‘All we wanted to do was cut the turf’

James Hackett is the fifth generation of Hacketts to cut turf on the family plot and he insists he will continue his fight alongside his father Pat.

“We are from the area here and all we wanted to do was try and cut the turf as is our right. We brought in the machinery to do the job on Tuesday and we were ready to cut, but the guards came along and stopped us,” said James.

“I am cutting turf here all my life and my great-great grandfather cut turf here too on the same bog, on the same plot of land. The plot is on our deeds for the land and we have turbary rights to cut there. It is all mapped out on the deeds.”

Pat can still recall his first memory of the bog of watching his father cut turf on the family bank in Rossmore at the Clonmoylan Bog in Co Galway 80 years ago.

“I reckon I have been on this bog for 76 years of my life; I’m sure I must have been here by the time I was four, watching my father Patrick cutting and turning turf. We have records of my father, his father and his grandfather all cutting turf in Rossmore. The rights to do so are written into the deeds of our land. It is our right to cut here.

“All the turf was cut by sleán for years but the machine-cutting only came in gradually. First off the sausage machine from the sugar factory came, but in recent times the hopper machine has been used. It is a very efficient and economical way to cut turf, just like it used to be cut with the sleán. There is no waste and it probably takes about 10ft of the face of the bank every year. It would take generations to go back a good distance.”

The tradition of saving the family’s fuel for the year remains engrained in the locals of Rossmore.

“It was very hard work in times gone by, but it was part of our way of life. It was the only source of fuel for all the people in the area, which is still the case for many of the families around here,” said Pat. “My son’s house is totally dependent on turf; I have an oil system but I don’t use it because of the price of oil.

“What is happening here is an absolute disgrace to the Irish people, to Europe before the whole world. We have been let down by our politicians the whole way.”

Much local anger seems to be directed towards the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which James claims never asked for a local opinion on the matter.

“All we want from this is the same thing that has been done for hundreds of years on this bog: we just want to cut our turf. The National Parks and Wildlife Service say they want to preserve the bogs, but we have been doing that for years. Doesn’t it say something that we are still cutting it today after all these years?”