Turf is taken home in record time as the heat is on
IT’S time to make turf while the sun shines as families are mucking together to draw turf and store it for fear of fire igniting on the bogs in the scorching heat.
The turf-cutting, footing and drawing is flying in and taking less than half the time to dry out.
Usually this is a full summer’s work, but this year it’s just about wrapped up.
For many, it’s small plots for domestic use, shared among a couple of families – with nobody exempt from the “back-breaking” workload ever since they were children.
Contrary to some belief, there’s not been much of a decline, according to Roscommon TD Michael Fitzmaurice.
The Independent TD – chair of the Turfcutters Contractors Association – says it may have dropped by about 1pc this year.
That’s mainly due to a person passing away and nobody being around to take up the mantle, he says.
“I can’t see it declining much in the next 12-14 years anyway.”
He said that it took a little longer than usual to start this summer, with the storms causing havoc.
“There’s always a risk of fire especially in the hot weather.
“People would be bringing it home quicker in case there is a fire and it gets destroyed.”
That’s the challenge for the Gilsenan family – who have a plot around the MeathWestmeath border going back 70 years.
A whole load of families have plots out here, they say, but many have their turfing completed.
A couple of gorse fires in nearby Athboy in the past week have sparked some fears.
This year it’s up to Padraic (27) and his cousins, Lorraine (24) and Annmarie (20) to stack it, then fill up 12 trailers to be split between the two families.
But they’re well-used to that anyway, and would be rallied together by their grandfather, Jim, from a young age.
The cutting, footing and drying is all done already, thanks to the glorious weather of the past six weeks.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest memories we had growing up as kids, and always something we’d be
dreading, yeah, hiding everywhere,” Padraic said.
“He’d round up half the town like, and bring them out with him.”
Thankfully, for Diarmuid Priest the first process, cutting the turf, is a lot more easily done nowadays.
Using a hopper machine – which cuts through tonnes of turf in an instant – his workload is a lot less than his dad Dermot had when he first began 70 years ago.
Before the machines, a hand tool, similar to a spade, known as a sleán, was used.
Up until 30 years ago you’d need one man to scoop the turf up, another to catch and another to slide it into a trailer and take it away.
It would take about two weeks for a family to just cut their own plot.
“This has been the best year ever that I can remember,” Dermot said the weather conditions.
“We get it done quicker when it’s fine.”
The pair still cut the turf for many homes in Lisclogher Great, Co Westmeath.
“Nowadays with the machine (hopper) you’d carry about six or seven tonnes at a time, that would dry out to around three-quarters of a tonne,” Diarmuid said.
“With the modern machine, you’d have a full hopper out within a minute (six tonnes),” he added.
The continued work on the bog is down to tradition, Diarmuid explains.
“Everybody spent their summers on the bog when I was growing and the same when he (dad) was growing up,” he said.
Will this family tradition – which is not seen as a pastime, but a means of getting fuel for the winter – continue for a good while yet?
“Hopefully,” he says.