Perfect Irish timing with European winter fuel shortages approaching. (The End Of An Era. Final peat trains leaving the Bord na Móna, Derrylea Bog on the Kildare/Offaly border. September 2022)

14 comments

1. Is the locomotive pushing or pulling as where are the tracks? Are they just covered in grass?

2. I hope the peat trains are saved for a railway museum or something

3. On an unrelated note, blanket bogs are possibly the greatest store of carbon dioxide on the planet. I wonder is it a good idea to keep burning them?

4. I understand that winter fuel shortages are on their way. But the climate emergency is a much more pressing issue. If we just keep pushing back the deadline to stop harvesting, we will *always* find an excuse to keep doing it.

   Edit – that being said, we definitely have to preserve these trains somehow. A very cool part of history

5. One of Ireland’s most characteristic features is the bog, covering 1,200,000 hectares (1/6th) of our island. Ireland contains more bog, relatively speaking, than any country in Europe except Finland.

   Across Europe, as well as in Ireland, bogs have been exploited in recent centuries as a source of fuel, releasing pollution into the atmosphere (and indoor air pollution is as bad as smoking multiple packs of cigs a day) and of course carbon. Not to mention the loss of habitat for flora and fauna.

   These special wetlands are valuable carbon sinks, holding as much carbon as half of the Earth’s atmospheric levels. Blanket bogs are a vital resource in the fight against climate change, and yet they’re becoming increasingly rare.

   Boglands are areas of peat bogs that make up 5% of the Irish landscape — it is estimated that only 18% of the original area of blanket bog and 8% of the original area of raised bog remains of conservation interest. So, yeah, goodbye to that rare habitat, an amazing natural treasure, gone forever.

   I support preservation of the bog by using mine as a habitat for my apiary. https://www.irishbogrestorationproject.ie

6. I can remember one of the first people I meet in Ireland in 2000 was a old man cutting turf in a bog in Connemara. I asked him for directions as I was pretty lost. We talked for a few minutes. He was a really nice fella.

   Turns out this chap had been cutting turf his whole life. He sold it around his local village. He showed me how to do it and I gave it a go. He seemed pleased and I bid him farewell.

   I can remember buying turf in the black bundles and having a turf fire. The smell reminds me of Ireland. It’s a shame the stuff is so puliting. The last few years I have just burned wood as I realize it’s not good for the environment.

   Would love to see it preserved as it’s so much a part of the Irish lexicon.

7. Or, perfect timing with the Earth heading into an uncontrolled cycle of climate change.

8. What fuel shortages are you referring to? Like what fuels in particular?

9. Gas prices actually went negative in last few days

10. Were importing peat from Russia. I wouldnt bet on it.

11. One of my earliest memories is having to stack peat on that bog.

12. My friends parents had a bit of bogland way back when, some of my fav memories is playing up in the bog and cutting turf (I swear that sentence makes me sound ancient😂)

13. So, as an American, does this mean Irish turf is no longer being harvested, or just that transportation of it is being harvested?

14. I understand how bad cutting and burning peat is for the environment, but at the same time it’s a real shame to see the tradition come to an end. How many of our families have made livings their entire lives living off the bog? Farewell to an Irish tradition