Engineering and Re-engineering Earth: Industrialized Harvesting of Ireland’s Peatlands and its Aftermath¹

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with the large-scale mechanized harvesting of peat, mainly for fuel purposes, from Ireland’s extensive bogland areas. The formation and nature of these boglands are described and the historical background leading up to the commencement, in the late 1940s, of large-scale peat harvesting via Bord na Móna (the Peat Board), a state-owned enterprise, is outlined. The subsequent expansion (both quantitatively and spatially) of the production and processing of peat was accompanied by profound changes in harvesting technology and in the skill profiles of the workers involved. The infusion of large numbers of migrant workers into rural areas generated substantial accommodation demands and local socioeconomic impacts which are discussed. The paper concludes with a review of the issues relating to both the possibility of further expansion of harvesting as the current developed bogs approach exhaustion, and the options available as regards turning the exhausted bogs to new uses as they become increasingly available in the coming years.