Turf Cutting Championships, Rhode, Co. Offaly, Ireland 1985

[@smurph4959]

Wow! I never knew this happened! Bet the competition was fierce 💪

[@mfphonepics]

What a beautiful production line. I was lucky to catch and wheel the turf from my father. Your fingers would sink into the soft brow turf like butter. Trouble was brewing when he hit the 'wick'. It was like fiberous plant material that was not fully decomposed. It would slow down or stall the slane and make a hard job tougher again.

[@baxpiz1289]

excellent . . . what does it mean to wheel the turf, and did everyone call plant debris they hit "the wick"?

[@fintan2830]

If they kept on digging straight through the earth, they would come out in the sea near Campbell Island off the southern tip of New Zealand! Ironically, after all this effort, they could then swim into the aptly named 'Perseverance Harbour' on the island!

[@CoolDude-tz5co]

Many a long day was spent on the bog cutting and rearing the turf, and the best part was stopping for a break and having a chat (and a bit of craic) with the neighbours. The older generation would bring a bottle of cold tea to drink with a batch loaf or soda bread. Life seemed much simpler back then….

[@baxpiz1289]

excellent . . . what does it mean to rear the turf?

[@CoolDude-tz5co]

@@baxpiz1289 To rear the turf meant spreading them out to dry by turning them after a couple of weeks and then later on building them into piles called clamps when they had developed a good outer skin before eventually bringing them home

[@baxpiz1289]

@@CoolDude-tz5co thanks -- listing all turf-related terms I come across for a book. have also heard of a "rig" of turf, is that right?

[@CoolDude-tz5co]

@@baxpiz1289 correct, a large pile often topped with cut rushes (weeds) arranged to reduce rain penetration to keep the turf as dry as possible

[@baxpiz1289]

@@CoolDude-tz5co tx again -- i asked below about a "winged sleán" (is that what he called it); is that a sleán w a 90° angle & are there other kinds?

[@MikeyJMJ]

I heard the competition is going underground starting this year (no pun intended)

[@nobodynoone2500]

I miss how people used to take pride in any job.

[@busytoday]

They have a funny way of pronouncing Sleán. Memories of the first blisters on my hands of the summer, my father or whoever was helping us ( often our next door neighbour ) would cut a narrow "bank", 5 or 6 sods deep by about 8 wide and Sleán it up for us to catch with a four pronged fork and spread to dry, 2 man job ( or one man and one boy), nobody touching the sod with their hands. Nobody liked doing it and when progress came with machine cut turf nobody cried over it, although we still had to do so the turning and stacking and bringing home so that part of the work never went away. It was nice being in the bog and having a chat with the neighbours in their plot and having a picnic for lunch (don't get excited it was tea with bread and butter) but the work was something you'd dread, not least because there was weeks of turning and stacking and bringing it home to think of. There's only so much turf you can dig up and burn and it's not the cleanest fuel, in a few generations burning any solid fuel in a stove out open fire is probably going to be even more restricted. Everything changes and there's always a reason for it, if regulators and green politicians in cities don't like fires it's because in the countryside open fires aren't noticeably polluting. Try having 100,000 smoking chimneys on a still day with 100,000 vehicle engines. Count yourself lucky if it doesn't affect you, and if you haven't spent a few days cutting turf you haven't missed much either.

[@elzorro7of9]

Somewhere in the crowd is an 8 year old me.

[@Keepthecircleclean]

🙏

[@adamtier3263]

I heard it said that a good turf man would have two sods in the air and would be down for the third...

[@noelmaher4633]

Played Rugby and patrolled a particular Beat 😉, always knew when it was cutting season the "Town" boys would be up for anything....

[@Eddiedoherty22]

I see the King of Rhode there! Christy Jones..

[@elzorro7of9]

Heating a (my family) house (with crap insulation), and water, for a year, cost about 200 pound in cutting (in 80's money). The labour was supplied by the family. Not giving judgement. Beats importing kerosene and coal though.

[@user-lh4sb2pn9s]

Ірландія чудова. Велике велике спасибі усім ірландцям і Уряду Ірландії за допомогу Україні.

[@henrykeating6221]

Was Eamonn Ryan there.......

[@alllovingcowherdboy4475]

Gone, long gone are the wonderfully diverse bogs of my home in Mayo drained for greed and grants just to get more land more land for mono crop grass to put fat on the asses of beef bullocks and now again they get grants to put it back.

[@Kevin-iv7rh]

City slickers have killed this way of live.

[@jasonfallon4968]

Where did those times go.

[@COIcultist]

Was there a competition for the cutting into the bank from the side method of lifting turf?

[@baxpiz1289]

did he say it's called the "wing sleán" competition?

[@thomasboyd3104]

It does work that way politically Thomas in England Britain. Sean Connery Scottish actor knew that Thomas politically.

[@bobcooter]

Is this competition still going?

[@ajw9533]

If it is, they must be in Australia by now. :)

[@tonemc6047]

Yes they have just reached the earths core hence the shirtless men which is unheard of in Ireland.

[@moiragoldsmith7052]

🤣🤣🤣 I love the answers!

[@bobcooter]

@@moiragoldsmith7052 Set myself up for that eh, ten years stateside has turned my brain to melted cheese. Two piss-takes and no real answers, man do I miss home!

[@georgedoorley5628]

no .......eamon rain and the green party killed it off many years ago .......

[@goalltheway-pm8xs]

Not a great idea digging in Ireland, could find yourself being a witness for the prosecution.

[@hugostiglitz6914]

This akin to the Brazilians having a competition destroying the rain forest!😂.

[@jamesfagan7823]

Why the European Union banned this is crazy but its ok to buy Russian oil

[@lovelyhurlin6494]

Fact: 100 pounds is the equivalent of €1000,000 in today's money.

[@martin7955]

Not An African in sight

[@goalltheway-pm8xs]

Think there was a couple of them sitting on top of the turf,, easily mistaken for a stack : I'll have to go back and have another look.

[@jinxterx]

Destroying the environment in the name of tradition for a couple of quid and a temporary ego boost, lol.

[@derekdebag9295]

What a ridiculously ignorant comment. These people cut turf to heat their homes and keep their families warm.

[@jinxterx]

@@derekdebag9295 Nonsense.

[@derekdebag9295]

@@jinxterx no fact. we cant all heat our homes with hot air.

[@jinxterx]

@@derekdebag9295 tough luck. they're destroying the environment and releasing greenhouses gases for short-term gain.

[@darraghmcelroy9698]

Peat renews itself at a rate of about an inch a year - in other words, unlike coal, oil or gas, peat grows itself back. 'Gwan back to Dublin boyo, ye've no notion of solid graft like this.