W1A-004 Irish peatlands-0.txt
MECHANICAL PEAT EXTRACTION

In general I found that most peatcutters were employing machinery to extract their fuel supply. In many cases in Northern Ireland machine cutting has occurred in areas which were previously cut by hand, especially as fuel prices in the mid 1970's led to an increase in extraction practices. Cruickshank and Tomlinson identify over 1000 instances of machine cutting on blanket bogs concentrated mostly in counties Tyrone and Fermanagh. I was introduced to several machine types including a Lilliput or "sausage machine", so called because it pushes the peat out in long cylindrical shapes, a bagger and a "Hymac", which resembles a dozen sleans all operating at once, cutting sods and turning them out to dry. Those individuals I spoke with in the Republic of Ireland usually did not own machines. They either hired one for a few days or were members of a turf co-operative. At Ballyhagan and Drehid, in Co. Kildare, individuals with turbary rights forfeited these to the co-operative which organises machinery to cut the peat. Co-operative members pay a nominal fee for administration and then a further amount to the contractor. There had been complaints concerning the use of sausage machines in the Ballyhagan area which, according to one individual, had "upset the stability of the bog and produced poor quality fuel"." Farmers in Galway said that after having cut peat with a "sausage" machine on just one occasion, the bog had been unable to support any other machinery for several years after. Similarly in Tyrone, peat cutters had abandoned this machine in favour of others. In South Connemara, a number of machines are put on loan to owners of bogs in the district. However, the individual hiring the machine must be able to guarantee a harvest worth at least £ 2,000. This had become quite a successful business for the machine owner. Often groups of bog owners came together to hire a machine, to cut and harvest their annual peat supply.

Part of the report by Cruickshank and Tomlinson referred to above documents the extent of mechanical peat extraction on blanket bogs in Northern Ireland. The authors comment on the difficulties of distinguishing between commercial extraction and domestic extraction. Turbary rights which allow an individual to extract peat in a given area are defined in a confusing number of ways. In some cases the type of cutting is stipulated and in others turbary rights are extended for domestic and commercial use. Peat may be cut by machines for domestic purposes without planning permission and although commercial production does not require planning permission it is often difficult to prove that commercial extraction is being pursued.

Those individuals I interviewed often had turbary rights which had been passed down for several generations. For them peat was an integral part of daily life and peat cutting an annual event. A few informants referred to the use of machinery in the bog, commenting that as technology has made advances elsewhere, so it was now the "turn of the bog". Some peat producers described peat extraction as a traditional activity made easier by machines. They explained that machines were capable of minimising their workload, for a peat extracting machine could produce in a day what would take a week to cut with a slean. Others referred to the diminishing labour resources in rural areas as young people migrated to the towns and cities.

Numerous individuals engaged in peat extraction said that peat provided them with a convenient and comparatively inexpensive fuel which they thought should continue to be extracted as long as the need existed or until peatland resources were exhausted.

As part of my assessment of individuals'responses to peatlands, I distributed 250 questionnaires at random to homes in Armagh, Carrickfergus, Donegal and three suburbs of Belfast. Twenty-seven out of fifty distributed in Armagh were returned, sixty out of eighty were completed in Carrickfergus and thirty-nine of the 100 distributed in Belfast were collected. All twenty of those circulated in Donegal were completed and returned. Overall the rate of returns was approximately 58% or 146 of the total number of questionnaires.

In distributing the questionnaires, various considerations were made. It was important that I gained responses from both urban and rural locations in order to assess the potential variation in the usage of peat by town and country residents, and variation in the perspectives held by individuals. Within the urban category there was a further differentiation between inner city residents and suburban residents. Inner city residents who completed the questionnaire lived in terrace housing with a small patch of garden or none at all, while suburban residents inhabited larger detached houses usually with one or two gardens.

As I outlined above, most questionnaires were distributed in city and suburban areas - Belfast and Carrickfergus (180 of the total number) and the remainder were given to rural areas - Armagh and Donegal (70). I was interested to discover if there was a clear difference in the manner in which peat was used by urban and rural residents. I noted whether peat was used for fuel or gardening purposes, how much was used and if there was a variance in urban and rural perceptions. In selecting areas for the distribution of questionnaires, I was drawn simply to locations which were convenient in terms of access and distance. These areas also met the criteria for a diversity of housing and location types. The homes in urban areas which received questionnaires were chosen at random. I did not follow any predetermined pattern of selection. In rural areas, questionnaires were distributed to houses situated in the vicinity of peatlands in order to maximise the possibility of receiving at least some responses from individuals who cut peat themselves. In Donegal questionnaires were completed by individuals living along the North west coast, in the Gaeltacht or Irish speaking area, and in Armagh by residents of an area known as The Birches, near Portadown.

