.

Bord na Mona’s Role in the Community

2010-06-23T19:33:00.002+01:00

53.17643 -7.72748
Wednesday June 9, 2010

Today I had the opportunity to spend another morning with Tom and Marty. I’m interested in learning about the role of Bord na Mona and industry on West Offaly. Chatting with the men together has allowed me to see the nuanced role that Bord na Mona has played within the community. I received mixed responses to my questions-with the general consensus being that Bord na Mona brought employment and infrastructure to a small town. The men talked about the 1950s-1960s while the work was still largely manual and the facilities lacked heat or hot water. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to chat with Mr. Jennings about the moment of Bord na Mona’s inception, but the stories Tom and Marty shared with me helped to provide a sense of the community before industry arrived as well as the stories about work and social life. After a few days of research it seems that industry and the growth of the villages around West Offaly is a unique story to the county-and that the hard realities of work, life long friendships, and transformation of small villages can best be told by mixing these men’s stories with archival images of the Bord na Mona.

Half Cooked.

2010-06-13T22:24:00.003+01:00

53.2371 -7.87569

If my story really was a loaf of bread, I'm afraid it would be one that was never quite cooked through the middle. No, that's not quite right. It's not that it isn't finished, it's just that I want to bake some more. I decided to focus on just one part of the story--highlighting the beginning of my own journey with Irish Soda bread, starting with my mom's bread and finishing with my learning of secrets from the women who I spoke with about baking.

In some ways, the task has been overwhelming. In just a few short days, we've had not only to gather the raw materials, but also synthesize the stories, trying to determine how to do justice to all of the stories that we have heard and all the time that people have spent with us.

I've been thinking a lot about format. I didn't feel as though I had the photographs to pair with all of the sound that I wanted to include. The piece that I've come up with is about 10 minutes long, which would require many more photographs than that in order to create a dynamic audio slideshow. Beyond just the question of whether or not to add photographs, I've been thinking about the length of the final piece more generally. After having recorded and edited only the first ten minutes or so of the story, I realize that I have what would amount to over an hour-long audio story. Although not entirely improbable, I might have difficulty maintaining people's attention for an entire hour. As I continue to play with the stories over the next month or so, I'll have to think about whether I should simply pare down the story into something that is shorter and more manageable, or whether I should be making several shorter pieces. Food for thought.

Belmont Road

2010-06-13T10:27:00.010+01:00

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The sun was shining today so Steve and I took off to explore the ruins in our immediate vicinity. Our roughly mile-long trek led us along Belmont Road to the Judge’s Ruins, the old train station, and the former lemonade bottling plant before finally landing us on the small intersection I’ve come to know as the “town.” Compared to the quiet of Oiserbrook cottages, the corner of road housing Cahill’s pub and grocery store is positively bustling. Right down the street is the famed Larry’s Old Time Village and the restored Belmont Mills. We also passed the public housing estates boasting a small pavilion with a broken water fountain – this last bit of information was generously provided by a preadolescent on a pop music-blaring bicycle, after we stood in front of the stone structure for awhile scratching our heads. So, it wasn’t a pagan burial mound after all, but ruins of a different sort. While waiting for the rest of the gang to ferry us to the Ferbane public library, our unofficial clubhouse, we took the opportunity to pour over the public sculpture (bog people!), commemorative plaques, and the local map. As something of a map enthusiast, I enjoyed charting our walking route. It was also interesting to look at how these official markers helped make sense of the place.

However, my favorite site by far was the Judge’s Ruins. I later found out, according to A History of Clonogan Parish, that the building once belonged to a local doctor who would dole out medicine outside his home, hence the name Dispensary Hill. Under the watchful eyes of grazing cows, we scrambled inside. The structure was beautiful: overgrown with ivy, etched with graffiti. The graffiti I found especially touching; like the initials carved on the trees or the cursive lining the wooden beams of the mill, it’s just another way of humans making their mark on the landscape, of saying “I was here.” Is this different from the official plaques on the Belmont street corner?

I’m getting excited thinking of my project as a kind of in-depth, micro-touristic account. Thinking of travel in expansionist terms is seductive – “the more ground I cover, the better!” I sometimes think, and maybe that is the American way. After all, we are about space, and having lots of it. The other night we were joking about the old show tune “Don’t fence me in,” which goes “give me land, lots of land, under starry skies at night/don’t fence me in.” And that, truly, is the national ethos. I would like to conceive of this project as an exercise in mapping the overlooked and ordinary – those sites that disappear in the rhythms of the everyday. I think it also makes sense for me to frame my project spatially rather than chronologically, and there is something about the simplicity of exploring the mile-long stretch of country road that appeals to me poetically.

