Mayo lad to feature in save turf cutting campaign

Mayo lad to feature in save turf cutting campaign


Michael Commins

A YOUNG Mayo turf cutting champion is to feature on a poster campaign to save the art of turf cutting in the bogs of Ireland. Danny Jennings from Rockfield, Barnacarroll, a pupil in Knock NS, will front the campaign along with two friends from Kildare.
Danny recently took part in the All Ireland Turf Cutting championships in Ticknevin in Kildare and along with Ryan Garry and Ian Cully retained the under 16 breast slean category title that they won last year. Danny was the cutter with Ryan catching and Ian wheeling. The superb coordination and timing between the three won favour with the adjudicators and the lads were thrilled to win the honours for the second year in a row.
The art of turf-cutting runs in the Jennings family. His father Noel captured the title for a few years in a row when he competed at the national championships in Kildare about a decade ago. Now young Danny is carrying on the tradition at a time when various guidelines from both the EU and the Irish government are trying to put a stop to the harvesting of turf in many bog lands around the country, especially in Roscommon and parts of Mayo and Galway.
Campaigners for the right to cut turf, such as the current chairman of Roscommon County Council, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, are expected to readily endorse the new campaign which has opted for a youth approach and a “picture postcard” of the more traditional Ireland.
“Danny and the lads are delighted that some of these casual photos taken in the bog in Kildare will now be used as part of the national campaign. The beauty of the photos is they are natural and not posed at all. The turf-cutting issue is a hot one now and attracted several hundred people to meetings around parts of the country last winter. The young lads are really delighted to have been chosen to front the publicity campaign,” says Noel Jennings.