WOULDN’T it be something if you could condense the essence of Ireland into a single object so small you could keep it with you to admire and take inspiration from? It’s hard to imagine if that would even be possible, but that was the challenge facing acclaimed West Belfast-based artist Farhad O’Neill. And it wasn’t as if he could choose his own materials. Because this was as unique and unusual a commission as he had ever been asked to undertake. The story began 40 years ago just after Jake Mac Siacais was released from prison. He was spending time down south and before returning he decided to take something as a reminder of that time and what had happened there. Dúlra might have bought a rock or even a snow globe, but Jake decided to pick up. a piece of turf! He brought it back to his Belfast home and there it sat, soon to be joined by another, and another. It took four decades, but he managed to get a piece of peat from every county in Ireland, and all at a time when somet