A tough day at the bog following a family tradition
WHEN you think of family associations with occupations you could reel off the likes of Boland’s and Jacob’s with biscuits, Ahern’s and Divane’s with cars and the Cremins name with turf.
In fact the Cremins name is as synonymous with keeping the home fires burning around here as is Bord na Mona up the midlands.
There’s a famous quote lodged in local folklore from the time of the second world war – which was reduced in status in Ireland to ‘The Emergency.’
During the emergency there was a huge demand for turf and the bogs around Broughane and Dromadda and Knightsmountain and Muinganaire were proverbial hives of activity.
There are people who still remember the long queues of horses and rails of turf waiting to be weighed on the bridge at the Back of the Forge before being delivered to the nearby railway station.
On one of those far off days, Con Houlihan dropped in to a local pub for a bottle of stout and was asked the burning question of the day:
“Who’s winning the war Connie? Looking out towards the street and at the usual procession of horses and rails, Con replied ‘The Cremins’s.’
Please let me introduce you to four year old Kaylem Cremins – with permission of his mom Lisa Broderick-Cremins and dad Arthur.
Kaylem has two older sisters Rebecca and Clodagh and he’ll be starting big school after the summer. His mom assures us that he can turn his hand to anything and is more than willing to try and he’s a dinger in the bog. He can’t be kept away from it.
He likes all types of music and his favourite dinner is bacon and cabbage.
But mostly, after a day in the bog, he loves coming home and relaxing, washing his feet in a basin of warm water and watching TV. Isn’t breeding a fright.