A Day in the Bog, a showcase of Irish heritage at Yonkers Raceway in New York includes a bank of turf.
Managing director of Mid-West and North West Radio Paul Claffey was encouraged by listeners to capitalise on the success of the spectacle 'A Beat on the Peat' in Knock, County Mayo, has created an ambitious two day event in the United States.
Yonkers Raceway in New York will be transformed for the festival 'A Day in the Bog' which will bring a slice of Ireland to the USA on 17 and 18 September 1994.
This showpiece of Irish heritage features artifacts from the past donated by listeners and the County Sligo Agricultural Museum in Riverstown. These include creels, churns, threshers, ploughs, wheelbarrows, tractors,
You name it and I have them all ready for 'A Day in the Bog'.
A life size traditional Irish cottage, containing everything it would have done in the late 19th Century is being shipped to the US and promises to be one of the highlights of the event.
The festival centrepiece is a bank of turf 100 tons in weight, which Paul Claffey has shipped over to New York in six 40-foot containers. A Bord na Móna engineer will reconstruct a bank of turf that will be sixty foot long, six foot high and six foot wide at Yonkers Raceway.
'A Day in the Bog' will hold a traditional Irish wake and give demonstrations of churning, turf cutting, threshing, poteen, and boxty making.
One of the problems encountered in the organisation of the event Paul Claffey likens to The Republic of Ireland soccer team sweltering during the 1994 World Cup. Two donkeys who are supposed to be carrying creels, are suffering from the heat in New York.
We’re walking them around Yonkers for the last three days and all they want to do is lie down.
Performances of traditional and contemporary Irish music and dance will take place on a specially erected stage in Yonkers Raceway. Brendan Shine, Declan Nerney, the Conquerors, Seamus Moore and Philomena Begley are travelling to New York to perform at the festival.
While 'A Day in the Bog' allows attendees to experience how their forefathers lived and worked, it also features volunteers from the west and northwest of Ireland. It is hoped they can convince some of the expected 30,000 attendees to holiday in their part of Ireland.
'The Late Late Show' was broadcast on 9 September 1994. The presenter is Gay Byrne.
