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EARLIER THIS WEEK, Bord na Móna, the semi-state company, placed the former Derrinlough briquette factory and its 44.5 acre site in South Offaly up for sale online.
The factory only stopped producing briquettes in June, and the 62 former workers are still uncertain of their future with the company. SIPTU has accused the organisation of breaking the terms of the agreement entered over the closure of the site, claiming that Bord Na Móna put the site up for sale without consulting the Union.
Bord na Móna has a duty of care, not just to its employees, but also to our shared industrial heritage and economic history. Derrinlough belongs to the story of Ireland’s fuel sources and its ambitions for self-sufficiency and is the last surviving briquette factory in Ireland. That is why 50 leading academics, unions, environmental organisations, heritage and community groups have signed a letter calling for a halt to the sale of Derrinlough.
We are asking for a halt to the sale to allow time for consultation with local and national stakeholders about the cultural significance of the site and what its best future might be. As a major site of Irish industrial heritage, the case of Derrinlough offers an opportunity to establish best practices as we negotiate a just transition towards a low-carbon future.
Derrinlough factory was designed by the Maschinenfabrik Buckau R. Wolf, in conjunction with Bord na Móna. Work began on the construction of Derrinlough in 1957 and was completed in 1959 at a cost of £1.25 million.
Many of the people who worked on its construction would later find employment in the factory.
Although the factory is not on Offaly County Council’s list of Protected Structures, it nevertheless is listed on the County Survey for the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage recognising its architectural and social significance.
Ireland did not have an Industrial Revolution but we have a much-neglected industrial past in linen, sugar beet, distilleries, milling and mining materials such as copper and lead. The peat industry tells the story of rural industrialisation with turf transported by one of the largest industrial railway systems in the world. It also tells a story of postcolonial development and Irish modernity, of cutting-edge engineering, architecture and design, perhaps best exemplified by the briquette itself.
Derrinlough is not only significant for former workers and local communities. Better understanding the momentous transformations that took place in the Midlands in the mid-twentieth century can help us better understand the scale of the energy transition required today.
Rather than effacing the past, or selling it off, a just transition requires acknowledging and valuing what has come before. And in so doing, recognise and value the contribution of the workers and communities associated with this factory.
The idea of a ‘just transition’, developed by the international trade union movement, is that the phasing out of carbon fuels must simultaneously account for significant loss of employment and lifestyle in regions dependent on industrial carbon and, ideally, contribute a groundwork for a new, carbon-neutral society centred on green industrial development.
As international best practice has shown, inclusive and place-based approaches to the transition deliver the best outcomes. This includes consideration of place-based industrial infrastructures and heritage – the hundreds of kilometres of railway, worker’s villages, machinery, and factories – and how they can be repurposed to advance social and environmental goals.
The Government’s own Territorial Just Transition Plan (2022) identifies the important social, economic and cultural value of the peat industry’s heritage, particularly for the Midlands. Fáilte Ireland has recently secured €68 million in EU Just Transition Funding to support regenerative tourism in the Midlands. As part of this strategy, they identify the potential for regenerating and repurposing industrial heritage assets.
Surely, Ireland’s last briquette factory falls within this bracket, and any decision to dispose of the site requires appropriate heritage assessment and public consultation.
Putting a halt to the sale of Derrinlough will allow different interested groups, including workers, local residents, community and development organisations, conservation architects, historians, environmental groups and local authority representatives, the opportunity to come together and imagine alternative uses for the Derrinlough factory site.
It is not for us to pre-empt this process but ideas have already been put forward, including an industrial heritage museum to collect and archive the history of the peat industry over the past 70 years. There are exciting opportunities for creating a hub for the community and workers, raising peatland ecoliteracy as well as preserving the industrial heritage and intangible heritage of the workers and their stories.
The site could become a centre for green social and cooperative enterprises engaged in retrofitting and other essential transition work – particularly important in an area experiencing some of the highest levels of energy poverty and reliance on solid fuel heating.
There is no shortage of ideas for transforming Derrinlough into a vital hub for the Midlands area once again.
If Derrinlough is sold by Bord na Móna, we will no longer have a say in what happens to it. If we don’t stop the sale we will lose an irreplaceable part of our history, as well as the opportunity to create something genuinely positive and beneficial for those most affected by its closure.
We hope the Government and Bord na Móna can see sense and give local communities and stakeholders the opportunity to develop an alternative for the site. If you want to support this campaign, you can add your name to the Uplift petition here: https://t.co/QzfJd2NLc5
Dr Patrick Bresnihan is Lecturer in the Geography Department, Maynooth University. Emma Gilleece is an architectural historian.