Clonmacnoise, World Heritage Site?

2010-06-12T19:10:00.002+01:00

53.32508 -7.98506

This evening we visited Clonmacnoise, a remarkable site, remarkably preserved. Clonmacnoise was a monastic city from the 6th through the 9th century (history here), and today it is the most important tourist attraction in County Offaly. It's easy to see why: a spectacular setting; ruins at just the perfect state of ruin; a story central to Irish and, indeed, Western Christianity... Our visit, as the sun was starting to set and clouds swept across the sky, made us appreciate the site as a place of contemplation. That turns out to be one of the challenges in interpreting the site. Yes, it was a monastic compound, but it was a major city, on the main trade routes. We see ruins, but we need to get beyond that to understand the site as it once was.

Amanda was, as always, the perfect guide, telling us the story behind the story, explaining not only the site, but the challenges of managing the site, and of interpreting it. That's particularly interesting at a site that is still an active religious site, like Clonmacnoise, and one that is being considered as a World Heritage Site. Balancing religious uses, tourism, the environment, and local concerns is not easy; Amanda earns her pay!

After our visit I checked out the World Heritage Site nomination. There's a website, of course, with basic information, but even better, the report prepared by consultants ERA-Maptec Ltd for the Office of Public Works. That's here, as a pdf.

The report makes a good case for the historical significance of the site - that seems pretty clear. More interesting, and more challenging, is the plan for interpretation. The report sets high goals:

To protect, conserve and promote an appreciation of the outstanding universal value of the Monastic City of Clonmacnoise and its Cultural Landscape by putting in place a management framework that promotes sustainable economic regeneration and social inclusion for present and future generations.

Not only must the site be preserved and interpreted; that work

... must be balanced against the needs of the local community, for the candidate World Heritage Site is a complex, living landscape. Sustainable physical access to the Site and equality of access to all are important considerations and need pro-active management.

Amanda gave us some of the backstory. How far should the viewshed - a major part of what makes the site work so well as a tourist attraction - extend? How to extend the graveyard, acknowledging the ongoing religious uses, while not disturbing archaeological sites?

The plan doesn't answer these, but sets out a plan for answering them. I suppose that's the nature of this kind of project: the process is what's important at the beginning, and the details come later. There's a 14-page "Summary of Action Programme, 2009-2014" with 13 objectives spelling out who does what. Indeed, that's what most of the report is - listing what to worry about, and whose job it is to worry about it. I don't see a vision for the future of preservation and research and tourism at the site; I see a list of steps to take to get there. It's a necessary first step.

Storytelling as Bread Making

2010-06-11T21:15:00.003+01:00

53.24801 -7.89203

Storytelling as bread making, or perhaps the other way around. I'm not sure. In any case, a metaphor that includes soda bread seems especially apt for the terms of this project. Soda bread is made quickly, using basic ingredients. Bicarbonate of soda means that the bread will rise rapidly, not requiring the same time that a typical yeast bread might call for. If there's anything that stands out about this residency in Offaly, it's the quickness of it all. We've been immersed in this community and over the course of just a few days have had to pull together pieces of interviews and conversations in order to create a final product. It's not an easy task, but a challenge I think, that we have all accepted happily.

Gathering the stories has doubtlessly been the most interesting aspect of this project for me. Getting the chance to tour a 19th century mill, to speak with a baker, to bake a loaf myself, and to listen to the stories of an older group of women that Annie Valk interviewed, all provided me with the raw ingredients of the story. Crafting the bread will be more difficult. There are still other stories that I would like to tell. The story of the mill itself, and the history of its products: oats, wheat flour, animal feed. Each of these would make a fascinating story. Then there's the story of early globalization: buying flour from Minnesota and Manitoba to mill in rural Ireland. There are changes in the bread based on the availability of ingredients: Attracta Dooley tells a story of her mother's use of corn meal to make "brown bread" during World War II.

For now, I have to focus on how I'm going to edit the bread. Taking out the extra bits without mussing with the flavor or consistency.

Learning from NMAI

2010-06-11T19:05:00.002+01:00

53.25492 -7.89269
I invited a former colleague from the Smithsonian, Ann Silverman, to visit us at Belmont. Ann had worked for me at the American History Museum, and then spent several years at the National Museum of the American Indian. I hoped that her NMAI perspective – and her willingness to say just what she thinks – would be useful to us as we gathered stories. After all, the NMAI spent a decade figuring out how to overcome the long history of anthropologists and ethnographers who would take a community’s stories and leave, and while I didn’t think that we what we were doing was in that category, inviting an outsider who might call me on it seemed useful.

