For Peat’s Sake, a new Irish language documentary on the importance of turf in rural life will air on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player on Easter Monday, April 6 at 6.30pm and features a number of contributors from Galway.
Independent councillor Tomás Ó Curraoin from Conamara speaks about turf cutting as being part of his DNA and something he considers his birthright.
Sheep farmer Keith Geoghegan from Glengowla near Oughterard in Co Galway says: “My family has always cut turf on this land, long before they owned it, the landlords owned it. “When the English left, they took the shooting rights, fishing rights, the water right, the mineral rights. They left one thing and that was the turbary rights – because the bog was no good to them.”
Ecologist Piaras Ó Giobún from Conamara outlines the importance of the biology of the bog to Ireland, and the plants and wildlife that live on the bog in the programme. This one-hour documentary looks back at the vital role turf has played in Ireland, and the battle that ensued when the EU tried to stop Irish people cutting turf.
For thousands of years people in Ireland cut turf to heat their homes and cook their food. It was an accessible, affordable, and vital fuel made from the very soil of Ireland itself. In the 1990’s, we gradually discovered that there was a lot more to our bogs than cheap fuel and reclaimed farmland. According to environmentalists, Ireland’s peatlands are incredibly valuable carbon sinks that could potentially help save us from climate change.
Our peatlands were discovered to be valuable carbon sinks that could potentially help save us from climate change. But, when bureaucrats in Brussels tried to take Irish people’s right to cut turf away from them, it caused absolute ructions.
For over three years, many rural people continued cutting turf in defiance of the cutting ban. The EU threatened Ireland with €9 million in fees unless the ban was enforced, so turf tutting equipment was confiscated, and contractors were brought to court.
This documentary charts how the Irish bogs, which for centuries had been drained and cut, became the battleground between rural communities determined to preserve their cultural heritage and the authorities who were trying to conserve a valuable piece of Ireland’s environment for future generations.
For Peat’s Sake will air on Easter Monday, 6th April at 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
