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THE ELMGROVE EPIC

DARRAGH’S FAMILY FARM THROUGH THE GENERATIONS

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Our favourite stories from this season of the show

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60 YEARS YOUNG

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CONGRATULATIONS TO THE IFA CELEBRATING 60 YEARS As we wish you continued success, we look back at key milestones of our shared journey and growth.

1955

FORMATION OF THE IFA

1960-1983

FORMATION OF AVONMORE & WATERFORD

1997-2000

THE MERGER: FORMATION OF GLANBIA PLC

2012

A TRANSFORMATIVE YEAR: GLANBIA INGREDIENTS IRELAND WAS BORN

2012-2015

INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE

• Invested €21 million in whey protein concentrate and isolate production at Ballyragget • Constructed our new, state-of-the-art Belview facility an investment of more than €180 million • Invested €9 million in a new milk protein plant at our Virginia site

• Acquired Wexford Creamery increasing our milk and whey pools by 100 million litres

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WELCOME

Hello ...

Bringing you quality farm cover at competitive prices for generations.

Ashville Media Group, Old Stone Building Blackhall Green, Dublin 7 Tel: (01) 432 2200 All rights reserved. Every care has been taken to ensure that the information contained in this magazine is accurate.

The publishers cannot, however, accept responsibility for errors or omissions.

Reproduction by any means in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. © Ashville Media Group 2015.

ISSN 2009-4310

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THE ELMGROVE EPIC

DARRAGH’S FAMILY FARM THROUGH THE GENERATIONS

EAR TO THE GROUND SUMMER 2015

...and welcome to another edition of Ear To The Ground magazine, at the end of yet another successful season on RTÉ One. One of our most popular items on this year’s show came from presenter Helen Carroll, who has spent over a decade trying to get a decent internet connection in her Co Kilkenny home. It’s a story that many businesses and families will find all too familiar, as Helen talks about the hoops she has to jump through, meets companies that are hard-hit – and hears about the Government’s proposed solution.

Meanwhile, our own Darragh McCullough gives us a much-welcomed fresh perspective on a story that’s dominated the narrative this year: milk quotas. Tracing the history of his family farm, Elmgrove, he recalls a grandfather and a father constantly innovating as the dairy industry evolved over the past 80 years – and he looks to the future, as new plans take hold.

Mairead McGuinness has been busy too. The former Ear To The Ground presenter and current Vice-President of the European Farm Parliament shares her thoughts on ecosystems: bees are important, but Insurance from Aviva so too are other pollinators. We also catch up with a few of the guests we’ve visited on the show, look at subjects as diverse as wood-turning, photography and musical instrument-making, and of course pay tribute to the Irish Farmers’ Association on its milestone 60th anniversary.

At Independent Pictures, and on behalf of our friends at RTÉ, we hope you enjoy the read – and fingers crossed for a long and hot summer.

Editor: Ruraidh Conlon O’Reilly Deputy Editor: Conor Forrest Editorial Staff: Rachel Murray, Jane Quinn Contributors: John Bradley, Helen Carroll, Megan Cummins, Valerie Jordan, Ian Maleney, Darragh McCullough, Aisling Meehan Creative Director: Jane Matthews Design: Jennifer Reid, Antoinette Sinclair Photography: Liam Blake, Mike Brown, John Carlos, Jason Clarke, Andrew Dineen, Roger Jones, Ian Maleney, Darragh McCullough, Thinkstock Production Manager: Mary Connaughton Production: Nicole Ennis Sales Director: Paul Clemenson

WILDLIFE ✱ LAW ✱ GAELTACHT ✱ SCIENCE ✱ MUSIC ✱ CLIMATE ✱ THATCHING ✱ DAIRYING ✱ PHOTOGRAPHY ✱ ART ✱ FOOD ✱ MOTORING ✱ ZURICH FARM INSURANCE

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Contents

57

FROM THE SHOW

FEATURES 11

17 20

29

32 PROUD SPONSOR OF EAR TO THE GROUND MAGAZINE

MAIREAD MCGUINNESS The MEP and former Ear To The Ground presenter on bees and pollinators.

