More from The Ulster Way - Roe, Bog and Sperrin - video Dailymotion

News Letter

We have another wonderful clip from from our friends at Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive. This week we are back in the Sperrins for another clip from The Ulster Way, which was part of ITV's travelogue series, About Britain from 1985 and courtesy of UTV © ITV.   In this programme we find Michael Duffy strolling through the countryside, meeting local people and hearing their stories. His aim, to see the "countryside through the eyes of the people who live the Ulster way". This part of the tour of the Ulster Way takes a closer look at the land of Roe, bog and Sperrin Mountains. He starts this clip by saying: “There is a lot of bog land in this part of the country and cutting turf is part of the rhythm of life. It takes a good week's hard work, depending on the weather, to cut enough turf for the year. The it's spread out and turned over, the footed, that is to stand on end, then built into a stack. That rhythm is changing now.” The full piece can be viewed at https://digitalfilmarchive.net/media/the-ulster-way-roe-bog-and-2699. See more films at www.digitalfilmarchive.net.  Twitter – @NIScreen Facebook – @northernirelandscreen Instagram – @northernirelandscreen #DigitalFilmArchive #NorthernIrelandScreen

Transcript

00:00 There's a lot of bogland in this part of the country, and cutting turf is part of the

00:08 rhythm of life here. It takes a good week's hard work, depending on the weather, to cut

00:14 enough turf for the year. Then it's spread out, then turned over, then footed - that's

00:21 stood on end - and then raked out, built into a sort of rick or stack, then it's drawn in.

00:31 A rhythm that's changing now, and Joe Craig has just invested in the future.

00:36 Well, something around 30,000. One hour, where you'd cut in an hour, it would have been four

00:45 million. A day to cut the same amount. The older way of cutting, you had more work, needed

00:51 more work. A machine cut turf doesn't need as much work.

00:54 What do you do with them after they're left laying like that on the grass?

00:57 Let them lie for about ten days, and then you turn them over the body.

01:01 To get the bottom side dried? That's right.

01:03 And what do you do with them then? You stand them up in the rain. Then they're

01:07 up a bit a week or so, and you rake them. And that's the last thing you do with them?

01:11 That's the last thing you do with them. Until you draw them in?

01:13 That's right. And they're ready for...

01:15 They're ready for burning then.

01:21 (birds chirping)

01:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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