A requiem for the peat bog soldiers

IT’S the time of year when, traditionally, hardy men celebrated in song as “peat bog soldiers” would be sharpening the edge on their sleans and heading for the turf banks.

Now, it is being claimed, bureaucrats in Brussels, who would never have felt the spring of an Irish bog under their feet, want to stamp out the ancient practice of cutting turf for ever. However, not every bog is targeted and people can still get turf from certain bogs, for the time being at least.

This is all about conservation and saving what’s left of the bogs. Something that’s often forgotten, however, is that turf-cutters are in serious danger of suffering a fate similar to the Bali Tiger or the Palestinian Painted Frog – becoming an extinct species.