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The foods bland and its expensive, not a winning formula.
It’s also incredibly unhealthy.
Not only that, it tastes delicious.
If going down the fast food route then I’d definitely do one of those Italian choppers -Borza, Macaris etc. Failing that I’d have Burger King before McD’s!
People who like to go on and on about not owning a television also don’t go to these places.
I stopping going to MacDonald’s several years ago even though I like their food. I just got tired of how they treat the communities they operate in, bullying their way through local planning laws, suing anyone who stands up to them, marketing directly to schools and kids sporting clubs.
‘modern, progressive burger company’
Yep
I think all chain food is crap: McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Supermacs and Costa Coffee etc.
Costa and Starbucks have the worst coffee. Complete muck.
Uh huh. Costa coffee is bitter shite. Starbucks a grade or two better.
Hold on, you’re telling me that Starbucks sell coffee now?
Insomnia is decent though…
How can anyone even taste coffee with the amount of sugar, milk and general muck added to it?
McDonalds do great coffe
Now, I think it’s the other way round! Costa at least have nice cups and good cakes. Chacun à son goût!
They do, Thomas and it’s cheap as chips!
Mac Cac. Chomh blasta le himeall mo thóna!
I honestly don’t get why people eat in McDonalds! The food doesn’t fill you. You’d nearly need to eat the entire menu to feel full after it. Everything on the menu tastes like syrup dipped in vinegar (except the drinks which just taste like syrup). And it has no nutritional value. I get that people like to get the odd bit of fast food (and I do like a good Italian chipper), but why go for something that tastes disgusting, offers no nutritional value and leaves you starving 15 minutes later?
They give you a toy with the Happy Meal :)
It’s that long since I ate in a McDonalds that I had entirely forgotten about Happy Meals. Still, that’s hardly an incentive for me! Oh this talk of food is making me hungry! I think I’ll have a nice half-pounder with cheese, chips, onion rings and a battered sausage tonight! :)
Ronald will qualify for job seekers allowance so no sweat
You put one scabby gherkin in your budgets, what do you expect? Never mind the chips that never go off and the nuggets made of slime and ammonia. And what happened to the turd burglar? Did he die? Oh wait, that was burger king.
‘Our’ Supermacs are mad expensive and portuons are scabby aswell. My local chipper does a fresh fillet chicken burger, with all the dressing, large chips (that would feed two people) and two cans of coke etc for 7.20 euro.
Supermacs the other night My order was one Chicken Breast Sandwich Meal and one small chips (both portions were tiny) and it came to 10 euro 40 cent!!!
Im not a big fast food eater but appreciate the price difference.
Not sure how it is in Ireland now but in Germany at least Burger King here has veggie options and other alternatives to the traditional “burger and fries” fast food menu. I had McDonalds a few weeks ago for the first time in years and it was so bland. I’d much rather spend another euro or two and get a healthy, filling meal somewhere else.
As a kid Coming from the country always Thoght it was suppose like a magical place. first time i went was in.Dublin when i was 16. Your local chipper is much more fulfilling
A prerequisite for any restaurant should be that they serve food. McDonalds doesn’t qualify. I’d take my chances with a 20 a day habit sooner.
Janey Mac that’s bad.
It’s muck and it treats its staff the same way so good luck to it.
I’d rather eat the packaging the food comes in
MacDonalds can be a handy quick bite to eat. The thing that gets me with them the last 10 yrs or so is that when you place your order they wait for the money rather than go get it while you sort it. This leads to longer cue’s .
If you’re going to eat that crap, here’s a suggestion have the right amount in your hand.
I hear they put the prices on their menu display ‘ s.
Give me super macs any day
Lose the clown,. He sure is scary, more suited to a Stephen King novel.
I love the irony in their sponsorship of the Olympics.
I eat it every now & then as a teenager, if I was out shopping with friends stopped when I Sussed mcds= headache. Total muck.
Cannot understand how i get thumbs down while something as ridiculous as a hambuglar gets a thumbs up…..
Shanghai Husi are OSI, an American company who supply McDonalds worldwide. They are one of many Western companies who think they can act like complete cowboys in Asia to cut corners and maximize profit.
Well they would definitely have more of my business if the Big Tasty was always on the menu. Mmmmm :)
There are absolutely no stereotypical Irish comments at all here.
Not one person is begrudging the success of anyone else.
This is a good news story, even for a fast food joint the whole place mings something awful
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