Getting lost in the bog and the fog

Out on Sliagh Beag at Bragan, Co.Monaghan

The Penal Cross was erected in 1938 in memory of a priest executed during a Christmas Day Mass in 1754. The Pena Law Act prohibited the practice of catholicism and authorized the violent repression of the same. The congregation would have traveled on foot to this remote bog to avoid detection (not successfully, it seems).

The track leading down into the fog leads to a path that gives foot access to 3 loughs (lakes) I used to fish for trout with our neighbor, Pat when I was a teenager. The lakes straddle the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, with one being in the latter. Once we encountered an infantry of soldiers patrolling the area, as this was a closed border at the time, but they weren't particularly interested in us.Read more