Being sent to turn turf in the bog as a young lad in the Midlands was part of life but always felt like punishment.

It was hard work that, at best, was rewarded with a few Penguin bars and one or two pound that you were only allowed to spend in instalments in the local shop.

Yet our micro-economy as children was largely replicated in the adult world. Fathers, brothers, uncles and neighbours worked in either Bord na Móna or ESB, two companies that propped up entire towns like where I grew up in Offaly.

Peat wasn’t just the fuel that kept our homes warm. It also fuelled almost every local enterprise, from the butchers to the collection basket at Mass. A sort of brown gold.

Yesterday, Climate Action Minister Richard Bruton visited my home parish of Ferbane to see what remains of a dying industry.

It was announced last Friday that the ESB plans to close the nearby Shannonbridge power station, as well the Lough Ree plant in Co Longford at the end of next year – sooner than anybody anticipated.

Around 80 jobs in the area will be directly affected – but that’s not even close to the full story. Another 1,000 Bord na Móna workers who have spent decades harvesting peat and servicing machinery also face into an uncertain future.

READ MORE: ESB to close two peat-burning plants as fears grow job losses will accelerate

Ferbane was one of the first places to feel the brunt of a move away from peat-generated electricity – and that was two decades ago.

I remember on a cold Saturday morning in February 2002 when the whole town stood together in a field of thistles to watch the massive cooling tower at our power station being brought down by dynamite. Its sister had suffered a similarly explosive end three years earlier.

The two structures, which had stood almost 90 metres tall since the 1950s, were our Poolbeg Stacks. Not pretty but a domineering part of the otherwise flat landscape.

Once the safety cordon had been lifted, some people went to the site to ‘steal’ themselves a piece of local history – a chunk of blasted concrete from the rubble.

Ferbane’s story was somewhat embarrassing for the ESB because even though the plant had ceased production in 1999, millions was spent to keep it open for two years afterwards.

Knowing that there were few alternatives for the workers, unions opposed the closure until it became inevitable.

In 1980s and early ’90s, Ferbane was known as a GAA stronghold. Think of the great Tony McTague or the Lowry brothers, including Brendan (father of golfer Shane).

But as the bogs depleted and the opportunities to get a job with ‘the Board’ reduced, so too did the number of young people willing or able to stay.

At the time there was a realisation that the bogs couldn’t be exploited forever but the phrase ‘climate action’ wasn’t part of the conversation. And the community was largely left to fend for itself, which it did.

Over the years, shops and pubs closed. An empty coffin was carried symbolically up the main street when Ulster Bank threatened to pull out. in 2004. It left anyway.

But it hasn’t been all bad. ESB gave money towards the development of a small business park and as nearby towns like Athlone and Tullamore grew on the back of foreign direct investment, so too did the potential for employment.

As he drove through the town in his hybrid car yesterday, Mr Bruton probably noticed green and white flags on nearly every gate post to celebrate Ferbane’s first county final win since 1994. Better still, the ladies’ team have just qualified for the All-Ireland intermediate final. Win or lose, there’ll be some session in the shed at the back of Gleeson’s pub in two weeks’ time.

Mr Bruton would also have passed the old power station site which has been fenced off since that February. It is now finally a building site, courtesy of a South Korean energy company and an Offaly firm that is developing new power facilities based on battery storage technology. The project won’t bring many jobs, though.

The minister went to Lough Boora Discovery Park, a sanctuary for wildlife and a haven for locals. For years it has been a much-valued local amenity. Now that the secret is out, around 100,000 people a year take the potholed road to what was once a flooded wasteland. There are walking trails, a coffee shop, art installations and the park guarantees to exhaust even the most active of kids.

A big part of the Government’s plan seems to be to create more places like Lough Boora – but while the bog restoration takes some work, in the long run it only sustains a handful of jobs.

By the time Mr Bruton got to Longford for a meeting with workers in Lanesboro, he was joined by Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

Privately they heard of “a lot of frustration” about what is happening to people who “have given their life to these power plants”.

Mr Bruton talked about the €6m ‘Just Transition’ fund for the Midlands which is to be topped up with another €5m from ESB. He promised to “try to develop an alternative future for these people”.

People, he said, want to see “easy wins” in the early days as proof that there will be future.

But the experience suggests there are no quick fixes for the problems facing the Midlands.

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