A prediction: in the future, standing either side of the River Shannon on drained bogs, we’ll look back and ask, “How did we get this so wrong?” A national treasure – an irreplaceable public asset – sacrificed for industrial development, when the evidence showed us that another path, one that would pay dividends for millenniums, was possible.
A few months ago, I visited Cornafulla Bog, on the western bank of the River Shannon in Roscommon. The winter sun – all light, no heat – flooded every inch of the place, including Clonmacnoise at the turn of the river, a sightline and connection unchanged for more than a thousand years. The Shannon Callows, the legally protected wetlands that border Cornafulla on three sides, are internationally renowned for their rare plants and bird species.
The bog is held on behalf of the Irish public by Bord na Móna (BnM). In December, BnM and SSE Renewables proposed a wind farm on it, saying the project was in a “very early stage”, with turbine numbers and locations not yet determined. Two months previously, according to Freedom of Information records, BnM had ordered remedial work on water pump stations at Cornafulla and Drumlosh, instructing contractors to ready them for “connection to the ESB network”.
In 2019, the courts forced the State to stop industrial peat extraction, including on Cornafulla. Bogs drained of water release carbon and lose the wet habitats that legally protected species such as Whooper swans have, for so long, depended on. So why pump water off it now?
BnM should learn from Abbeyleix. In July 2000, Abbeyleix residents blocked the bog entrance to stop BnM harvesting peat for horticulture. The community saw what BnM had missed: bogs offer much more value than extraction. The bog was restored, the raised bog increased tenfold, and emissions halved. Tens of thousands visit annually.
At the top of Lough Ree in Longford, at BnM’s Derryadd Bog, where a wind farm is proposed, pumps are draining the bog water via a small river into the Shannon at Lanesborough. BnM insists that “renewable energy development and peatland rehabilitation are not competing priorities”. Pumping water will make the ground solid enough for turbine and road infrastructure, but a bog isn’t a patchwork of divisible sections; it’s a floating body of water held within peat. Draining one section damages the rest.
By the time BnM ceased peat production, Cornafulla wasn’t fully harvested, and significant raised bog remains. As BnM’s 2017 Environmental Protection Agency-mandated rehabilitation plan for the bog shows, it is well-suited for restoration. Bogs store more carbon than all the world’s forests, they slow the flow of water, and support rare species. A few years ago, for the first time in 300 years, a pair of Common Cranes returned to nest in a nearby rewetted Offaly bog.
The irreplaceable Shannon bogs warrant full restoration. What we stand to lose by draining them for energy infrastructure is trading a guaranteed long-term asset for short-term expedience and convenience
This isn’t about whether Ireland needs renewable energy; of course we do. It’s not about opposing onshore wind energy. In France, wind turbines are on intensively farmed land where crops grow, and livestock graze, providing farmers with additional income. But siting wind infrastructure on the Shannon bogs is too high a price to pay for renewable energy – it’s climate policy chasing its own tail, celebrating “clean” energy while detonating a carbon store that took millenniums to build. For nature, it’s potentially catastrophic.
The Irish Climate Change Advisory Council’s 2025 report is explicit that the State must prioritise nature-based solutions in infrastructure development. Ireland faces an acute water crisis; in 2025, drought affected 49 water supplies across 15 counties. Uisce Éireann says up to €60 billion in investment will be needed over the next 25 years. Piping water from the Shannon to the Midlands and Dublin alone will cost tens of billions, all paid for by the taxpayer. The ambitious restoration of publicly owned bogs such as Cornafulla can deliver what Uisce Éireann would otherwise have to engineer at huge cost: water filtration, carbon drawdown, flood mitigation, and drought buffering.
[ Farmers to land €100k average payouts as part of Shannon water pipeline dealOpens in new window ]
Peatland Finance Ireland says that rehabilitating Ireland’s peatlands could reduce national emissions by 5 per cent. In Norfolk, restoration company Nattergal has rewetted 150 hectares at High Fen, preventing 100,000 tonnes of CO² release over 45 years and delivering 220 Olympic swimming pools of water annually. A raised bog requires no grid connection nor turbine replacement, and does not result in insurance claims. It is precisely what the State’s own climate advisers are calling for. The lowest-cost option for the public purse? Let nature do the work.
A European Investment Bank-supported Landscape Finance Lab report identifies bog restoration as an emerging asset class, delivering credible financial returns alongside even greater returns for climate, water, nature and local communities. Wind farms cannot claim the same asset profile, especially when sited on bogs. A restored raised bog is the ‘scalable, investable project model’ that the Council and Central Bank say Ireland needs.
[ Let’s hear it for the River Shannon’s neglected but fascinating edgelandsOpens in new window ]
On a visit last week, I saw the work of the UK’s Moors for the Future Partnership. They’ve raised £50 million since 2003 for peatland restoration, shifting from 90 per cent public to 90 per cent private funding in five years. Water companies invest because restored peatlands reduce flooding, improve water quality and lower treatment costs. National road authorities invest in preventing flooding and wildfires that otherwise destroy road infrastructure. Nestlé Waters UK, a multinational accountable to shareholders, funds its work, because healthy peatlands support its bottom line.
This is not about abandoning renewables; we must aggressively pursue their development. The question is, where? The irreplaceable Shannon bogs warrant full restoration. What we stand to lose by draining them for energy infrastructure is trading a guaranteed long-term asset for short-term expedience and convenience. We have to be strategic about preserving our natural infrastructure that underpins our security and survival. Future generations will thank us for it.
