Documenting Ireland’s vanishing boglands: ‘They hold millennia in their layers’

Photographer Shane Hynan's project, Beofhód, documents Ireland's boglands, which he states "hold millennia in their layers" and allow one to "read Ireland’s history in the boglands." These peatlands, known as portachs in Irish, cover approximately 1.2 million to 1.5 million hectares, representing 14% to 17% of Ireland's total land area. The raised bogs in the Irish Midlands are formed from peat accumulating at a rate of 1 millimeter per year in poorly drained basins or former lakes. Historical geographer Kevin Whelan noted in the Atlas of the Irish Rural Landscape that the bog is as deeply etched into the human record as the physical landscape of Ireland, an extent he finds unparalleled elsewhere. The project captures the tension between the historical and cultural significance of peat bogs in Irish life and their broader environmental implications, including their role in domestic use, as illustrated by a photograph of Eddie and Con footing turf for domestic use at Knockirr Bog, County Kildare, in 2022.