Manchán Magan: 'Peat is worth more to us in the ground than in the fire'

Despite happy days spent cutting turf on the bogs in his childhood, his new show explains why it's so important to preserve what's left of Ireland's unique peatlands

Manchán Magan in An Fód Deireanach, which translates as 'the last sod'. 

Like many Irish people, the bog is part of Manchán Magan. His father is from Co Longford so as a child Magan spent summers cutting turf on his grandfather’s land. Drinking flasks of tea and being eaten alive by midges. Neither lake, nor land, the bog, which takes up one sixth of the country’s landscape, has always fascinated him. He jumped at the opportunity to front An Fód Deireanach, a new four-part series on TG4 which explores Ireland’s relationship with its peatlands.

“When it comes to the bog, I had this idea that people in the west weren’t willing to modernise,” he says. “I didn’t realise the sovereignty and power that comes from being able to heat your own house for a man. Doing work in the summertime so he can provide heat and cooking fuel for the winter for his family. We’ve always been hunters and gatherers. There are seanfhocail about the reassurance of seeing a well-stocked barn with good, high ricks of turf ready.