2-889-596 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Bog of Allen, from the Canal Side, 1850. 'The Irish Amelioration Society - Manufacture of Peat Charcoal...view of the bog...with Carbara Castle in the distance...the works...on the left, and the Wicklow Hills on the right...Mr. Rogers obtained a Royal charter for the conversion of peat fuel into charcoal for sanitary and other purposes, as also for the reclamation of the peat bogs...He at once commenced operations at Derrymullen [in Kildare, Ireland] where no sooner was a station erected, than it was besieged by the then miserable and half-starved spectres who inhabited this dreary waste - thereby proving, that where employment is to be had, the peasantry...are able and willing to work...no better spot could have been chosen...from its lying on the brink of the Grand Canal, with a great facility of conveying the material...to a ready market.' From "Illustrated London News", 1850.