Protecting our bogs - Principle must prevail over pressure

If the fact that our fifth attempt at enacting a climate protection bill is winding its way through the Oireachtas at a glacial pace does not portray a dysfunctional, dangerous attitude towards environmental protection or social responsibility, then yesterday’s symbolic protest by around 150 turf cutters — cheered on by two Dáil deputies — at Kerry’s Moanveanlagh bog, highlights the cultural ambiguity that sustains this prevaricating, responsibility-dodging foolishness.

Like those Kerry protesters, too many of us seem to believe that what we describe as ancient rights, conferred by no greater authority than tradition, trump our obligations to the future.

Too many of us still believe that old practices can stand, even if they depend on the destruction of endangered species or habitat, even if science points to their unsustainability. Unfortunately, turf-cutting is not the only destructive practice that can be so characterised in the Ireland of 2013.