Turf Cutting

[bigby]

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/galway-turf-cutters-stay-out-overnight-to-protest-at-protected-bog-restrictions-3145719.html

I have not been following this closely but am now wondering! why some bogs and not others?
will all turf cutting have to stop?

[Ballinamoe]

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...s-3145719.html

I have not been following this closely but am now wondering! why some bogs and not others?
will all turf cutting have to stop?

No. Turf cutting is being halted on what is known as raised bogs. But Im sure that will eventually follow on to blanket bogs. Our bog can be cut at the moment but the one just down the road cant.
HAving said that, turf will be at a premium this year as its now the end of June and very little turf is cut. We usually cut ours in May and its still not cut and wont be by the looks of the weather.

[bigby]

is the land owned by the people who are cutting the turf?

[Ballinamoe]

is the land owned by the people who are cutting the turf?

In some cases yes. IN some cases it is what is known as turbary rights. As in my case, we have turbary rights to cut turf on a number of plots on the bog, which is commanage. The rights are attached to the deeds of land holders in the area. I hold the turbary rights to my Grandfathers plot and my father holds the rights to his Mothers family plot. So while we dont own the land we have rights to cut it.
To understand the reasons for the banning you have to understand how turf cutting works and how it affects the bog.
My personal opinion, some bogs do need to be protected but very very few. Not the blanket ban they are introducing.
THe fact is successive governments since the formation of the state have stripped bogs bare in the midlands through ESB and Bord na Mona. And also its worth remebering before they try to blame the "previous government". THis directive was brought in by our current President during his term as a labour minister.

[bigby]

In some cases yes. IN some cases it is what is known as turbary rights. As in my case, we have turbary rights to cut turf on a number of plots on the bog, which is commanage. The rights are attached to the deeds of land holders in the area. I hold the turbary rights to my Grandfathers plot and my father holds the rights to his Mothers family plot. So while we dont own the land we have rights to cut it.
To understand the reasons for the banning you have to understand how turf cutting works and how it affects the bog.
My personal opinion, some bogs do need to be protected but very very few. Not the blanket ban they are introducing.
THe fact is successive governments since the formation of the state have stripped bogs bare in the midlands through ESB and Bord na Mona. And also its worth remebering before they try to blame the "previous government". THis directive was brought in by our current President during his term as a labour minister.

thank you for that Ballinamoe
so now how can I find out how the turf cutting effects some bogs more than others?

[bigby]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0621/breaking4.html

yesterday evening on the news I saw a man crying and upset as his turf cutting equipment was been taken away. Is this the same equipment burning?

[Ballinamoe]

thank you for that Ballinamoe
so now how can I find out how the turf cutting effects some bogs more than others?

I dont know where you would find out that, but I will try explain from my experience.

Modern turf cutting involves digging peat out of the high bank using a digger and filling a hopper. This hopper moves along the low bank or spreading ground and lays the lines of sods.
The high bank is what the issue is about as it is apparently a very important habitat. Obviously in a small bog if you are digging out of it you deplete the high bank and then it becomes what is known as a cut away bog. Most of the bogs I know you couldnt cut away if you stayed cutting all year round for decades.
For a standard hopper your talking about going back into the high bank about 6 feet per year. Also the bog has the ability not only to regenerate in terms of habitat but also grow. If people who have property adjacent to the bog and dont engage in effective management, drainage and clearback, their land will be absorbed by the bog over time. This is something I can attest to. Land that as a child I played in during hay making in the late 70's and early 80's is now bog as drains were not maintained and the bog expanded into it.

The raised bogs which are the ones in question merely differ from other types in that they are raised in the centre as opposed to flat bogs or blanket bogs as they are known. I dont know why they like the raised ones more.

Sorry for boring you all but I AM a culchie.

[Ballinamoe]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...breaking4.html

yesterday evening on the news I saw a man crying and upset as his turf cutting equipment was been taken away. Is this the same equipment burning?

