The Arigna mine has become a tourist attraction that re-creates the gruelling lives of its former employees - some of whom will tell you about their dangerous work, writes Marese McDonagh
NOT SO LONG AGO, for hundreds of coal miners eking out livings on the Arigna Mountains, in Co Roscommon, health-and-safety procedures involved prayers in front of a picture of the Sacred Heart at the entrance and a simple test with a candle before the day's work began.
The mines closed in 1990, ending a 4,000-year tradition in this rugged landscape, but thanks to a novel tourism venture visitors can step back in time for a first-hand account of a way of life that few workers today would envy.
The main attraction of Arigna Mining Experience, apart from the views over Lough Allen and the five surrounding counties, is that the tour guides at this mining museum are former pitmen with an endless supply of stories about their work in an industry that sustained a sprawling rural community for centuries.
Local man Peter McNiff, who went into the mines at the age of 13, was a foreman when the mines closed. "I remember, as foreman, my first job in the morning was to walk inside the mine with a candle. You could tell by the way the flame flickered if it was safe to let the men in or if there was a problem with the air," he says.
The six former miners who work as guides at the museum bring visitors into the mountain and through the former Derreenavoggy mine. There, they explain the harsh and cramped conditions endured by men who lay on their sides for hours in pools of cold water, their shoulders up against the mountain as they cut coal, which was then transported in heavy wagons, or "hutches", which their colleagues pushed on rails, out to the daylight.
Thanks to electricity, working conditions improved somewhat in 1939, when hand picks were replaced by coal cutters. Carbide lamps soon replaced candles, which the men used to attach with daub to rocks around the mine.
Because of the miners' strike in Britain in the early 1980s, Arigna miners inherited the redundant helmets of their colleagues across the water.
Until then, men such as Peter McNiff used home-made contraptions, such as flattened pea tins that they placed on their cloth caps, using a piece of wire to attach their carbide lamps.
Rats were a constant companion in the mines, but they were a mixed blessing. If the rats cleared out of a mine, it was a warning sign that there was a problem with ventilation. But lunches had to be brought to the mines in tins, as hungry rodents would chew through plastic .
Throughout its long history, Arigna escaped without a major disaster or accident, but rockfalls were a constant threat, and many men succumbed to silicosis, a form of lung fibrosis, thanks to dust that lay "like concrete" on their lungs.
A recent initiative at Arigna Mining Experience is the input of Mná na Meanadoirí, miners' wives who on Sundays during the summer months chat to visitors about the impact this way of life had on families. Some of the older women remember having to lay blackened clothes in the river, weighed down with a stone, in a vain bid to get them clean.
"Most people ask us about the dangers and how we got the coal dust out of clothes," says Olive Flynn, whose husband, Michael, is a miner turned tour guide. "The men were black from head to toe, apart from the whites of their eyes, at the end of the shift."
Wind turbines have now sprung up on the Arigna Mountains, above what was for generations Ireland's main coal-mining village, maintaining the area's symbolic link with the production of energy.
Smokeless briquettes are also produced locally, but many of the houses on the hills around Arigna are now holiday homes, as the population has never recovered to the peak reached when the mines employed up to 500 men.
Signs for Arigna Miners' Way punctuate the landscape; the 60km (39m) walk retraces the footsteps of miners as they walked to work.
Peter McNiff, who was born in a thatched cottage in the townland of Altagowlan, on the side of the mountain, recalls that miners making their way home used to follow the passes used by sheep, as they invariably crossed the driest terrain. As the top of the mountain was commonage, there were no fences to negotiate, and miners would make their way home in the dark, wind and rain, along the summit, until they got in line with their own houses.
McNiff also remembers a time when families went out on Sundays to mark the way with old shoe-polish tins tied together.
For visitors, Arigna Mining Experience and Arigna Miners' Way offer a sense of history and beautiful views of a spectacular landscape.
GO THERE
How to get there
Arigna Mining Experience is open daily from 10am to
6pm. The last tour is at 5pm. 071-9646466,
www.arignaminingexperience.ie.
It is 190km (120m) from Dublin. Take the N4 towards Sligo as far as Carrick-on- Shannon. Turn right for Leitrim and follow the R280 to Arigna.
It is 50km (30m) from Sligo. Take the Dublin road out of town, turning off at the Carraroe roundabout, to take the R284 Drumshanbo road.
At Keadue, follow the signs to Arigna.
Where to stay
The recently opened Kilronan Castle, a five-star
hotel less than 10km from the mine, between Keadue and Ballyfarnon,
will be fully operational in July. 071-9647771,
www.kilronancastle.ie.
There is a restored miner's cottage in Arigna; this self-catering accommodation, next door to Arigna Mining Experience, sleeps five or six. Call 071-9646466.
O'Carolan Bed & Breakfast, in Keadue, is about six kilometres away. Rooms are en suite. 071-9647257.
The four-star Ramada Hotel and Suites at Lough Allen also has guest lodges. 071-9640100, or log on to www.ramadahotelloughallen.com.
Where to eat
The coffee shop at Arigna Mining Experience has
home-cooked snacks and beautiful views over the valley.
Lough Allen Miners' Bar (Flynn's) in Arigna village serves light snacks.
You could also try the Rowan Tree on Main Street in Drumkeerin.