And indeed, Ann’s first question was how we were different from generations of anthropologists who showed up in native villages and stole their stories. What had we learned from the NMAI’s processes of letting communities tell their own stories? In what way were we serving the communities we were studying?

Good questions, and something we’d thought some about, but perhaps not enough. One answer might be that we’re invited in. But of course, not everyone invited us in; the county council did, and while that’s a reasonable answer, it does mean we should be aware of the relationships of county government and people we’re talking to. Another answer: we’re not digging, we’re only gathering the stories people we talk to want to tell. We’re not looking for family secrets; we want to let individuals tell the stories we want to tell. (An anthropologist or historian might say that we’ve gone too far in this direction; we’re only getting the commonly shared folklore.)

But most important, I think, is that we’re not taking the stories with us; we’re leaving them here, letting them serve as connections between local communities, and as a way for visitors to understand the communities on their own terms. We’ve been granted access because of our county and academic connections, and we’re putting that to use for the community and for those who might come and visit later.
Ann was satisfied with our work, I think. And I think her former colleagues at the NMAI would have approved, as well.

The Uses of Ruins

2010-06-11T11:59:00.005+01:00

53.22222 -7.94935

I spent today touring the Shannon Harbor and the surrounding areas with Ian and Steve. I’m interested in exploring how people think about the past, and how the past is written into physical landscape. Someone once told me that in Europe a hundred miles is a long time, while in the States, a hundred years is long. We have space, Europe has time. So it’s been interesting to see all the visible layers of history – what do people here make of it? While waiting out the rain in a pub, we had an interesting conversation about the Irish sense of history. Ian colorfully described bog bodies cutting through the air as peat was being harvested. He hypothesized that these discoveries has led to the sense of the bog as an inexhaustible warehouse of historical scenarios, as an almost physical repository of historical knowledge.

Later in the day we stopped by Clonony Castle, which was in the process of being renovated by a former ballerina and historical preservationist named Rebecca. She had been in the business of restoring castles for a long time, and offered many interesting insights into the meanings of old ruins. The Victorians, she pointed out, had tinkered with the architecture to make the castle look more authentically “medieval.” It was a good visual reminder how history is constantly being made and remade, usually according to the desires and anxieties of the present. Steve brought up the question: what makes something historical? When do these sites begin to be described as “ruins,” and when do the changes start taking place in the way the sites are perceived? It’s all part of a cycle of use and abandonment.

Cultural Studies scholar Meaghan Morris has written, “Wanting history is not a primal human desire. We have to be taught to want it, to learn that history is the name of something we lack, and this particular pedagogy of desire and lack has been intimately bound up with nationalism as a project aspiring to govern change.” Exploring this dialectic of desire and lack, I wonder: What do we want or need from history? I’m curious as to how these historical desires are enacted in an Irish context. Do these ruins form a kind of “origin story” in the construction of Irish heritage? Meeting Larry, Rebecca, and Sean Murphy – all local amateur historians and preservationists – makes me wonder why. Why are everyday people driven to create and maintain a history? Where does the sense of civic responsibility come from the preserve the past?

Over bread and tea.

2010-06-10T22:14:00.002+01:00

53.18963 -7.98391

This morning, I met with Carmel Kelly from just outside of Banagher. Ten years ago, Carmel opened her own baking operation in an old concrete building on her family's property. Every morning she wakes up at 5 to begin her baking--mixing as many as 70 loaves of soda bread by hand, not to mention her scones.

Carmel's stories are lovely, and you'll be able to listen to them in the archive, but what I want to write about is the kindness of strangers. I've written about this before in other places, but I think the concept deserves another mention here as it has shaped this project from beginning to end.

It's incredible really, to reflect for a moment on the generosity that has been extended to us throughout our stay in Offaly. Person after person, family after family have willingly invited us into their homes and shared their stories. Once inside their homes there is always the requisite offer of a cup of tea and I've been met with my fair share of soda bread. This exchange, of tea and bread has been enormously valuable throughout this process. Even when people met each other in cafes, the concept is the same, a ritual of sharing stories over a comforting drink and a slice of hearty bread.

Over bread and tea people's barriers are able to come down, trust can be built and confidences shared. These moments make our responsibility to our storytellers all the more important. The people who we have interviewed have shared not only their time, they have also welcomed us into their homes.

I'm humbled by their generosity.

Irish people don't always talk.

