Sir, – All over Co Offaly people are receiving letters from Bord na Móna saying this State body wants to take back parts of bogs in the county. My parents, now pensioners, were among those to have received such a letter. No explanations were given for what the bog will be used. Just a brief text saying this State body wants to take part of a bog that has been in our family for four generations. Personal investigations have revealed that this bog will be used for a wind generator.
In this the age of information, why the secrecy? My parents have no objection to progress and the local employment opportunities these wind farms present but they do object to the underhand way this is being handled and also being taken for gombeens.
Also, it will be said these bogs have little or no financial value. But what about the pleasure of cutting your own bank of turf or going for a walk on the bog and seeing bog cotton or a snipe rise out of the furze or smelling the heather? During the winter months little can lift the spirits as much as lighting a turf fire and sitting in front of the dancing flames. We may not have much in Offaly, but bogs are part of our heritage.
Perhaps Don Quixote tilted at windmills , but Offaly people will not stand transfixed before these wind generators. – Yours, etc,
AUSTIN HYLAND,
Rue de Normandie,
Plaisance du Touch,
France.