Sugar Beet

Sugar Beet
Courtesy of www.fermacol.co.uk.

Until the 1990s, sugar beet was an important crop in Co. Tipperary. Truckloads of the crop were brought to Thurles every year, where the beet was turned into sugar.

The beet was harvested by hand in our grandparents' time, and this provided a lot of work for people in rural Ireland.

Beet Harvesting

Farmers and helpers harvesting the sugar beet crop.

Courtesy Boherlahan Dualla Historical Journal.

Beet Harvesting
Courtesy Boherlahan Dualla Historical Journal.

Beet Harvesting

Farmers and helpers harvesting the sugar beet crop.

Courtesy Boherlahan Dualla Historical Journal.

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The Thurles factory closed in the late 1980s, which meant that there was less demand for sugar beet in Co. Tipperary and many farms closed. The Irish sugar industry as a whole has now come to a standstill. The last of Ireland's sugar factories, in Mallow in Co. Cork, closed in 2006.