A few weeks into a 3,000 kilometer pilgrimage from County Clare, Ireland to Santiago de Compostela, Spain, I was in the middle of a 30K walk in Cork, from Millstreet to Bweeng, on a sunny day with scattered clouds across the deep blue sky. 

As the morning sun rose, I came across a few commercial turf fields, and then some small family plots connected to one another and there were a few folks out cutting turf for their personal use.

Before long, I was chatting away with one Timmy O’Keeffe, a Cork Man, as friendly as can be. He was wondering what brought me through the boonies here and I explained I was on pilgrimage, It’s A Long Way From Tipperary to Santiago. Soon we were laughing together and I told him as a grandson of Irish Immigrants to America, cutting turf was a dream of mine, resulting in a lesson from Timmy on doing it the old fashioned way with a slean. Timmy gave me a C+.