Bord na Móna (Irish: [ˌbˠoːɾˠd̪ˠ nˠə ˈmˠoːnˠə]; English: "The Peat Board") is a semi-state company in Ireland, created in 1946 by the Turf Development Act 1946.

[2] The development of peatlands involved the mechanised harvesting of peat, which took place primarily in the Midlands of Ireland.

[2] Over the years, Bord na Móna has expanded and diversified its portfolio of businesses to include biomass procurement and supply, power generation (peat based and renewable), waste recovery, domestic fuel products and professional and consumer horticulture products.

[5] Despite these changes Bord na Móna and the extraction of turf remains controversial in Ireland as it is criticised as being the most environmentally unfriendly form of fuel and having a negative impact on local biodiversity while in receipt of state subsidies.

[2] World War II had a substantial impact on the development of Ireland's peat industry and the foundation of Bord na Móna in 1946.

[7] After the war, the Irish government had a renewed focus on "the production of turf by mechanical processes and its sale at prices that cause it to compete effectively with other fuels".

The primary counties for peat harvesting were Kildare, Offaly, Galway, Longford, Roscommon, and Tipperary.

[8] In 2018, West Offaly and Lough Ree power stations received €87.75 million from the taxpayer to operate under the public service obligation (PSO) scheme.

This loss of biodiversity is due to the company's operations which progressively altered the terrain of bogs in their ownership.

Bord na Móna has made considerable effort to offset the impact of their operations over the years.

In the 1970s, a group of Bord na Móna employees, led by Tom Barry who was Peatland Environmental Officer at the time, drove an initiative to preserve a number of bogs, including Pollardstown Fen located in County Kildare and Raheenmore Bog in County Offaly.

It gave an overview of rehabilitation work, natural colonisation projects, and the biodiversity of the company's cutaway bogs.

This method (still privately used today) consists of sods being vertically cut from the side face of a peat deposit.

These briquettes consist of shredded peat, compressed to form a slow-burning, easily stored and transported fuel.

This service ceased permanently in October 2008 as it interfered with the heavy peat traffic heading for West Offaly Power Station.

Bord na Móna also operates several smaller bog railways delivering the peat to tipplers for transfer by road to factories and power stations.

They can be found at Gilltown, Ummeras, Kilberry, Prosperous and Almhain North – all in County Kildare, Coolnamona in County Laois, Derryfadda in Galway, Coolnagun, Ballivor and Kinnegad in Westmeath, Monettia, Bellair and Killaun in Offaly, and Templetuohy on the Tipperary / Kilkenny border.

The Coolnamona Works is largely closed but the railway system was upgraded in 2010/11 to serve a new tippler supplying peat by road to Littleton (Lanespark) Briquette Factory.

Templetuohy, the Bord's last traditional sod peat operation, uses four-wheeled open-slatted wagons which end tip into waiting lorries.

With the ending of peat harvesting, the Bord na Móna railway system will cease operations.