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Are you still using turf?

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Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,018 ✭✭✭knipex


    Fair play, they don't suit you. They do suit a large proportion of the people in the country though. Cronyism and fraud is worse in rural areas.

    Im not saying it doesn't happen in Rural areas but its equally as rife in Dublin \ Cork, Galway and Limerick. And at a far higher level.

    The Drumcondra mafia are far from unique and its not confined to politics..


  • Posts: 24,714 [Deleted User]


    So if all families in rural Ireland keep building one offs on the land surely after a while it will get out of hand?
    The whole country would end up looking like the below

    bb.jpg

    So what? Most of the county is not a tourist attraction and the only people who see it are the locals. Houses are only along roads too so the vast majority of the county side is untouched it’s only the small percentage of land along roads that have houses.

    There is vast areas of the county where houses will never be built as it’s just not suitable and many if these areas are the tourist attractions so it’s not having any impact of “views” for the most parts. There is zero tourists going to drive down the narrow road where I’m building my house, the only people who will see it are the people who also live on the road or have land in past my house (which is us and two other people).

    There should absolutely always be the right to get planning and build on your own land and it will be political suicide to even attempt to stop this, there would be war pure and simple. Planning is already limited to people with local needs for the most part, you wouldn’t have a hope of getting planning permission where I am applying but it’s going to be no issue at all for me as I easily tick all the boxes.

    People are rambling on about a housing crisis yet the likes of me and many of my friends who are building at home on our own family land are generating housing for ourselves, houses that would not exist otherwise and this is doubled by the fact we aren’t going to be taking up a house in some poky estate somewhere leaving a house free for someone else to buy and live in.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Snow Garden


    Cronyism and fraud is worse in rural areas.

    Ever heard of Maria Bailey?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Fair play, they don't suit you. They do suit a large proportion of the people in the country though. Cronyism and fraud is worse in rural areas.



    Proof? Evil exists everywhere if you choose to participate. which is optional. A very poor argument indeed!

    There is deep kindness out here, humanity, realism and a sense of humour . and the sheer loveliness....

    "damn with faint praise.. assent with civil leer..."


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Ha? Talk about knee jerk BS.
    Total French connection to you too. I'm currently growning ash in pots. I have a farm road lined in em. Many old., more young. Oak planted here also by me, never had oak here before. We felled about a dozen 10 years ago that were about 20ft in circumference. I have a cypress that d auld fella recons was d same size when was a teenager as it is now. I have a fine.tradition of growning trees here. The entitled opinions on people here is gone beyond shocking.
    A55 h0les telling others what to do.
    And d rest seem to be brain washed by what ever boll0x they read on Twitter or similar.
    If I want to burn oak ( just cut a load for d wild fella) , guess what I'll do ?
    Buy I'm d lad that gets grief even though I.ve planted more trees than most
    Jesus wept.

    alleluia! well done!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Turf should be phased out and certain areas protected. Don't think all of it needs to be but a large part or prats should not be allowed to be harvested.

    It's either that or we accept that Ireland is fine losing the bogs.

    Look up preserved bog.. or take a trip out to North May o then say this


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    gctest50 wrote: »
    Ash is an important tree for wildlife. It is very long lived, enabling it to support many specialist deadwood species such as the lesser stag beetle and hole nesting birds such as owls and woodpeckers.

    Ash woodland has a light open canopy which encourages a rich ground flora of dogs mercury, bluebells and ramsons. Often it is accompanied by a hazel understorey.

    The alkaline bark of ash supports numerous epiphytic lichens and bryophytes and also attracts snails. Its leaves provide food for many moth species including the barred-toothed striped, the coronet, the brick, the centre-barred sallow and the privet hawkmoth. Birds such as the bullfinch eat ash seeds.

