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Ceili at the Turf Fire

Luke Ming Flanagan got himself elected as a TD for Roscommon and one of the items in his agenda was the preservation of turf cutting on Irish Bogs.  There is a ‘green agenda’ to put a stop to the age old Irish tradition of cutting turf for heating and cooking in the Irish home and Ming says that the tradition must not be stopped. In Monaghan John Treanor and Joe McPhillips are doing their bit to preserve the tradition and if the turf cutting is stopped then future generations will have a very accurate record of the manner in which the work was done and a few more Irish rural traditions thrown in for good measure. They have filmed the entire process and hope to release a set of three DVDs on the subject. Local people were used as actors as who knows better than they how to do it properly. The 1st DVD covers the actual cutting and saving in the bog, DVD 2 will cover the taking home of the turf, and the final DVD is entitled - Ceili at the Turf Fire - where the neighbours gathered in for a Ceili round the cosy open hearth with the turf blazing and the bread being made. Stout and fresh bread and home made butter is served up lavishly and eaten with obvious pleasure and then the songs, stories, music and dance resume to extend well into the night or early morning.
Recently footage for DVD 3 was recorded in John Treanor’s specially preserved dwelling and we were there to take a few snippets from the filming. When it goes on release we will certainly tell you about it and you will enjoy it.

ceili 1 a.wma
ceili 2 b.wma
ceili 3 a.wma
ceili 4 a.wma
ceili 5 a.wma

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Ceilihouse 2 HERE