Preserving turf bogs for future

PATRICK KAVANAGH, a poet with a remarkable feel for rural life, once said that a man that cannot find happiness and contentment in a turf bog is a ‘’bad case’’. As someone that walks in bogs year-round, I fully concur.

Nowadays, the powers-that-be at home and in Brussels want to preserve what remains of our raised boglands. The bogs will be saved, but this a not a new idea. More than 40 years ago, a revolutionary paper by a Bord na Móna property manager called Tom Barry inspired the biggest conservation and ecology programme ever in Ireland.

Barry worked closely with Gerry McNally who recalls that, ultimately, Barry’s vision was vital to the preservation of thousands of acres of Irish bogs for future generations.