2010-06-10T14:29:00.002+01:00

53.20959 -7.76166

Sarah Reusche

6/10/2010

My project has changed a lot since I started. I planned on documenting retired Bord na Mona peat workers reactions to Sculpture in the Parklands at Lough Boora, and their stories about living and working in Lough Boora at the height of it’s industrial production. I specifically wanted to focus on the peat workers because of they had worked with the land that is now reclaimed, as opposed to mechanical maintenance workers (fitters) of Bord na Mona who worked in shops, often off-site. By chance, I spoke to peat workers who had never been to Sculpture in the park, or fitters who had, but didn’t vocalize many of their opinions on the place. The best audio I got relating to the reception of the parklands and how it reflects industrial heritage was from Tom Egan, the land manager at Lough Boora, and Michael Camon the leaser of our cottages. Tom was integrally involved in the founding SIP, so he had very insightful reflections. I think Michael opened up so much because he was comfortable being interviewed in the cottages that are familiar to him, and the JNBC had already established a trusting, respectful relationship with him.

I’ve never collected oral history before, and I realized that I’d totally taken for granted the human interaction and psychological aspects of collecting honest, undiluted stories from strangers. We met about 12 retired Bord na Mona workers at a pub in Kilcormac. Assuming it was going to be a free-for-all of elderly men reflecting on the good old days, we prepared a few questions that we thought would spur personal stories related to what we were looking for. All of the men could talk for hours about the peat industry, and Bord na Mona as a company, but questions like “What did you do for fun when you weren’t cutting turf?” fell surprisingly flat. Maybe it was too personal, or too long ago. But a moment that really stood out to me was a four second clip of two Bord na Mona workers, that no one knew had been recorded until later review of the tape. I talked to Patty and Jimmy for about an hour and a half, and they we’re both pretty shy. Katherine then took them to another room to talk to them for her project. She ducked out to grab them scones, and on the tape you hear a few seconds of silence, and then, “It’d be hard to tell everything that happened, ain’t it? Jimmy, wouldn’t it? So many things were goin’ on”. Something about the tiredness of his voice struck me. These people have a story they want to tell, but capturing it is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Ideas for Belmont Output

2010-06-09T17:00:00.004+01:00

53.24801 -7.89203
While reflecting on my research, I have started to think about my final output. I have been inspired by Tom and Sandy's story and I have decided to focus on the restoration/stewardship of Belmont Mills. To tell this story, I have sketched a preliminary storyboard of what I would like the final output (video) to look like.

Begin with an image of the mill before restoration: dilapidated, in a state of disrepair. Fade into a photo from the same vantage point of the mill today.
Display text with brief history of the mill.
Tell the story of the restoration using audio from owner Tom Dolan and builder Nole Holmes. Display images of mill buildings from before/after restoration.
Tell about the current use/ programming at the mill: artist studios and artists-in-residence, using audio from interview with owner Sandy Lloyd. Display images from violin maker and boat maker studios.
Comments from David Perry (former miller/owner) and Tony Cassidy (lifelong resident of Belmont) about the good job that Tom and Sandy have done restoring the mill
Tom and Sandy discuss their role in the history of the mill - caretakers/stewards

I have gathered nearly all of the content necessary to create this project. This evening I'll be meeting with builder Nole Holmes to discuss his role in the restoration.

Artists-in-Residence

2010-06-09T16:21:00.002+01:00

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Today we met two of the artists that work full-time at the mill. Mark Keenan, who rents a small apartment above his studio, repairs 19th century violins as well as crafting his own new instruments. Originally from Dublin, he spent 10 years living in England before coming back to Ireland, and according to Mark, he couldn't be happier. On weekend nights in Belmont you can find him playing his violin in a session at Cahill's pub.

Across the courtyard from mill yard from Mark, Dougal McMahon does work repairing wooden boats. Like Mark, he also tries his hand at building his own new ones. And he too enjoys the fruits of his labor, sailing on the Shannon river near his home in Athlone most weekends.

Two new artists-in-residence have arrived just this past week. They'll be doing shorter stays here, funded through bursaries that Tom and Sandy have secured from the Arts Council of Ireland. Through the support of the local art council, Belmont Mill has been able to secure national funding to support an artist in residency program. The program originally hosted both international and Irish residents, but because of the increased cost of travel and artist stipends for international artists, the program is now focused uniquely on Irish artists. Sandy, who administrates the residency program, works with Irish art colleges to coordinate all the new residents. Sandy's interview, which provides wonderful insight into the residency program will be available in the archive.