    Upland mixed ash woodlands are a priority habitat under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan and form one of the richest habitats for wildlife in the uplands. They support many rare woodland flowers such as dark red helleborine, Jacob’s ladder, autumn crocus, lady’s slipper orchid and threatened butterflies such a the high brown fritillary, the dingy skipper and the grayling.

    http://www.treeandlandscape.ie/Tree-A-Z/common-ash-fraxinus-excelsior.html

    Are you a fellow recorder for the Biodiversity site? Lovely post; thank you


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    John_Rambo wrote: »

    Now why would i waste a lovely summer oceanside morning doing that! Not interested


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    So if all families in rural Ireland keep building one offs on the land surely after a while it will get out of hand?
    The whole country would end up looking like the below

    bb.jpg

    Would be good t o ID that photo.. if it is really Ireland very rare and one place seems to fit


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    So if all families in rural Ireland keep building one offs on the land surely after a while it will get out of hand?
    The whole country would end up looking like the below

    bb.jpg

    The serene unspoiled natural, sustainable landscape that is the wilderness of Donegal.



    Not much turf left to dig there.


  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    So what? Most of the county is not a tourist attraction and the only people who see it are the locals.
    Oh no, no, no -- you see, we must give up our gardens, and ways of living that have benefitted us for probably thousands of years, and live in small, boxy apartments with almost no communal spaces or gardens (because that's how we build them in Ireland).

    We have to do this to provide a view of unused land for the occasional city visitor. Apparently.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,476 ✭✭✭✭Ush1


    Oh no, no, no -- you see, we must give up our gardens, and ways of living that have benefitted us for probably thousands of years, and live in small, boxy apartments with almost no communal spaces or gardens (because that's how we build them in Ireland).

    We have to do this to provide a view of unused land for the occasional city visitor. Apparently.

    - The Bull McCabe


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,278 ✭✭✭Hamsterchops


    Are you still using turf?

    fraid so, hands up, I'm a user.....
    Sounds like an admission to taking drugs :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,477 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Oh no, no, no -- you see, we must give up our gardens, and ways of living that have benefitted us for probably thousands of years, and live in small, boxy apartments with almost no communal spaces or gardens (because that's how we build them in Ireland).

    We have to do this to provide a view of unused land for the occasional city visitor. Apparently.

    I mean, I'm never going to live anywhere in Ireland but Dublin so I don't care that much, but surely you see that this way of living can't go on forever? If every family builds one offs everywhere, what kind of a mess will you end up in? There'll be no room for anything else, including farms!
    And this way of living is not benefitting us at all.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,018 ✭✭✭knipex


    Ever heard of Maria Bailey?

    Ahh FFS. Is that the best you can come up with ??

    What has cronyism or fraud got to do with a case of over "self entitlement" combined with a "someone else is always responsible" attitude ??


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,018 ✭✭✭knipex


    gctest50 wrote: »
    Hardwood takes ages to grow, not enough trees for everyone


    Also an awful waste if it's good, you can build decent stuff from it

    Alot of Ash growing in farmyards and around houses in Ireland is useless for furniture, hurleys or pretty much anything else after being felled. It grows from suckers like a weed and has no consistent thread pattern and is full of knots.

    There is a good bit of this around where I live and sections are typically cut back in rotation every 5 or 6 years. It grows back just as scraggly but once cut, split (and splitting can be hard work) and seasoned its great firewood.

    I know the farmer and he sells me a bit every couple of years..

    Lots of pine around, loads of thinning but surprisingly enough harder for someone like me to get. You can buy truck loads of logs or you can buy as much as you want already cut and split (most of which is still way too wet) but not easy to get a few logs to cut yourself.


  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I mean, I'm never going to live anywhere in Ireland but Dublin so I don't care that much, but surely you see that this way of living can't go on forever? If every family builds one offs everywhere, what kind of a mess will you end up in?
    Why?

    Every family doesn't build one-offs. Most of my brothers and sisters live outside the family farm. Only two have built houses on the farm, one of which is literally across the yard from the old house, anyway. This is the most sustainable way of living, I wish everyone could do it. My mother will never need a nursing home, because she will always have her children and grandchildren around. My nieces and nephews have never needed childcare, they don't know what a montessori is, and my sister has never had to deciude between having a career or staying at home with her kid for this reason.

