Turf-cutting ban anger hits home for Deenihan

INTERVIEW: The Minister's own family bog will be affected, but he says the State has no choice

MINISTER FOR Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan has revealed that his family bog in Kerry, where generations of his relatives have cut turf, is one of those where the traditional practice must now end.

Deenihan, who took over responsibility for the controversial issue of banning turf-cutting on certain bogs to conserve precious wildlife habitats when he was appointed to the Cabinet in March, said he understood why many turf-cutters were furious at being forced to end the ancient custom. In his Kerry constituency is a place called Moonveanlagh, he said, which “happens to be where my great-grandfather, grandfather, granduncles and cousins now cut turf”.

Perhaps as a result, Deenihan is well able to articulate the ritualistic importance to rural dwellers of “saving” turf for the benefit of urbanites who may fail to appreciate its significance.

“Generations of people have been cutting turf on these bogs. It’s part of life for a large number of families, especially the older generation, to cut turf, to save it, to draw it home. It’s therapeutic. It’s just part of their culture,” he said.

“They love to have their own reek of turf or shed of turf, [it] gives them security for the winter, and also they get tremendous therapeutic value in saving that turf. So it’s part of a ritual, it’s part of a culture, that has been passed on from generation to generation.

“So people don’t want to end that tradition. They want to continue cutting their turf. And people have enormous connection with their own bank of turf or their own plot of bog because maybe they would see in the past that [it] was hard won by their forefathers; they probably got it maybe in a division through the Land Commission in the past.

“And they value it, and they want to keep that connection going, so they feel that by not being allowed cut turf on their family holding that they’re breaking with that tradition and that culture – so that is very important to a lot of people and I understand that.”

Behind his desk in his departmental office on Kildare Street is an evocative oil painting of three men cutting turf by the artist Liam O’Neill. The Minister even shows off some of his own handiwork on the subject, Bog Cotton on Enismore Bog, which graces the cover of the National Biodiversity Plan 2011-2016 from his department.

So while he clearly understands the depth of feeling the ban arouses, how does he explain his position to turf-cutters? “Well, we’ve no option,” he said. The State had given a commitment to the European Commission that there would be no more turf-cutting on 53 raised bogs, and the law must be implemented.

“As regards Europe, they’re now going to take us to court. They issued a formal notice in January and then they issued a reasoned opinion in June. So the next step here is court, and they will, I’m convinced, injunct us, because we’ve made a commitment here as a country and we haven’t honoured that commitment,” he said.

“I’m convinced that the commission will definitely injunct the Irish Government if there is any activity on those 53 bogs come 2012.”

He stressed Ireland was only being asked to cease cutting turf on a tiny percentage of bogs, and alternative sites, compensation or provision of turf had been offered to turf-cutters.

Deenihan even had a compliment for turf-cutting activist Luke “Ming” Flanagan, Independent TD for Roscommon, who he said had provided some “very valuable information” to the department by pointing out in the Dáil recently that some of those who intended to apply for compensation were not active turf-cutters.