Bord na Mona in the Pub-and Changing Ideas

2010-06-09T16:01:00.002+01:00

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Tuesday June 8, 2010

After a few days of tromping around the peatlands and reading about Bord na Mona, the major thing missing from my research has been the stories of people who worked on the bogs. This morning at the pub, I had the pleasure of chatting with some men who had worked at Bord na Mona. Tom, Marty, and Liam each presented interesting perspectives about their experience at Bord na Mona-both locals and visitors, old timers as well as newer workers. While I had initially approached the interview as a means to learn about the physicality of the work of being a turf worker as well as the general process, as the men spoke together, the stories that stuck with me revolved around the experience of an industry as large as Bord na Mona moving into Offaly, a town with a population of only 300 at the time. Tom and Marty, the men who had grown up in Offaly described going down to see the Bord na Mona housing being built with their families. Tom and Marty described the transition to the work of cutting turf, and how, as many men in their towns did not go on to primary school, working at Bord na Mona represented a type of work many men were familiar with, as well as presented a welcome opportunity for jobs. Before our interview, I had imagined that mainly local men filled the ranks at Bord na Mona; I was surprised to learn that the company was actually reluctant to hire locals at first. Bord na Mona needed a large supply of workers, which meant that men came from all over the country. Liam, a “blow-in” was one of these workers who left Tipperary in 1976 to be an apprentice fitter at Bord na Mona. He discussed the banter between the workers from different counties. Learning that the men had come from all over Ireland to work at Bord na Mona, as well as hearing about the changes in Offaly through Bord na Mona’s flux-both high and low points made me particularly interested in learning about the early years at Bord na Mona, and the change that industry brought to Offaly-both in terms of the culture of turf cutting, and the culture of the county. Thanks to the Bord na Mona men I spoke to today, tomorrow I will be speaking to Bernie Jennings-he was from the Turf Development Board, which, to my understanding, was part of the county production scheme, which was the front runner that helped to form what would become Bord na Mona (in 1946). It’s this moment of flux-from small-scale production to large industry-and a changing town and culture that I’m really hoping to capture tomorrow.

Discovering the Peat Lands

2010-06-09T16:00:00.002+01:00

53.2371 -7.87569
Monday June 7, 2010

Since I arrived on Saturday, I’ve tried to understand this thing called peat, or turf. Before Saturday, I’d never even seen peat before-making it extremely difficult to understand its use as a natural resource and the community’s cultural and historical connection to Offaly’s unique landscape. Walking around our cottages in Belmont have allowed me to stomp around the spongy peat harvesting area, observe our neighbors loading peat into trucks, and the rows and rows of stacked peat drying before it will be storage. Since my arrival on Saturday the neighbors have been extremely friendly and willing to chat about something intricately woven into their lives-which probably seems a bit ordinary and mundane.

Near the cottages lies a range of peat or turf harvesting, representing both the industrial harvesting by Bord na Mona (the Irish government owned public/private operation) as well as plots owned by members of the community which have been passed down within the same family for seven generations. Today the family plots use the same or similar machinery to the industrial company-though some families still hand stack the peat to dry-called ‘footing’. I’m particularly interested in capturing the range of peat extraction, which occurs today-as well as learning more about the tools traditionally used to harvest peat. A brief chat with our neighbor Michael today allowed me to see a slane- a foot tool used to cut peat into bricks and then tossed into piles. I’m looking forward to Thursday when Michael is meant to show us the slain in action.

Industry Turned into Art

2010-06-09T15:59:00.002+01:00

53.20959 -7.76166
Sunday June 6, 2010

Today we walked about the Sculpture in the Parklands-an area that had formerly been a bog and rehabbed into a public park and sculpture garden. I was most amazed to learn about the innovative way that Kevin has thought of to combine artistic work with skills and tools so embedded within the community. With the help of workers from Bord na Mona old industrial materials have been shaped, cut, and transformed into beautiful pieces. Walking around the sculptures has allowed me to take in the beautiful Lough Boora and art pieces as well as learn more about how turf had been traditionally excavated by seeing the cutting tools, trains, and storage objects.

Knowing that in thirty years peat excavation will no longer be occurring, I wonder how the skills of the peat workers can be harnessed in other ways. Our visit has also made me think about how other community-corporate-artist partnerships based on Sculpture in the Parklands might work.

Introduction to Peat

2010-06-09T15:57:00.003+01:00

53.2371 -7.87569

Saturday June 5, 2010

I’ve decided to come to Ireland because I am interested in local history, heritage, and how people perceive a personal sense of place. Coming from upstate New York with its large markers of abandoned industry (such as mills and factories) has made me curious about how towns in Offaly are transforming themselves even as the peat industry is winding down. What will all the old workers do? How are bogs being transformed into parks or other useable spaces?

