Turf Cutting Championship: the day that changed everything for west Kildare

On Sunday, June 2 next, a commemoration will take place of the first National Turf Cutting Championships, which was held on April 21, 1934.
The event was to prove to be the germ of a seed that eventually grew into the establishment of Bord na Móna.
But to the organisers of the commemoration, the events of April 21, 1934, take on a greater significance in the economic and social history of west Kildare and east Offaly than a mere competition.
One of the organisers, Frank Moran, believes it was “the day that changed everything” in the area.
Before then, the rural west of the county was economically impoverished with emigration a constant, much as we perceive the west of Ireland at that time.
But after the creation of the turf cutting industry, not only did emigration slow significantly, but posters started to appear all over Britain, encouraging people to return to Ireland for work.
And Frank says that even some who had gone to America returned home.
The work wasn’t exceptionally well paid. It was average for its time, but it was a far cry from having no work. It was steady and reliable.
The other great change to the area were the camps and villages that Bord na Móna built to accommodate workers, and the fact that so many people from counties such as Tipperary and Galway moved to Kildare to work.
It is no great revelation to suggest that Coill Dubh has been, for many years, a hurling stronghold because of the people whose sporting heritage involved the small ball “emigrated” there to work.
But back to the day itself.

Turf cutters, catchers and wheelers at work while judgest and spectators look on during the first national championships

The Allen Eye, in an article by Brian Dempsey and Michael Jacob, reports that in the early 1930s, Turf Societies were established in various areas in the Bog of Allen to further promote the quantity and quality of hand-won turf.
“To that end, an idea hatched in Allenwood South by three men, Major Henry E De Courcy Wheeler (Robertstown), Mr Tom Harris, TD (Prosperous) and turf boat owner Mr Jim Doyle, was to organise a Turf Cutting Competition along the lines of the National Ploughing Championship. The purpose was to standardise and improve the quality of turf being produced.”
As head of state, Eamon De Valera was invited and attended, as did Sean Lemass, a man of vision who could see the potential in the bogs and in turf cutting to create an industry for Ireland, and as a natural resource.
The Kildare Observer newspaper, in an article dated April 28, 1934, reports that “the event brought a large crowd of men, women and children from all over Ireland. The president of the Executive Council of Ireland, Mr Eamon De Valera attended and was met by a large crowd as he turned over the Shee bridge into Allenwood South on his way to the event.”
The importance of the occasion was enhanced with the attendance of De Valera and no less than five government ministers, several TDs, senior members of the Army and Garda Siochana.
It is reported that in his speech welcoming them all, Major de Courcy Wheeler pleaded with Mr De Valera and government ministers in attendance “to develop the bogs for the sake of the people, so that they might secure a livelihood and future for their families”.
He compared the process of cutting and saving turf to that of saving any crop in the rest of the country where both can be spoiled by bad weather.
De Valera noted that such was the amount of turf being cut that it had lead to a reduction in the amount of coal being imported and that it was hoped half a million tons of peat would be cut, distributed and used that year (1934).
This was a hugely significant moment, because De Valera’s and Major De Courcy Wheeler’s paths had crossed before in 1916 when De Valera and his volunteers had to surrender to Major de Courcy Wheeler at Boland’s Mill during the rising.
Sean Lemass, then the Minister for Industry and Commerce, spoke of the importance to the nation of developing the fuel resource both in terms of vital fuel resource but also “it would enable those people who could endeavour to secure a precarious livelihood on the poorest land to gain an adequate means of assisting themselves by their own labours.
“The Government and Minister for Finance was going to place a large sum of money and assistance to secure drainage works.”
He concluded, saying that “it was hoped in a district not far from here to establish a factory, the purpose of which was for the production of peat briquettes. The work of construction will begin shortly and the fuel would be second to none but also for export”.
Mr De Valera remarked that, “I think that there has not been such a hosting on the Bog of Allen since the days of Fionn and Na Fianna” and he hoped the competition was going to become an annual event.
The authors of the Allen Eye piece noted that “the idea hatched by the three men beside a turf fire and subsequently the work of Major De Courcy Wheeler and the Turf Cutting Championship Committee, the visit of Mr De Valera and commitments delivered on by members of Government who attended, would not only change the landscape of the area, but also through employment in the years that followed, improve the quality of family and community life.
“Immigration, rather than emigration, would mean that communities would flourish right throughout the midlands.”
In 1934, the Turf Development Board was established under the stewardship of Todd Andrews.
The Lullymore Briquette Factory opened in 1935.
The Turf Development Board subsequently initiated the Kildare/Offaly Peat Development Scheme which set up 14 turf camps to supply fuel to the nation during the war years, including one at Killinthomas outside Rathangan.
In 1946, the Turf Development Board was renamed Bord Na Móna which added mechanical innovation to the process of peat and turf production.
Ballyteague GFC is the location for the commemoration of the day on Sunday, June 2, starting at 1pm. Descendants of many of those involved will be in attendance also.