    This is all fairly normal where I live, where one-off housing is reasonably common. And since the population of rural Ireland is shrinking anyway, it stands to reason that the numbers of one-off housing are falling anyway.

    One-off housing is a bit of a misnomer, because usually people build close to their family, as described in the above example.

    I'm not seeing the issue. And I don't care if passers-by groan and say "what damage to the environment!" while completely ignoring the social and lifestyle benefits that accompany this way of life.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,477 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    https://irishplanningfutures.wordpress.com/ruralhousing/

    Have a read of this. Obviously you one off lovers will never agree that it's terrible planning and unsustainable but that article lists all the problems associated with it. They're still building one offs all over so nothing is going to change, some of us just want a better planned country is all.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,523 ✭✭✭the_pen_turner


    One thing I wish they would do is push people who are going to build a one of house on a green field site to buy one if the huge amount of old abandoned houses you see that are an eyesore and serve so purpose just dumped there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    I mean, I'm never going to live anywhere in Ireland but Dublin so I don't care that much, but surely you see that this way of living can't go on forever? If every family builds one offs everywhere, what kind of a mess will you end up in? There'll be no room for anything else, including farms!
    And this way of living is not benefitting us at all.

    ???


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    I mean, I'm never going to live anywhere in Ireland but Dublin so I don't care that much, but surely you see that this way of living can't go on forever? If every family builds one offs everywhere, what kind of a mess will you end up in? There'll be no room for anything else, including farms!
    And this way of living is not benefitting us at all.

    hyperbole ! many huge areas cannot be built on. try the donegal/kerry mountains... mayo bogs and nature reserves...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,477 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Graces7 wrote: »
    hyperbole ! many huge areas cannot be built on. try the donegal/kerry mountains... mayo bogs and nature reserves...

    Donegal is a big sprawled out mess


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,477 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Graces7 wrote: »
    ???

    Us... you know, society? Citizens?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Donegal is a big sprawled out mess

    Odd that idea; I lived there a decade and that is not true.. Blue Stacks, Glencolumcille area, ...... ardara....malin head...and so on.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Us... you know, society? Citizens?

    well yeeeeeeeeeeeees.. of which there are many and varied!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Why?

    Every family doesn't build one-offs. Most of my brothers and sisters live outside the family farm. Only two have built houses on the farm, one of which is literally across the yard from the old house, anyway. This is the most sustainable way of living, I wish everyone could do it. My mother will never need a nursing home, because she will always have her children and grandchildren around. My nieces and nephews have never needed childcare, they don't know what a montessori is, and my sister has never had to deciude between having a career or staying at home with her kid for this reason.

    This is all fairly normal where I live, where one-off housing is reasonably common. And since the population of rural Ireland is shrinking anyway, it stands to reason that the numbers of one-off housing are falling anyway.

    One-off housing is a bit of a misnomer, because usually people build close to their family, as described in the above example.

    I'm not seeing the issue. And I don't care if passers-by groan and say "what damage to the environment!" while completely ignoring the social and lifestyle benefits that accompany this way of life.

    The same old idea of let us preserve the past as it was. Or as they think it was.
    Leave is as a sterile wasteland rather than the thriving and developing resource it is. a holiday resort not a living space


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    fraid so, hands up, I'm a user.....
    Sounds like an admission to taking drugs :)

    Love this! lol...


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,477 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    Ok I've changed my mind. Rural Ireland and our cities are prime examples and excellent planning that other countries should strive towards, and we should continue on as is. I'm going to sell my house and buy a mansion down the country and drive to work. Peace out.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Snow Garden


    The fact is that people will really struggle to build new one off houses unless they have a local need.
    I guess that will drive the prices of one of houses in the countryside up.