As I’ve read to prepare for the trip, I can’t seem to get past the fact that I’ve never seen peat and I’m having a difficult time wrapping my head around how the excavation of this material fits into the lives of people in Offaly. Luckily peat cutting was the first thing I saw in Ireland after arriving in the county. Just beyond the cottages where we are staying are peatlands being excavated by a nearby family who has been using the land for seven generations. Being an unusually sunny day allowed the family to begin to collect and store the peat-which had been cut into bricks a month before and stacked to dry as best it could in the damp Irish weather. As well as being a sunny day, Saturday also marked the beginning of the holiday weekend, when people would have more time to do household tasks. First impressions of the peat-am amazed at how despite the machinery, elements of it still seem to require handwork (such as making the footing or stacks). Talking to the folks gathering up the peat on Saturday, I also learned about changing government policy to stop peat cutting and protect the lands, which made me think about the intersection between environmental concerns and heritage-and how to balance the two.

The Last Miller in Belmont

2010-06-08T17:00:00.011+01:00

53.24801 -7.89203
Back at Belmont today for two interviews set up by Tom and Sandy. First we met with David Perry, who was the last member of the Perry family to operate (and co-own) Belmont Mills. Our second meeting was with Tony Cassidy, a lifelong resident of Belmont whose great grandfather and grandfather, both named Patrick Cassidy, worked at Belmont Mills.

David Perry explained the changes in the mill operation over time and the factors that led to its closure. We asked him details about the different grains that were used – from near and far – and captured valuable information for Erin’s research on local bread, grain and food. We learned that because of the water power, Belmont Mills was on the cutting edge of technology in Offaly. Power from the mill was used to generate the first electricity in the area around 1899.

The highlight of our meeting with Tony, an amateur historian with a passion for geneological research, was learning that the younger Patrick Cassidy brought trade unions to Belmont Mills in the 1920s. Tony has a passion for local history and is quite pleased with the restoration work that Tom Dolan has done at the mill complex.

During the interview with David, I took the following notes:

00:00:00 Bread used to be made with oat meal. The bog was important to the development of the mill, it acted as a sponge for the river, providing a constant form of power

00:02:54 Flax mills (“tuck mills”) were the earliest mills in Offaly, flax was grown in mid-region of Ireland, the flax was then woven

00:03:40 The Perry family arrived in Ireland around the time of the French Revolution, they were French Huguenots and stone dressers. They developed several mills in Ireland and consolidated in Belmont because of the water power available.

00:05:10 Farmers who came to have their oat milled were within horse and cart range. They would bring the grain to the mill and have it milled. The mill would store the grain for the farmers until they needed it milled. A commission was paid to the mill. Each farmer grew enough for their own family. Any surplus was sold to the mill. Grain was used for bread, porridge, and animal feed.

00:08:00 The farms used to be “mixed” with a variety of livestock and crops, making families much closer to self-sufficiency.

00:09:30 White flour came in around the 1880s. After, Belmont became the largest flour mill in Ireland. It was possibly the only site in the Ireland with constant, consistent power.

00:11:00 The water power was reduced when Bord na Mona began draining the bogs and harvesting peat.

00:11:40 Flour produced changed over the decades. Belmont produced flour blends. There were different types of grain imported from Canada and North America. Whte bread mainly went to the cities. Most rural people lived on the land and would eat their own bread. White bread became cheaper, North American grain was still 1.4 the price of Irish.

00:13:40 Grain is still frown in Ireland in the southeastern parts of the country. It is ground at the ports. But in general Ireland can’t compete with the grain from North America and Canada.

00:15:00 At one point, each small town had several bakeries. Flour would be delivered to these shops by the mill.

00:16:20 Bakers would have bought the mill blends.

00:17:30 Brown bread is made with oat meal and soda bread is made with wheat flour and baking soda.

00:19:40 During World War II, grain from North America was not available. The mill adapted to make flour with locally grown grain. It didn’t make much flour, instead making maize meal and other meals for emergency food. The government told the mill what was needed. Grains were used more for porridge and less for baking, partially because turf was the only fuel available to bakers and ovens didn’t get hot enough.

00:22:00 After the war, animal feed became the base product for the lower mill. It stopped grinding flour and instead bought it and sold it under the Perry name. The oat mill continued operation until the 1970s or 80s. The government imposed hygiene controls on food production and the mill was no longer fit to produced meal for people.

00:24:30 If the culture of organic food had developed earlier, it cold have saved the mill.

00:25:20 David began managing the mill in 1980. He didn’t think it was prudent to invest in upgrading the mill to be fit to grind meal for human consumption.

