1. PEAT
“The rate of exploitation of a resource is related to technological change”

2. What is peat?
Peat is a soil that is made up of rotted dead plants which have built up on top of each other in waterlogged places for thousands of years.

3. Bogs

4. Raised bog

5. Blanket bogs

7. 2 types of bogs
Raised-found in the Midlands. Can be up to 12metres deep
Blanket-found in upland and lowland areas of the West of Ireland. Can be up to 3 or 4 metres deep

8. Blanket bog

9. The “old way” of cutting peat
Meitheal: Group of neighbours and friends who worked together at a common task in rural Ireland.

10. Turf Stacks-Peat is called turf when it is cut

11. Sleán-How do you think this was used?

12. Question time Do you think this work was fast?
What do you think was done to make extracting the peat quicker?

13. Bord na Móna

14. Bord na Móna Set up in 1946 Why? To exploit the bogs.
What does exploitation mean?
Why would Bord na Móna want to exploit the bogs?

15. The “new” way-Peat Production

16. Stage 1 The bog is drained. Why would the bog have to be drained?
How does this make the work easier?

17. Ditcher-Why do you think the tyres are so wide?

18. Grader

20. Stage 2
The peat is harvested
How was peat harvested before?

21. Miller

22. Harrow

23. Ridger

24. Stage 3 The peat is transported
How do you think the peat was transported in the past?

27. Phase 4
The peat is marketed

28. Uses of peat Milled peat-ESB power stations in the Midlands Briquettes
Garden peat/moss peat
Sod peat

29. Milled Peat

30. Peat Briquettes

31. Garden/moss peat

32. Sod Peat

33. Bog Debate
Keep using them up?
Preserve them before they run out?

34. Keep using them? Source of fuel-electricity. Don’t have to import oil
Export-make money
Bord na Móna-jobs
Grasslands
Forests-what can we use these for?

35. Preserve them before they run out?
Home to rare plants and animals
Home to many birds in winter
51% of the total remaining bogs in Europe
Archaeology-bog man!