A time to shout stop as our humble sod comes under fire

Country Living with Francis Farragher

There is a very deep-seated relationship in country areas, and even in small towns, between people and those browny/purple strips of landscape that pop up all over the West of Ireland.   Some events live long in the gene pool of the Irish memory bank. We remember the blight scourge of the 1840s that brought famine and death to the countryside; and we’ve always had a great grá for some of the basics of life such as a decent food supply and an accessible fuel to warm our homes over the winter months.

I’m of an age where I can remember serving my apprenticeship in catching sods one-by-one as they were thrown up by my father after being neatly cut into the bank.

As the years passed, the growing strength and muscle power of the young lads could always be accurately gauged by how many sods they could ‘wheel out’ in their flat bellied barrows.

Most families in my neck of the woods had their own banks, but for those who hadn’t, there was always a tradition of selling a load or two to them.

It was never a big business by any measurement, but just a little taste of the meitheal concept where no one was left out and the seller made a modest few bob to cover their costs.

For enterprising young lads, opportunities also presented themselves to make a few bob during the summer season and especially so if one was lucky enough to have access to ‘a means’ for the transportation of light goods.

Step into the breach the humble donkey and cart, a wonderfully versatile energy source and critical to ‘putting the turf out on the road’ in late August or early September.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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