  • Posts: 5,121 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    This is all fairly normal where I live, where one-off housing is reasonably common. And since the population of rural Ireland is shrinking anyway, it stands to reason that the numbers of one-off housing are falling anyway.
    Your argument falls down on the assumption you make - the population of rural Ireland has grown in every census I checked, back to 1996.
    96 = 1.518 million
    02 = 1.582
    06 = 1.665
    11 = 1.741
    16 = 1.776
    An extra Galway County over twenty years.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,055 ✭✭✭IK09


    We had a machine for cutting turf when we were younger. His name was John and he was a beast of a man.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,753 ✭✭✭cgcsb


    Rural living, with your own land, is actually part of our social culture -- at least in rural Ireland. We shouldn't apologise for that. We shouldn't be trying to emulate Berlin or Manhattan. We are still allowed to have our own values and our own way of organising ourselves.

    Who's we?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,753 ✭✭✭cgcsb


    What’s illegal? Burning turf of briquettes certainly aren’t so not sure what you are referring to. You really sound like a delightful character :rolleyes:.

    Burning turf is illegal in Dublin.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,753 ✭✭✭cgcsb


    gozunda wrote: »
    Cities cant cope with housing people living there at present. How in the name of god could existing urban areas cope with even more people? In Ireland public transport is already at breaking point and infrastructure such as sewage disposal as discussed above is way beyond capacity.

    The point is that in rural areas people may for most of these services themselves. We also need a viable rural population in order that people can continue to work and live in the countryside. schools need critical numbers to be viable. No idea where this idea that everyone needs to live in urban ghettos comes from tbh.

    That's an argument for greater spending on urban infrastructure and housing. Our present government is ideologically opposed to affordable housing, that'll change.


  • Posts: 24,714 [Deleted User]


    cgcsb wrote: »
    Burning turf is illegal in Dublin.

    No it isn’t.


  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Your argument falls down on the assumption you make - the population of rural Ireland has grown in every census I checked, back to 1996.
    96 = 1.518 million
    02 = 1.582
    06 = 1.665
    11 = 1.741
    16 = 1.776
    An extra Galway County over twenty years.
    Do you have a link for that? I'd like to see how rural Ireland was defined.


  • Posts: 5,121 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Do you have a link for that? I'd like to see how rural Ireland was defined.

    CSO Statbank: https://cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=E2004&PLanguage=0
    This is the most recent. For the definitions I would have to go digging.


  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    CSO Statbank: https://cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?maintable=E2004&PLanguage=0
    This is the most recent. For the definitions I would have to go digging.
    Yeah I looked at that, the biggest rise in rural population was in Co. Kildare. I'm not sure that new estates and one-off houses just outside the M50 should be included in definitions for rural Ireland.

    Certainly, if we're talking about relative numbers, rural Ireland is shrinking. I don't think anyone doubts that. I'll keep looking to see if I can find anything on very small settlements outside of the Dublin Metropolitan Area.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    Yeah I looked at that, the biggest rise in rural population was in Co. Kildare. I'm not sure that new estates and one-off houses just outside the M50 should be included in definitions for rural Ireland.

    Certainly, if we're talking about relative numbers, rural Ireland is shrinking. I don't think anyone doubts that. I'll keep looking to see if I can find anything on very small settlements outside of the Dublin Metropolitan Area.

    You're right. It depends on where the 'rural' is. I'm very rural and many miles from a village, let alone a town, but the parish population has been growing steadily for the past ten years at least. There are of course offshore islands with a declining population and other parts of the country too.

    Unfortunately we can't just pick the particular 'rural' that suits our arguments,


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  • Posts: 13,712 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    You're right. It depends on where the 'rural' is. I'm very rural and many miles from a village, let alone a town, but the parish population has been growing steadily for the past ten years at least. There are of course offshore islands with a declining population and other parts of the country too.

    Unfortunately we can't just pick the particular 'rural' that suits our arguments,
    Of course not.

    But I don't think we should be comparing the Dublin metropolitan areas or the hinterlands of Cork city with isolated rural settlements where people build houses in the front field, and draw turf from their own bogs. It's a completely different demographic.

    I've just been looking up population changes in my own homeplace around Borrisokane and surrounding villages. They're either pretty much constant or falling.

