The commercial semi-state Bord na Móna has a long and storied history with the bogs of the Irish midlands. Building on a 1919 Dáil report advising the State to look into using peat to generate electricity, the Turf Development Board was formed in 1934 to drain bogs and develop a peat industry here. At this stage, there was only an assortment of individual domestic cutters and small-scale commercial companies largely working by hand. Then, in 1936, a bill paved the way for the modern mechanised peat sector, giving the Government compulsory purchase powers on behalf of the board, leading to…

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