00:26:00 Only 1-2 comparable mills have been refurbished and are currently in operation, but not by the original owners.

00:27:00 The last milling in Belmont was done in 1992-93. David says that he milled until a week before Tom Dolan moved in.

00:27:40 By the time the mill closed, very little grain was grown in the area.

00:28:00 David thinks it would have been romantic to try to keep the mill open but practically he knows that closing was the right decision.

00:28:30 David was trained as a miller in England, just like his father. Before that he studied agriculture at university.

00:35:20 The Perry family bought the mills upstream and tore them down so that they could control the water power.

00:42:00 At certain times of year, carts would queue up all the way to the village of Belmont waiting to collect their grain.

00:44:40 Local farmers stopped coming to Belmont Mills in the 1960s as farming practices changes. Their fields were too small for the new farm machinery and they switched to dairy and sheep.

00:46:20 A lot of farmers abandoned their land and went to work for Bord na Mona. Some continued to farm part-time.

00:48:40 At the end of Belmont’s milling days it produced only animal feed. There were multiple strains on the farmers, notable mad cow disease followed by an outbreak of foot in mouth disease. Eventually the mill ran out of cash and the Perrys decided to put the property up on the market.

00:50:20 Tall mill buildings are labor intensive operations. New mills are all on one level to allow for easy transportation of grain with forklifts. The turbine (installed in 1980s) was the only hydropower investment in the country at the time, other than Guiness. The turbine allowed the Perrys to sell power back to the electrical company. Its revenue propped up the milling business.

00:51:50 Allowed son to pursue other interests

00:52:40 Hydropower investment

00:54:00 David is pleased to see the property preserved. It is great for the local community. David lived in the mill owners’ cottage.The company owned a number of houses in the village, which were for the workers to live in. There were 140 works are the turn of the nineteenth century. The village of Belmont was built around the mill. Belmont was more of an agricultural meeting point rather than a town. The area was technologically advanced. Power from the mills generated early electricity (1898/99). Houses owned by the mill had electricity very early on.

Introduction to Belmont Mills

2010-06-07T17:00:00.009+01:00

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Today, Erin, Steve, and I had an introductory meeting with Belmont Mills owners Tom Dolan and Sandy Lloyd. The following are my notes and impressions. Unfortunately the audio recording didn't come out due to technical difficulties, so I'll have to rely on my notes and memory to retain the information that was presented.

History:

The Belmont Mills site is 4.5 acres. There are a number of buildings:

Mill Owner’s house was built in 1860.
“Dung Stead” is located off the horse yard
Horse stable, now artist studios. The violin maker is located in the former engine repair shop, the upstairs apartments were haylofts
Granary Building
Oat Mill Building
c. 1880 Office Building (which had bars on the building and 5 safes inside)

Perry family bought the site in 1854 from the Collins
Up to 70 employees working at the mill
Automated mill, closed energy system. Water running through the building provided the power. The waterpower determined the location of the mill.
At one point, lines of farmers extended down the road outside the mill and into Belmont village waiting to unload bags of oats.
The mill’s products were originally sold locally, at one point it was the biggest mill in central Ireland. The mill’s product list changed after Ireland gained independence and the British government subsidy ended. The mill owners needed to earn more so they began milling animal feed. In 1948 the Irish government ended their subsidy and the mill stopped making flour; other grains were milled in the old building until 1972.
Ultimately, the mill couldn’t survive because of its inland location.

Restoration

Tom and Sandy purchased the mill complex as a job lot in 1997.
The 2002 industrial archaeology report contains a detailed history of the site from 1769. It indicated that the restoration would cost a small amount of money. The County Heritage Council paid for the report after the fact.
They began the restoration after a few years, they felt obligated after putting the roof on and becoming interested in the social and industrial history. They see themselves as the caretakers of the mill complex.
Restoration didn’t require structural work, it was solidly built with a foundation more than seven feet thick.
Participated in the “Leader” rural regeneration/enterprise program, which gave the mill the state stamp of approval. The state awarded 100,000 to Belmont Mill and Tom spent 200,000. One of the conditions of the funding award is that the site must be open to the public for a minimum of sixty days/year.
Tom and Sandy hope to earn enough from admissions to keep the mill buildings open.
The commercial properties pay for themselves.
Tom is torn about making the mill a business.

Impressions: As a preservation/stewardship story, Tom and Sandy’s dedication is remarkable. Their motivations seem benevolent and altruistic. They feel a true responsibility as owners of the mill complex to respectfully care for it to preserve it and its story for posterity. I’m also amazed by the history of this small mill – its ties to globalization in the 19^th century with wheat being imported from as far away as Manitoba and Minnesota. It is also notable that it was so significant nationally in Ireland.

