A Bog's Life
As Ireland contemplates its energy future, a Notre Dame student works to restore its ecological past.
On a typical gray, rainy day along Ireland’s west coast, Tom Nee leads a group of Notre Dame students around the grounds of his sheep farm along the Killary Fjord. On the far side of the inlet are steep hills, with hints of jagged stone peeking out through a blanket of green. On the near side, the students watch as Nee leads a sheepherding demonstration. He gently vocalizes commands to his sheepdog, Holly, who in turn jogs on either side of the herd, moving and coaxing the animals into the desired position.
When the demonstration is over, Nee guides the group over a gentle incline some 200 yards away, stopping at a small cliff that looks as though it had been chiseled into existence. Layer upon layer of dark matter is exposed beneath the green of the topsoil. As the spongy ground beneath them likely signaled, this is a bog. The near-black soil is peat.
There are peculiar rectangular indentations cut into the earthen wall, and soon Nee shows how those features came to be. He takes a tool known as a slean — a sort of mix between hoe and shovel and post digger — and pushes it into the soil. When Nee draws the slean from the earth, he deposits a rectangular log of peat onto a pile. The logs are stacked by the pit to dry.
Read more here.
Latest International
- Business on the Frontlines continues work with Palestinian artisansThe West Bank city of Jenin is an area plagued by violence and destruction. It is here that the University of Notre Dame’s Meyer Business on the Frontlines Program works with Palestinian women artisans to create economic opportunities for themselves and their families.
- Notre Dame business student spends summer teaching and working at school for disabled in UgandaSophomore Anna Koeberlein spent the summer in Jinja, Uganda, where she taught English to students at Holy Cross Lake View school and volunteered at St. Ursula’s, a boarding school for Ugandan children with disabilities.
- Global works of art from Notre Dame Crucifix Initiative to be displayed at The History MuseumSelected works of art from the Crucifix Initiative will be on display in an exhibit on view starting Thursday (Aug. 10) at The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana. Launched in 2019, the initiative seeks to highlight the globalism of Catholicism — and to represent the diversity and internationalism of the University and its community — by building and displaying a collection of crucifixes from around the world.
- Connor Kaufmann wins Fulbright to attend summer institute in ScotlandConnor Kaufmann was selected for the program based on academic excellence (3.7 minimum GPA), a focused application, extracurricular and community activities, ambassadorial skills and a plan to give back to his home country. “I strongly felt that it would give me the opportunity to foster my creativity in a unique, robust and international way,” he said. “This would, in turn, give me the opportunity to best help my community’s immigration issues in creative and innovative ways.”
- Rome Global Gateway launches Rome Summer Seminars on Religion and Global PoliticsIn June, the University’s Rome Global Gateway co-hosted the first edition of the Rome Summer Seminars on Religion and Global Politics. The two-week program welcomed 17 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows working at the intersection of religious studies and international affairs for a full schedule of writing workshops, graduate seminars and public events.
- The Object of Art: Students explore the galleries and stages of London‘The object of art is to give life a shape.’ — William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream It’s a brisk Thursday morning in October, and a group of Notre Dame students is out for a stroll along the River Thames in central London. They move along the South Bank as their guide, adjunct art history professor Lois Oliver, points out spots of historical and cultural significance. She takes note of a mother and child combing the bank near the river’s edge. The Thames is tidal, Oliver explains, and when the water recedes one can often find bits of pottery or other materials, some of which can date back to the medieval period. More than a few students are wide-eyed at this.…