I seen him too. I know him vaugely. I wasnt aware of the burning of the machinery but would seem to me to be thugs.
The protestors certainly would not have burned their own machinery and I doubt the gardai did either. I would assume it was oppertunists. Seems a silly thing to do. Especially in a bog.
He is a contractor who goes into a bog and cuts turf for the likes of me who would not be able to buy that kind of machinery to just cut for myself. But its his livelyhood and with diesel prices and the current weather patterns its not an easy business to be in. Now some of the guys in that report last night made us all look like we have 11 toes and 15 fingers down here but the fact is that is how we have heated homes for generations. Now people in Europe are telling us we cant and our elected leaders are surrendering to them like they did with agriculture and fisherys. Soon we will no longer be Irish. Our culture will be a subject we teach our children in history class.

[bigby]

thank you for all your replies, I am going to pay more attention to this issue from now on.
When driving around Ireland I have seen the turf being cut and also it piled up, never thought it was doing too much damage. But driving by the midlands a few years ago was a real eye opener, the cut bog seemed to go on for miles.

[bigby]

I seen him too. I know him vaugely. I wasnt aware of the burning of the machinery but would seem to me to be thugs.
The protestors certainly would not have burned their own machinery and I doubt the gardai did either. I would assume it was oppertunists. Seems a silly thing to do. Especially in a bog.
He is a contractor who goes into a bog and cuts turf for the likes of me who would not be able to buy that kind of machinery to just cut for myself. But its his livelyhood and with diesel prices and the current weather patterns its not an easy business to be in. Now some of the guys in that report last night made us all look like we have 11 toes and 15 fingers down here but the fact is that is how we have heated homes for generations. Now people in Europe are telling us we cant and our elected leaders are surrendering to them like they did with agriculture and fisherys. Soon we will no longer be Irish. Our culture will be a subject we teach our children in history class.

I hope the guards had it ensured overnight, it was upsetting seeing his livelyhood taken away like that.

[Ballinamoe]

thank you for all your replies, I am going to pay more attention to this issue from now on.
When driving around Ireland I have seen the turf being cut and also it piled up, never thought it was doing too much damage. But driving by the midlands a few years ago was a real eye opener, the cut bog seemed to go on for miles.

That was probably the ESB and Bord na Mona bogs.
Due to the nature of the commercial harvesting, these bogs do not revert to natual bogland as easily. But they have in some cased flooded them to create artifical wetland as a habitat and it those cases it has been quite sucessful.
Bogs cut for domestic uses are rarely seen from the road and bear no resemblance to commercial ones.

[quinner]

I dont know where you would find out that, but I will try explain from my experience.

Modern turf cutting involves digging peat out of the high bank using a digger and filling a hopper. This hopper moves along the low bank or spreading ground and lays the lines of sods.
The high bank is what the issue is about as it is apparently a very important habitat. Obviously in a small bog if you are digging out of it you deplete the high bank and then it becomes what is known as a cut away bog. Most of the bogs I know you couldnt cut away if you stayed cutting all year round for decades.
For a standard hopper your talking about going back into the high bank about 6 feet per year. Also the bog has the ability not only to regenerate in terms of habitat but also grow. If people who have property adjacent to the bog and dont engage in effective management, drainage and clearback, their land will be absorbed by the bog over time. This is something I can attest to. Land that as a child I played in during hay making in the late 70's and early 80's is now bog as drains were not maintained and the bog expanded into it.

The raised bogs which are the ones in question merely differ from other types in that they are raised in the centre as opposed to flat bogs or blanket bogs as they are known. I dont know why they like the raised ones more.

Sorry for boring you all but I AM a culchie.

peat cutting as far as i am concerned is a right.....the right to use natural local resourses is what has sustained populations for thousands of years....

the eu is wrong in this case, as it has been wrong in so many cases.......it is time to tell them where to stick their buerocracy........

[Auld Decency]

Very interesting. You mentioned raised bogs, flat bogs and blanket bogs. What's a rattlin' bog?

[Ballinamoe]

Very interesting. You mentioned raised bogs, flat bogs and blanket bogs. What's a rattlin' bog?

The bog down the way from me is a rattlin bog.
Manys the night I had a good rattle down there.

[quinner]

The bog down the way from me is a rattlin bog.
Manys the night I had a good rattle down there.

more-ass then ????