BUSINESS NEWS Latest updates.

THE ELMGROVE EPIC Darragh McCullough tells the story of his family farm through three generations.

DAIRY ARCHAEOLOGY New research reveals that the industry is older than anyone might have thought.

DAIRY INNOVATION CENTRES Researching the next innovations.

36

46 50

55 68

IFA 60TH ANNIVERSARY Matt Dempsey on the Irish Farmers’ Association’s past, present and future.

THATCHING COTTAGES Valerie Jordan talks to thatcher Kyran O’Grady.

UILLEANN PIPES This most traditional of instruments appears to be making a comeback: Ian Maleney reports.

FARM SAFETY Working safely with slurry.

INIS MEÁIN SUITES Fine accommodation and dining in a surprising spot.

Catch up with some of our favourite stories from this season of Ear To The Ground

57 58 61 63 65 66

BOYNE FISHERMAN’S RESCUE SATHYA SAI DONKEY SANCTUARY CON MURPHY’S ROAD TO RECOVERY THE SAMCO STORY BALLINWILLIN WILD BOAR BALLYHOURA MUSHROOMS

6 EAR TO THE GROUND

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CONTENTS

BUSINESS 76

86

91

94 99

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Ian Maleney meets some of Ireland’s world-class instrumentmakers.

HELEN’S BROADBAND BATTLES The struggle to get connected is taking its toll on rural Ireland – as Ear To The Ground presenter Helen Carroll knows first-hand.

DOING BUSINESS IN THE GAELTACHT How food underpins the Irishspeaking economy.

LEASING AND PARTNERSHIPS Agricultural solicitor Aisling Meehan explains the ins and outs.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, OFFALY The midlands county punches

103 107 113 114

119 122 124 126

above its weight as a film location, as Ian Maleney learns.

TOM ARNOLD ON CLIMATE WASTE DISPOSAL Dr John Bradley looks at new opportunities.

FORESTRY NEWS MOY PARK CHICKEN Director lan Gibson explains how the poultry giant processes 5 million birds every week.

IFA SMART FARMING Keeping costs down.

MACRA LAND TRANSFER Empowering the next generation?

CAREER CLINIC ZURICH FARM INSURANCE

20 THE ELMGROVE EPIC

FOOD, LIFESTYLE & ART 135 ROSÉ VEAL High-welfare meat at the Madigans’ Kilkenny farm.

140 WOOD TURNING A Journey, the extraordinary work of Emmet Kane. Interview: Valerie Jordan.

147 IRELAND’S WESTERN ISLANDS Photographer John Carlos on completing a very long-term project.

154 HEN HARRIERS Ireland’s most controversial bird gets caught in the crossfire. Megan Cummins reports.

158 BATS Jane Quinn learns about some mysterious mammals.

163 EDIBLE INSECTS Any takers?

164 FREE FROM Diet options.

86 HELEN’S BROADBAND BATTLES

166 SUMMER RECIPES Fire up the barbeque.

171 BOOKS 173 FASHION

By Rachel Murray.

179 MOTORING The Land Rover Discovery Sport and Skoda Fabia.

COMPETITIONS

129 JERPOINT GLASS Win a set of handmade jugs.

130 THE OLDE POST INN Win dinner for two and a night at The Olde Post Inn, Cavan.

36

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IFA Six decades of protest and negotiation.

PROUD SPONSOR OF EAR TO THE GROUND MAGAZINE

EAR TO THE GROUND 7

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WELCOME

Behind the camera Rain, hail or shine, the Ear To The Ground crew have been busy meeting new people and hearing stories from up and down the country. Turn to page 57 to read some of our favourite pieces from this season of the show.

57 TURN TO PAGE

EDITOR

Ruraidh Conlon O’Reilly Reporting on rural affairs means that things have come full-circle for the Ear To The Ground magazine editor, given his west Wicklow upbringing.

When not poring over a computer screen or a stack of proofs, he writes and plays guitar with Dublin band The Choir Invisible.

