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Five thousand years ago, all of Ireland was covered in trees. Then the climate changed and peat formed around them, an inch for every ten years, until parts of the country were embedded in thirty feet of bog. Then the peat was farmed for fuel and the ancient forests were revealed beneath the bog. That timber was not seen as precious. It was used as firewood in famine times and carved into Victorian bric-a-brac. It was associated with decay.
