Treasures from Peat Bogs

For centuries, the Irish have dug bricks of peat out of the bogs of Ireland. The turf cutters would cut out blocks and toss them onto the bank using a Slán where they were stacked to dry before winter set in. Those bricks of premature coal burn hot and long in a cottage fireplace, baking loaves of soda bread in Dutch ovens and cooking iron pots full of potatoes and cabbage.

Many times exciting relics have been discovered in the bogs. A beautiful silver chalice, iron weapons, even balls of butter, buried in the depths of watery brown mud have been brought out in amazingly good condition. Some of the treasures are on display in Ireland’s museums. Today the peat is harvested with earth moving machines and tractor-loaders.

In 2006, an operator of a “digger” cut away some of the rich brown bog and, when dragging the bucket backward, he saw something in the mud. He stopped the work instantly and jumped down off the machine to see what it was.

It was a book! Its large cloth pages were half buried in water and mud. However, the man could read some of the words on the pages of hand-written Latin. It was the Psalms of the Bible!

Archeologists from the National Museum of Ireland very carefully retrieved the book from the swamp. They proved that it was at least a thousand years old. Made of animal skin and leather, the pages had been preserved for ten centuries by the tannic acid in the mud.

Such books were hand-printed and decorated by monks living in monasteries in Ireland during the Dark Ages. The Book of Kells, found many years ago and carefully preserved, is also a thousand years old and on display in the Trinity College Library in Dublin. That book was also found, carelessly discarded, likely by a Viking raider who wanted only the embossed gold of the cover.

Slowly and gently, the pages of the new treasure were spread out and dried. It appears to be a psaltery, Psalms 84 used in rituals in the church.

Some officers of the Christian religion feel that this discovery in Ireland is equal to the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea in the West Bank.

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To read more stories like this one about the Irish influence to America, order my new book, soon to be released, "Color Me Green: Ways the Irish Influenced America" by Helen Walsh Folsom.

Over the next several weeks, I will be publishing, with the aid of my daughter, Bettse Folsom, a series of answer & questions & snippets about Ireland that many people have asked me during events where I have attended. If you have a question, please contact me by email and I will be happy to address it.

Thank you for reading my blog!

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