‘It will take more than a lad in a suit telling us to stop’

People in north Westmeath who depend on turf to heat their homes say that Bord na Mona allowing those with turbary rights to continue cutting is “trickery”.

Advertisements by Bord na Móna last week cited a 2019 High Court ruling that prevents it from issuing turf cutting licences to contractors; and it “reassured people” that anyone with a turbary rights can continue to cut turf as before the ruling.

That, however, “is a form of trickery” as those with turbary rights now employ contractors: “This is a kind of a joke,” said Billy Standish, secretary of the North Westmeath Turf Cutters Association.

“It’s the same on every bog, there is nobody cutting turf for themselves any more. My father used to cut turf years ago with a slane but that day is gone. People don’t have the equipment, so everyone gets their turf through a contractor. So this is a kind of a joke.

“This trickery might work up in the Dáil but it’s not going to work down in the country,” he said. “Everybody knows that people with turbary rights are not cutting turf themselves – the contractor is doing all the work. There’s nobody with their own turf machine.

“We’re based on Drumcree Bog and local man John Kane cuts turf here for about 30 families in the area. Nobody in this area is going to obey that law, and they’d just be delighted to go to prison over it. Moreover, the government aren’t going to go that far. It hasn’t worked up until now, and it’s never going to work.

“So if you want to mess people around and trick people, you can say those with turbary rights can cut turf, but the contractor is the hired hand to cut the turf.”

Ideal world

Billy goes on to day that in an ideal world, everyone would stop using solid fuels, “but it’s not an ideal world”.

“People need heat, and that’s a local source of heat right beside thousands of people in the country – they’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. And it’s the only way for people to heat their homes in many cases. The Green Party are talking about retrofitting people’s homes, but that costs €50,000 for a house, and people just don’t have that kind of money in rural Ireland.

“Whoever is bringing in the rule doesn’t understand what they’re trying to do, or the consequences of it. The government are talking about the fumes that come off the fuel, but if people don’t heat their houses, you’ll have deaths – old and young would die. The winters are severe, you have to have turf to heat your house. The number of people who would die through hypothermia would be tenfold compared to what would die through fumes from solid fuel – and it’s debatable about those fumes as well, people don’t burn wet turf,” he said.

“And it’s the same as the briquettes – we’re now buying briquettes in from Germany, while the cultivation of Irish briquettes ceased because they were supposed to be causing fierce damage, but there’s nothing said about the fumes or the carbon footprint of the briquettes coming from mainland Europe, so it’s kind of a laugh!

“Certain laws that are brought in are so silly, they might make sense up in Dublin but not when you come into the country. Most of the Green Party is up in Dublin, it’s a Green Party initiative, and most of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are terrified to go to people’s doors because of it.”

Tradition

As well as a local source of heat, Billy said that bringing home the turf is part of the social fabric that makes up rural Ireland.

“The bigger part of turf cutting in Ireland is the tradition. Most men I know in the country, the best part of their year is getting up on their tractor and heading off to the bog. We have more vintage tractors in Ireland than anywhere else in the world because most of them are used to go and get the their turf and bring it home. Every house in the country nearly has a small tractor, and that’s a big part of their way of life in the country. This is something that when they’re making these rules they don’t take into consideration.”

Moreover, Billy says the damage that’s been done to Irish bogs has been caused by industrial cultivation by Bord na Móna.

“They fleeced the tops of bogs across thousand and thousands of acres to make moss peat, and now it’s too little, too late. Only 1% of Irish bogs are used for fuel in people’s homes – it’s insignificant. The mass production by Bord na Móna and the government should have been stopped 20 or 30 years ago.

“They trying to prevent people who have cut turf for their own use but it’s going to take a lot more than a lad in a suit telling them to stop. They’re making rules for people in the country who they don’t understand, they don’t understand the history or the tradition of cutting turf, or that it’s a local heat source, or that it’s 1% of the bog.

“People have been at it for thousands of years and they will continue to cut turf as they have done.”