Turf cutters from South Sligo setting off for the protest at the Dáil last week. TURF CUTTERS, farmers and home owners in south rural Sligo decided to join a nationwide protest outised Dàil Eireann ...

As wind turbines on the horizon churn out clean energy, John Smyth bends to stack damp peat - the cheap, smokey fuel he has harvested for half a century. The painstaking work of "footing turf," as the ...

Matt Corbett reckons the best thing about cutting turf is that you get to disappear into silence for the day. From early April to June, locals driving the narrow Connemara road past Carna towards ...

A ban on selling smoky fuels was meant to cut carbon emissions, tackle air pollution and conserve ancient bogs. Instead, it has fuelled a tense narrative of urban elites versus rural poor The peat ...

Heritage minister Jimmy Deenihan confirmed the lifting of the ban would ensure around 2,500 active turf-cutters were allowed to cut in the affected areas. "Most of our peatlands have been altered by ...

Now that summer has yielded to autumn, the weather is cooler, and worries about keeping homes warm are foremost in some people's minds. Demand for solid fuel - and especially for timber - is soaring, ...