The first of the three sections in the questionnaire addressed the consumption of fuel peat products. Sixty-two of the 146 respondents chose peat briquettes, and this included both urban and rural residents. Eighteen consumers bought machine cut peat and eight used peat extracted from their own plots, (all in Donegal and Armagh). Six respondents in Armagh and Donegal and two in Belfast stated that peat was their sole or main fuel. Peat was identified as a preferred fuel because of its smell, "cheerfulness" and convenience and because it gave a "good heat" and was easy to light. It seems the popularity of peat was due, in a large part to its multi-sensory appeal. From an analysis of the responses given, it was evident, that despite the considerable difference in the proportion of questionnaires distributed between urban and rural areas, peat was more widely used for fuel purposes in rural areas.

COMMERCIAL PEAT EXTRACTION
In order to gain a more detailed and accurate picture of commercial peat extraction in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland I contacted various peat producers and peat companies. The size of these companies varied quite considerably. Some comprised three or four man

and a peat-cutting machine, while others owned premises and employed a workforce of a dozen or more. The larger companies often had extraction projects on several sites and at least 50 employees. On first contacting companies, their immediate reactions were often tinged with suspicion. Some were reluctant to engage in any conversation regarding their operations and a few refused to be interviewed at all. I did however, manage to obtain interviews with several producers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The following is a summary of an interview I conducted with a representative of the major peat producer in Ireland, Bord na Mona - the Irish Peat Development Board. "Established by the state in 1946 under the Turf Development Act, its primary aim has been to develop the country's peatland resources for production. The company comprises three main divisions and separate profit centres with a number of subsidiary activities. The three core divisions are the Solid Fuel Division, Milled Peat Division and Horticultural Products Division. A fourth division has been established in recent years with environmental products. Research has been conducted by the company into the purifying properties of peat and a number of products have since been introduced to local and international markets. In early 1990, two pollution treatment products were launched, one to control pollutants in domestic sewage and the other to treat noxious odours.
At present, Bord na M&/ona has fifteen administrative units and operations cover 80,000 hectares which is approximately 9% of the total area of peatlands in the Republic of Ireland. Current employment figures stand at around 2000 increasing to 3,500 or 4,000 during harvesting. Horticultural peat generates most sales supplying approximately 7,000 outlets. Despite declining fuel peat sales, peat briquettes accounted for 20% of the company's turnover (IR £ 23.5 million, 1990). As a low smoke product, briquettes have been accepted in some smokeless zones. A successful marketing campaign (1987-88) which sought to sell the atmosphere of an open fire also contributed to increasing the Board's share of the market.

As a state owned company, Bord na M&/ona has never had equity. Almost all the company's capital has been provided by its major shareholder, the government. Bord na M&/ona is not a subsidised industry however, therefore its borrowings must be paid back. The acquisition of bogs in the aftermath of the oil crisis in the 1970's and decreasing energy prices in the 1980's has led to the company experiencing some considerable financial difficulties in the last few years (Anon. 1985). It has not made a substantial profit since the late 1970's, due in part to the enormous increase in borrowing. High interest payments mean that even in a good year profits are extremely low.

Bord na M&/ona supplies the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) with fuel for its six generating stations in Counties Kildare, Longford, Mayo and Offaly. In 1989 over 3 million tonnes of peat were supplied to the ESB with sales for the period 1989-1990 totalling approximately IR £ 64.5 million. However, all ESB stations need reinvestment and one was scheduled for closure in 1990. After some thought, the government undertook to guarantee that it stays open for a further two to three years. It has acknowledged that fuel supplies to power stations will have to be considered in the future as an alternative fuel may have to be sought.

Bord na M&/ona's works locations are centred mostly in the Irish Midlands (Anon. 1983b). In June 1991, I visited several sites in counties Kildare and Offaly. One of these was Lullymore in County Kildare. These works consist of milled and sod peat production and a peat briquette factory. In latter years, sod peat production has dwindled somewhat and briquettes are now the main product. Situated in the middle of a vast expanse of brown peat fields which stretch for several miles there appeared to be little activity around the buildings or on the bog. The company stated that the factory was closed for 16 weeks for necessary maintenance. However local people informed me that it had been closed for a much longer period and that there had been "no life about the place at all". The area immediately surrounding the factory housed over twenty huge stockpiles of briquettes and an assortment of rusted and broken machinery and vehicles. A narrow gauge railway track ran from the factory through the peatlands to the main road. In places this was overgrown and damaged. Also on the site were three examples of the possible use of peatlands after exploitation. One area had been sown over and was now grassland, another was a small coniferous plantation and the third had become scrubland (Anon. 1983a).

Plans by Bord na M&/ona to diversify in the area appeared to have been largely unsuccessful. Lullymore Nurseries located on a fringe area of the bog were closed and the stocks of shrubs which I could see were either dead or in poor health. A research centre in the area had been recently closed. Lullymore Lodge, situated on the edge of the bog had become home to a peat museum, several months before my visit. When I paid a visit to the museum I had to wait twenty minutes until a key was obtained and an official became available to show me the exhibits. From what I could ascertain, it seemed that the museum remained locked most of the time.
