Bogs of Connemara

Percy French (1854–1920), one of Ireland’s foremost songwriters and entertainers in his day, found his true vocation in painting, his name becoming synonymous with watercolours capturing the rural landscapes of Ireland. He would repeatedly paint the boglands, a landscape allowing for watery horizons and dramatically shifting weather conditions. This beautifully evocative watercolour depicts the bog landscape at Connemara in western County Galway. The ancient peat bogs formed over thousands of years by heavy rainfall on the Atlantic coast; they have heated Irish homes for centuries and have provided essential carbon storage for millennia.

Image 4: Peat Bog, Ireland, Amos from Tel Aviv, Israel, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Image 5: Cutting turf in Carna, County Galway, Ireland, Kevin Scannell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons