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Still via Home Turf/True Films
A SHORT DOCUMENTARY about traditional turf-cutting practices in Ireland is getting its international premiere this evening at the prestigious Hot Docs documentary festival in Toronto, Canada.
The international festival is one of the biggest annual documentary festivals in the world. Home Turf, a film funded by the Irish Film Board’s Reality Bites scheme and supported by Culture Ireland, is one of 189 documentaries chosen from thousands of entries from around the world. It is one of only two Irish documentaries screening at the festival this year – the other, Dreams of a Life, is a co-production with the UK.
While turf-cutting has been creating headlines in Ireland recently with turf cutters squaring up to the Government on an EU directive on preserving raised bogs, this documentary focuses on the personal experiences of an ageing band of friends who “go to the bog” every year to cut turf for their home fires every year.
Filmmaker Ross Whitaker said:
The idea came about when we were driving around Ireland for a previous film and we saw all of the bogs alongside the road and these machines doing the cutting. Everyone remembers family members cutting turf and we wanted to see if we could document the last of those that cut turf by hand.
The doc was shot in north Kerry, from where Whitaker’s co-filmmaker Aideen O’Sullivan hails. She said that the response in Toronto to the very singular Irish subject of the film has been intense. She told TheJournal.ie:
It’s a combination of Canadians who are curious to find out about this dying tradition that they knew nothing about and Irish ex-pats who want to come to the film because it has touched a chord with them. It feels like turf-cutting is part of the Irish collective memory.
Rather than focus on the political furore around turf-cutting, Home Turf chronicles the traditions observed by this particular group of pals – and how that tradition is gradually being extinguished by time, technology and disinterest from the younger generation. One of the men observes:
We never thought we’d see a bog machine. It was a great invention and it cuts out all the hard work but they’re cutting too much of it now. It’ll do away with the bogs – there’ll be no turf left. There’s maybe a year or two left in this bog but that’s it. When the machine came in, sleán was gone.
This is the trailer for this elegant little film:
(via RossWhitakerTV/Youtube)
Home Turf is made by True Films; director – Ross Whitaker; producer – Aideen O’Sullivan; camera – Alex Sapienza; editor – Andrew Hearne.
That is a valid point . It wasn’t the man with the pike and sleán that destroyed the habitats it was the heavy bord na Móna machines. Few of any legislators have ever cut turf so know little of the conviviality and the social aspect of it that keeps the old timers going. It’s another social outlet like small rural services such as the shop, pub or post office that is gradually being lost. Sounds laughable to those from cities but hugely important to people in places such as west mayo or north Kerry.
Thanks for that ronmart, traditions are dying fast, it’s great for city folk to visit the bogs on a fine summers day but in the depths of winter when people cant afford to heat their homes they can always warm themselves up with a bit of sight seeing !!!!
We’ll still be cutting turf long after Robs gone the way of the winds…there are MORE people saving turf now than ever, whether hand cut or machine cut tis all the same, it’s a much much cheaper alternative to oil, and it’s only the oil companies, and their well funded “green” lobbyists who think otherwise. There’s massive popular rural resistance to turf bans and this is one right the EU and the D4 brigade are not taking away from us…See
http://www.turfcuttersandcontractors.com/
For the TRUTH about turf cutting and saving
You cant see the wood from the trees, im trying to give you a helping hand to see that the hand cut turf can exist for many generations beyond my lifespan but keep maching cutting it the way its going it wont see my lifetime of another 50 years ? If we can somehow slow it down and give people some years ahead to seek alternative fuels to heat their homes, instead of this shite that oh we have dug and cut the ground to heat our homes for 100s of years. You get the same basic payments if unemployed if you live in the town and you cant go around cutting bog earth to help you through the harsh winters. I would like future generations to see where our forefathers farmed actual bog for a fuel resource not bloody take it for all its worth in 1 generation. It wont sustain another 50 years cant you see that ?
Seen this before, pretty sure its a re-peat.
(I’ll see myself out)
I prefer the electric myself.
I think its something we might possibly need to let go as a society, should perhaps that the old timers want to cut a few sods by hand i would be happy to keep a few selected bogs open to this but the fact that the bog is virtually gone in the last 20-30 years was because of technological advancements.
Those same tech advancements have brought us sustainable fuel sources to heat our homes and if we keep the same attitudes towards burning our bogs we wont be having valid discussions on what to do with them, only with what we should have done.
Thanks for that Phil…..
I’m just back from turning my cut turf, hard work but a great feeling knowing I have fuel for the winter.
Well lets be honest.. keep killing elephants for the ivory and whats left ?? At least with them you can repopulate, Brain i would love to know your opinion on replenishing our bogs.. Once its gone its gone ! ?
I personally couldnt care less but im sure there is someone out there that does and would appreciate not letting the bog die a fast death.
You know how do protect Elephants ? By eating them ! Think about look at the success chickens have.. We need to think of tasty bog snacks in doing so we create a delicacy that could be farmed.
What a lot of people probably don’t know is that Turf-cutting was done in Saratoga Springs, New York as the Irish Immigrents arrived. From the “1878 History of Saratoga County”, In the town of Saratoga Springs are several beds of peat of most excellent quality. Edwin L. Carragan, whose residence is one and a half miles west of the village of Saratoga, has on his farm there a peat-bed of singular richness. Upon being taken from the bed and dried, it is ready for burning without any further preparation. Three miles east of the village are extensive peat-beds owned by Thomas B. Carroll, of Troy.
What a lot of people probably don’t know is that Turf-cutting was done in Saratoga Springs as the Irish Immigrents arrived. From the “1878 History of Saratoga County”, In the town of Saratoga Springs are several beds of peat of most excellent quality. Edwin L. Carragan, whose residence is one and a half miles west of the village of Saratoga, has on his farm there a peat-bed of singular richness. Upon being taken from the bed and dried, it is ready for burning without any further preparation. Three miles east of the village are extensive peat-beds owned by Thomas B. Carroll, of Troy.
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