Uncovering one of Ireland’s deadliest bog disasters in County Limerick

WHILE doing genealogical research, New Zealand writer Daniel J Ryan, came across a catastrophe that he had never heard about, and there was very little information about it online. What little was out there didn't match up, so he began his own investigation, which resulted in my writing an article that can be found in full in the 2024 edition of the Old Limerick Journal.
There is uncertainty regarding the precise date of a significant bog disaster that occurred either in 1708 or around 1792 at Portnard and Castlegarde in Cappamore, County Limerick, claiming 21 lives. This event had nothing to do with a toilet or the cause of Artax's death in The NeverEnding Story (that was a swamp). This was one of the deadliest bog slides in Ireland, in which a large section of waterlogged peat and turf suddenly broke away and moved quickly down a slope, carrying everything in its path. It’s hard to imagine that a stagnant pool of water and peat could cause such a massacre.
For the past 120 years, the event date has been commonly cited as 1708. However, the further back one delves into historical newspapers, it becomes increasingly evident that this date is grossly inaccurate, as there is no mention of it before 1897—over 100 years after the supposed occurrence. Even the Geological Survey Ireland's Landslide Susceptibility Mapping has this wrong date!
After extensive research, I found three unique newspaper articles, including the earliest mention in the Limerick Chronicle newspaper four days after the event. I discovered that the disaster actually transpired on Saturday night, December 22, 1792.
The destruction was caused by the continuous rains for some time, which caused the bog at the lands of Portnard near Bilbao, owned by Rev. Richard Lloyd, to burst. The peat-cutting excavations probably didn’t help, weakening the walls of the bog; peat was predominantly used for cooking and heating back then. The quarter-mile-wide bog slide travelled a mile, and was incredibly fast. In all, the flow of liquid turf buried three cottages as it moved along a valley, killing 21 people. Entire families along with their livestock, stacks of corn, and hay were wiped out. Three of the victims were unaccounted for at first, but eventually all the missing victims’ bodies were found.
On the night of the disaster, two sons of an elderly man named Collins were out at a dance. One brother came home earlier than the other and went to bed. He was woken up, alarmed, by the moans of the maid and then realised that he was neck-deep in a bog inside his house. Overwhelmed and struggling, he was able to free himself, but his father, mother, and maid had been buried alive, and there was nothing he could do but bear witness to the destruction. The other brother arrived home from the dance and went to where the house had been. He threw hay down before him as he moved and called out to see if anyone was alive. His brother's cries directed him to where he could be found.
In one family from one of the houses, a pregnant mother was found sitting up in bed with her arms locked around her four children, her husband standing over them with his back against the wall in the posture of endeavouring to support it. The bog swallowed the house so rapidly that they had no chance of escaping - this time, there were no survivors. Separating the mother from the children was difficult because of their locked arms. Other families in the houses were found in similar situations.
Deciphering the old newspaper’s ordering of events is unclear. The most logical path: the bog moved from Portnard and crossed the high road (likely the R505 road from Cappamore to Doon) toward Doon village, covering hedges and trees entirely in its path, reaching depths of at least 20 feet in many places. It continued its relentless movement from Castlegarde, it eventually flowed into the old lake of Coolnapisha, which no longer exists. But even that didn’t stop the bog. Most of the peat had also been destroyed on this path of destruction, which had been the last hope of many during the fuel shortage at the time. It’s unclear exactly how far the bog trail went before it stopped. The papers at the time vaguely described how it covered some ground and came near two bridges.
This may be all the surviving information on the disaster. Some details are unclear, and I’m unsure which “valley” or houses are referenced. Also, nothing is known about the deceased individuals except that they were impoverished and that there was one family with the surname Collins. The 1826 Tithe Applotment Books for Doon Parish showed the Collins families as tenants at Castlegarde and Gortavalla. An 1827 survey of Castlegarde showed one of the Castlegarde Collins families living beside the Gortavalla bog. The prevailing surnames were Collins and Ryan in 1840, Gortavalla South, and this townland is between Castlegarde and Coolnapisha. One other Collins family is listed as tenants of Doon in Cooga. The ravaging of the cottages could have occurred around Castlegarde and Gortavalla. Researching into the Collins families, Timothy and James, the names listed in the Tithes at Castlegarde and Gortavalla, are likely contenders for the brothers who survived. With limited surviving records, all I can do is not rule them out. It would be wonderful to find living descendants that had this story passed down to them.
So far, I have found some answers by locating three old 18th-century newspaper articles. As the articles were short, and almost every other newspaper article seems to be a copy from the initial reports, there are many “what ifs” and “maybes”, so I have many more questions than answers. Multiple errors have propagated over the last 200 years like a game of broken telephone.
I hope to see more information unearthed so I can write further about those who have been long-forgotten. Perhaps some records are still hidden in an archive, waiting to be digitised.

-Written by Daniel Ryan: Please contact him if you have found information about this event at: daniel_ryan@outlook.com