    Can't find anything on settlements smaller than 50 people ker sq km, but those are visibly shrinking in my experience.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Of course not.

    But I don't think we should be comparing the Dublin metropolitan areas or the hinterlands of Cork city with isolated rural settlements where people build houses in the front field, and draw turf from their own bogs. It's a completely different demographic.

    I've just been looking up population changes in my own homeplace around Borrisokane and surrounding villages. They're either pretty much constant or falling.

    Can't find anything on settlements smaller than 50 people ker sq km, but those are visibly shrinking in my experience.

    These guys are seeking uniformity for their stats not the wondrously untamable exuberant reality of Ireland . we don;t fit into their rigid ideas


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 32,634 ✭✭✭✭Graces7


    Ok I've changed my mind. Rural Ireland and our cities are prime examples and excellent planning that other countries should strive towards, and we should continue on as is. I'm going to sell my house and buy a mansion down the country and drive to work. Peace out.

    why move? Stay where you prefer as we will do


  • Administrators Posts: 54,090 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭awec


    Graces7 wrote: »
    The same old idea of let us preserve the past as it was. Or as they think it was.
    Leave is as a sterile wasteland rather than the thriving and developing resource it is. a holiday resort not a living space

    A wasteland is certainly an odd way of describing rural Ireland (proper rural Ireland that is, not the bits covered with mcmansions and poxy dormer houses).


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 32,688 ✭✭✭✭ytpe2r5bxkn0c1


    awec wrote: »
    A wasteland is certainly an odd way of describing rural Ireland (proper rural Ireland that is, not the bits covered with mcmansions and poxy dormer houses).

    Am I to take it that the premise is a cut bog is better than an undisturbed thriving ecologically vibrant bog? Or that a spate of one off houses and sceptic tanks is preferable? A strange concept.

    So we shouldn't preserve the wild flowers and fauna of the natural countryside in favour of stripped bogs and housing?

    This thread has veered a long way from 'are you still using turf'.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,904 ✭✭✭mgn


    Well i haven't cut turf in years but with all these new taxes on oil and coal coming in to make Leo look good in Europe,It won't be long before i start cutting again.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,477 ✭✭✭✭Thelonious Monk


    So we shouldn't preserve the wild flowers and fauna of the natural countryside in favour of stripped bogs and housing?

    No we should keep building ribbon development and one offs so people will be living there to preserve the countryside, or something


  • Posts: 5,311 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Am I to take it that the premises is a cut bog is better than an undisturbed thriving ecologically vibrant bog? Or that a spate of one off houses and sceptic tanks is preferable? A strange concept.

    So we shouldn't preserve the wild flowers and fauna of the natural countryside in favour of stripped bogs and housing?

    This thread has veered a long way from 'are you still using turf'.

    This curious obsession with weighing up urban versus rural living is redundant. Discussion of declining population in specific parts of the countryside is a lament for another thread.

    Back on topic, my grandmother's cottage was located on the fringes of the Bog of Allen. As a child, we enjoyed our summers footing turf and stacking for drying. Seems like a lifetime ago. Ethically, I wouldn't harvest or purchase turf today.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,428 ✭✭✭✭Marcusm


    mgn wrote: »
    Well i haven't cut turf in years but with all these new taxes on oil and coal coming in to make Leo look good in Europe,It won't be long before i start cutting again.

    So long as you do it by human labour and not some turf sausage machine, i’d Congratulate you.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,428 ✭✭✭✭Marcusm


    IK09 wrote: »
    We had a machine for cutting turf when we were younger. His name was John and he was a beast of a man.

    Ours was called Tommy Mellotte supplemented by my father as secondary cutter and my brother and I as spreaders at Easter. Turning a month later then footing at Whit. I must secure the slean before the house is sold.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,428 ✭✭✭✭Marcusm


    cgcsb wrote: »
    Burning turf is illegal in Dublin.

    It’s only the marketing, distribution and sale of smoky products which is banned not their use for burning!


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