We Revisit the Bog Oak in Pollagh

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A few days after the Hay-Making Festival in Trim, we went off to visit Pollagh (also spelt Pullough or Pollach) in Co. Offaly in the midlands. We last visited Pollagh in 1998 when we moored there in a canal boat. Today canal-boat operators have virtually stopped hiring out vessels because of the safety conditions imposed by the EU. When we were there so many years ago, Damian played his bass in the hotel with a local band. Some years later he was hitch-hiking at night and a lady picked him up. She was the owner of the pub there and remembered him. She told him it wasn't a good idea to hitch-hike at night, gave him a meal and a bed then next day put him on the train to Dublin and paid his fare. More acts of random kindness. So it was nice to catch up with the publican again. She talked us into going to bingo and I won 100 Euros while Damian won separate amounts of 10 and 20 Euros so that was a huge bonus. We stayed in the van in the car park at St Mary's Church. The tabernacle, lectern and altar in the church are all made from a bog oak which had been disinterred from the bog and was over 4,000 years old. There was also a bog oak sculpture near the bridge. The other interesting feature in the church are two large stained glass windows which were installed in 1936. They were designed by Ireland's foremost stained-glass artist of the time, Harry Clarke. I liked the flower boxes on the walls of the churchyard and we got a nice photo of the bridge reflected in the canal.