Memories of mighty men and a lifetime at the turf

The curtain finally came down last week on the Attymon Peat Co-op, bringing an end to 65 years of history and industry. The lives of so many were intrinsically linked to the old Bord na Mona turf facility – among them Galway East Dail Deputy Ciarán Cannon who writes here of what it meant to him…and how it framed his life. 

It was the 1950s and Ireland was a very different place. Over the previous century we had lost two million of our people to famine and emigration. Our population had reached a low of 2.9m and emigration continued to be the only option for many of our young, particularly those from rural areas.

My father, Tommy Joe Cannon, was in his teens and was one of thousands contemplating such a future. He was born and raised on a small farm in the townland of Knockroe in the parish of Kiltullagh/Killimordaly.

Like many others of his generation his formal education came to an end after primary school and as the eldest of twelve children he had a responsibility to become a bread winner for his younger siblings.

Micheal Finnerty from Clough, Gurteen who began working with Bord Na Mona in his teens and is still going strong.

Back then “going away” was deeply embedded as a tradition in Irish society. Be it Birmingham or Boston, we were flung to the four corners of the world and in a time before Skype or any kind of modern telecommunications, families were torn asunder simply to survive.

Going away meant exactly that and many parents said goodbye to their children not knowing when they would see them again.

But in the early 1950’s something very special happened to that small west of Ireland community that had shaped my father.

During World War II Ireland had experienced major fuel shortages and in the aftermath of the war Bord na Mona was founded to ensure that such a shortage would not occur again. Turf harvesting was also seen as an opportunity to provide major employment in areas that had never really seen any economic activity.

East Galway was one such area and in 1952 Bord na Mona opened a major turf harvesting facility at Attymon turning a vast expanse of bog into an economic engine that would serve the area for decades to come.

Christy Ryan, Attymon, keeping the machinery moving at Attymon Peat Co-Op this week.

Dad was 16 years old and rather than taking the boat he and many others like him were fortunate to remain at home with the people they loved.

They were presented with a unique opportunity to make a life for themselves in the place they called home and they embraced it with gusto.

Bord na Mona had employed German engineers to develop special turf harvesting machinery and these iron behemoths must have been a strange sight for the young men who had spent their childhood in local bogs with sleans and wheelbarrows.

They soon adapted to the mechanisation of turf cutting and in the end became expert in not alone maintaining this new machinery, but also in developing their own innovations that allowed the machinery to function even better in a wet west of Ireland bog.

Dad had a gift for such work and he soon became what was known as a fitter. If a machine broke down or wasn’t operating as efficiently as possible he and the other fitters would take it into the workshop and have it back in action within the shortest possible timeframe.

Michael Hardiman, Attymon, supervising the current harvest at Attymon Peat Co-Op.

During the summer harvesting season time was of the essence and on occasions he and his colleagues would work all night long under floodlights out on the bog to have a machine up and running for work at 8am the next morning.

During the winter all of the machines were hauled back into the workshop, which was a large hangar like building, and in the heat of a big pot-bellied stove every single one of them was stripped down and prepared for the coming summer of work on the bog.

While the fitters were fixing the other workers manned the “tip head” bringing wagon after wagon of newly harvested turf up to a place where trucks and trailers could pull in and be filled with Attymon’s finest fuel.

In fact the quality of the turf each season was always a talking point around the beginning of September.

If the French winemakers could have a conversation about the quality of their grape harvest, so too could the turf cutters of Attymon sing the praises of a particularly good vintage.

If they had harvested a seam of really dense black turf and if the sun had shone incessantly all summer, word soon went out that there was “mighty turf” to be had in Attymon and people would come from many far flung locations to buy their share.

It is no exaggeration to say that thousands of homes across the west of Ireland were kept warm every winter through the grit, innovation and determination of the men of Attymon.

Every now and again, as a child, I would visit “the Bord” as we all came to know it. Perhaps Dad might have forgotten his lunch box and I would ride down on my bike to deliver it. If it was summer time I was sometimes lucky enough to get a spin on one of the locomotives that hauled turf-filled wagons on rail tracks running through the bog.

Trundling across the bog, sometimes late at night, I was always fascinated by the two way radio system that at the time was state of the art. I would hear the words “Bagger One to Bagger Two, come in Bagger Two” crackling across the airwaves and to a ten year old boy it was as close to NASA as one could get in the mid-seventies!

If it was winter time I would get to sit by that pot-bellied stove, share in a cup of tea and listen to the conversation that was always good humoured.

Every time I visited I came away with a sense that the Bord was a pretty magical place and that the men who worked there were deeply supportive and protective of one another. That has been the experience of everyone who worked there.

That deep camaraderie and friendship, that need to support one another and the greater community, became very apparent in 1989 when Bord na Mona announced that they were closing their facility at Attymon. The community was devastated by the news and efforts were soon underway to find a way of prolonging the life of the facility.

Under the stewardship of Parish Priest Fr. Martin McNamara, a man of great integrity with strong business acumen, a plan was hatched to resurrect the Bord. The workers convinced Bord na Mona to lease them the bog and with a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work Attymon Peat Co-Op came into being in 1990.

Just last week Fr. McNamara announced on Galway Bay FM that Attymon Peat Co-Op will close for good at the end of this year and we were all saddened by the news. 2017 will mark the end of 65 years of history at Attymon Bog, but looking back we will have many fond memories of those years.

I’m convinced that I wouldn’t be sitting here in Carrabane, just seven miles from Attymon Bog, writing these words if it hadn’t been for the vision of Bord na Mona in opening that facility in 1952.

I would have been born and raised in another country not having had the unique experience of a wonderful life in rural East Galway.

Many of those men of grit and determination, including my Dad, are no longer with us and this week we remember them with great love and respect.