{"id":518327,"date":"2026-06-25T20:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T20:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/518327\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T20:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T20:43:11","slug":"galway-brothers-80s-turning-turf-while-the-sun-shines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/518327\/","title":{"rendered":"Galway brothers, 80s, turning turf while the sun shines"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blue skies and black sheep.<\/p>\n

This is the rural heartland of Mullagh in east Galway and farmers have no time for basking in the heatwave.<\/p>\n

They are out baling hay while the sun shines right across Connacht.<\/p>\n

Domestic turf cutters are building up a sweat in bogs in Killoran, such as two brothers in their mid 80s who have been cutting, turning and footing turf all week.<\/p>\n

Pakie Dillon said the bog is his second home.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been cutting turf since I was 14 years old and you don\u2019t get many young lads wanting to work in bogs anymore,” he said, adding with a laugh “maybe they\u2019re right”.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t mind the heat. You sweat alright but this heatwave is a Godsend,” he added.<\/p>\n

\"Pakie
\nLaura Canning with her dad, Pakie, and uncle, John, on the bog<\/p>\n

His daughter Laura Canning said the blazing heat is perfect bog weather.<\/p>\n

Ms Canning said: “We\u2019re down here in the bog at the height of the heat footing turf, something which is done on a yearly basis,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Especially with my Dad, Pakie, and my uncle John.<\/p>\n

“You had to have turf for the fire.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s making hay while the sun shines kinda thing.”<\/p>\n

Farmers across Connacht are working around the clock to make the most of the heatwave.<\/p>\n

They say drying conditions are perfect ahead of the return of Atlantic rains and possible thunderstorms.<\/p>\n

Nearby in Loughrea sun worshippers were basking lakeside.<\/p>\n

The amenity is one of the most popular inland swimming and recreation spots in the west of Ireland.<\/p>\n

\"Siobh\u00e1n
\nSiobh\u00e1n Cunningham said it ‘was great’ to be at Loughrea Lake<\/p>\n

Siobh\u00e1n Cunningham and her son, Callum, were soaking up the sunshine and the jovial atmosphere.<\/p>\n

“People are in good form,” she said.<\/p>\n

She added: “It\u2019s lovely to be here and be in the water, which is so clean.<\/p>\n

“The lake got a blue flag for water quality.<\/p>\n

“Everyone is happier, we don\u2019t get it often, so we need to enjoy it while it\u2019s here.”<\/p>\n

\"Angelica
\nAngelica Dooley with her daughter Azura at Loughrea Lake<\/p>\n

Angelica Dooley was with her daughter Azura.<\/p>\n

She said: “The heatwave has been unprecedented.<\/p>\n

“So we took a day off school and we came down from Bullaun to enjoy the weather and the fabulous lake.”<\/p>\n

Carmel Sullivan, who is from Loughrea and was spending the day with her grandchildren, said: “We\u2019re having a fantastic time.”<\/p>\n

Ms Sullivan said the weather “is unreal”, adding “I\u2019ve never seen the lake so full”.<\/p>\n

Whether it is bogs or beaches, oceans or lakes – people are doing their own thing and making the very best of the sunshine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blue skies and black sheep. This is the rural heartland of Mullagh in east Galway and farmers have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-518327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}