A Bread Story: A Work in Progress

2010-06-07T16:12:00.003+01:00

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I grew up wearing green sweaters to school on Saint Patrick's day. Every March 17, I would head proudly off to school in whatever green something that I could find in my own closet or borrow from a sister. In the evening after school, my mom would serve up big bowls of potato chowder paired with slices from a loaf of soda bread, Irish soda bread. She brought it straight from the oven to the table and my butter would melt right into it. It was the only day a year that my family ate soda bread, and since moving out of my parents' home, I haven't had the yearly loaf. Last March 17 when I tried to make it for myself I ended up with a loaf that weighed a half-ton and wasn't cooked through the middle.

Okay, fine, but what does all this have to do with County Offaly? Admittedly, I didn't come here with the intent of following the story of soda bread, or brown bread, or whatever other kind of loaves you can find around here, but now that I've arrived, I can't stop thinking about the stuff.

On Monday, Sara and I met with Tom Dolan and his wife Sandy at the historic mill they own in Belmont. The rain beat down loudly on the corrugated metal roof of the restored stable where we sat, but inside we were cozy, eating fresh soda bread, made just that morning by Carmel Kelly, a baker in nearby Banagher. As I smothered my slices with butter I thought that I could begin to sniff out a story. Sitting in what was once the largest mill in Ireland, a story about bread doesn't seem like too much of a stretch afterall.

A conversation with David Perry, the last of the mill's owners, confirmed the direction I would take. He told us stories about the Offaly farmers who lined up along the main road from the mill all the way to the center of Belmont, waiting to deliver their bags of oats to be ground. The oats, the same ones used to make the hearty brown bread whose story I'm chasing, were stored in individual bags in the mill and ground for farmers upon request. I'll have to go back to the sound files to check the details, but at some point during the mid-19th century, the mill began to import white wheat flour from North America, Minnesota and Manitoba, mostly. Turns out globalization isn't only a twentieth century story. More on this to come.

Anyway, even if it's a bit of a cliché for an American girl with a tenuous claim to her Irish roots to chase folks around the Irish countryside to capture the story of soda bread…I'm looking forward to having a go at it. Thursday I'll meet with Carmel Kelly at her bakery, I'm working on meeting with a farmer who's still growing his own oats, and I'll try my hand at baking my own bread with Fiona. Onward!

Sample questions for my next few interviews:

Questions for Carmel Kelly

Who do you bake for?

Where do you get your flour?

Where do you do your deliveries?

What recipe do you use?

Is there a recipe or type of bread that is unique to this area?

Caraway seeds? Raisins?

Do you know anything about the Irish Countrywomen Association (ICA)?

Have you entered a contest in any of the local "fairs"?

Questions for a Farmer

How long have you been growing your own oat?

Why do you think people stopped growing oat?

Where do you process your oat?

Questions for Fiona

Where did you learn to bake bread?

What are the ingredients we're using?

How often do you bake bread?

heritage or heritages?

2010-06-02T11:04:00.002+01:00

A heritage can take many different forms with as many different versions as there are voices involved in the telling and retelling of stories. As we enter the second decade of the 21st century, it is important to support the opening up of the sometimes singular narrative of Irish heritage to allow for more participants in the making and remaking of Ireland's diverse heritages. In this way, heritage spaces and resources can play a central role in the devolopment of shared senses of community in Ireland's increasingly culturally diverse society.

map

2010-05-31T16:28:00.000+01:00

View Digital stories from West Offaly Heritages in a larger map

contact

2010-05-31T16:20:00.000+01:00

More information on the project can be obtained by contacting Offaly County Council or the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, Brown University.

about

2010-05-31T16:15:00.004+01:00

The West Offaly Heritages project is a collaboration between Brown University's John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage and Sculpture in the Parklands and Offaly County Council. Funded by a grant from The Heritage Council and Offaly County Council, the project is bringing graduate students from Brown University's M.A. in Public Humanities programme into residence in West Co. Offaly, Ireland in Summer 2010. The students will be working with members of the local community in West Offaly to document, activate and creatively mediate the heritages and stories of West Offaly.

Organised by Dr Ian Russell (Brown University and UCD) and Kevin O'Dwyer (Sculpture in the Parklands) and supported by Amanda Pedlow and Ray Bell (Offaly County Council), the West Offaly Heritages project will be both a unique demonstration of the possibilities for new media to create new audiences for heritages in Ireland and a model for collaborative student research residencies as part of Heritage Council research programmes.