CONTRIBUTORS

Helen Carroll A familiar face on TV screens, not least from presenting Ear To The Ground for 11 seasons, the experienced Kilkenny-based journalist’s tale of broadband woes received perhaps the biggest public reaction of her career so far.

Conor Forrest Athy’s petrolheaded deputy editor comes from solid farming stock, a rarity in an office full of Dublin jackeens. Cars and Man Utd aside, Conor’s a history and literature buff and he edits a variety of our sister-titles.

Valerie Jordan Her recent departure from the office for the world of freelancing has taken her as far as Bayswater in London, not renowned as an Irish rural affairs hotspot.

Characteristically for Valerie, distance is no obstacle to an informative feature.

Ian Maleney The Offaly-born-andbred journalist’s work regularly features in The Irish Times, The Quietus, Resident Advisor and his own online start-up endeavours.

A thoughtful writer on all things cultural, music is his terra firma.

8 EAR TO THE GROUND

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COLUMN

T

here’s a lot of talk about bees these days and rightly so, but other less-spoken-of insects are equally important and in need of attention.

Of course our bees are hugely important for food security and they are under threat. Without bees there would simply be no food or human life – so protecting bees is vital. And indeed they get most attention when it comes to concerns about loss of species and numbers linked with habitat loss. So it is good to know that across Europe initiatives are under way to protect them and address the challenges they face arising from adverse weather, loss of habitat, intensive agriculture, diseases and pests.

Here in Ireland we have a community of very dedicated beekeepers and this is mirrored across the EU, where the bulk of beekeeping is carried out by very active beekeepers, both amateurs and professionals.

Slovenia is probably leading the field when it comes to bees, mainly because of the high level of habitat protection in that country – with some 40pc of its territory designated as protected, the highest percentage in the EU. The country also has a very successful campaign

Great & Small ALL CREATURES

The plight of bees receives plenty of attention these days – but don’t forget about the role played by other pollinators, writes former Ear To The Ground presenter Mairead McGuinness MEP, Vice-President of the European Parliament.

EAR TO THE GROUND 11

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COLUMN LEFT: Vice-President of the European Parliament Mairead McGuinness MEP chairing the Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, where environment issues linked to agriculture policy are often on the agenda.

overall health of the hive, as queen bees lay eggs, each laying up to 2,000 per day.

According to the Slovenian beekeepers, to make 1kg of honey the bees have to visit four million flowers and fly four times the circumference of the globe!

“There has been growing concern about deaths among bees and colony collapse... in Ireland we have wild solitary bees and there are concerns here too.” in kindergartens and schools, aimed at making children aware of the importance of bees and beekeeping. It’s sponsored by the Slovenian Bee Keepers’ Association.

The campaign has worked really well and has resulted in an increased awareness of the role of bees in nature and also increased consumption of bee products in Slovenia. European Honey for Breakfast is part of the Slovenian work on promoting the role and importance of bees and bringing it to a wider audience.

I was delighted to be invited along to a ‘honey breakfast’ in the European Parliament this April, sponsored by the Slovenian MEPs. We sampled local honey and listened to how Slovenia has worked successfully on the issue of promoting beekeeping. They take it very seriously indeed!

Slovenia has a long and proud history of beekeeping dating back over 230 years. In the EU accession negotiations the country secured the option to regulate the method for marketing bee breeding material to protect its indigenous Carniolan bee (grey bee). There is huge pride in the country about their beekeeping tradition and it was reflected in the fact that at the highest political level bees are regarded as an important aspect of Slovenian agriculture, culture and tradition.

The apiculture sector is an important part of EU agriculture: there are around 630,000 beekeepers and 16 million hives in the EU, producing 234,000 tons of

honey per year. We tend to take bees and their vital work of pollination for granted.

In Europe 84 per cent of cultivated plants are dependent on insect pollination.

Worldwide, 70 per cent of the plant species used for food depend on this kind of pollination. Approximately one third of all the food we eat depends on insects for pollination. The actual economic value of the work done by bees has been measured at an incredible e153 billion worldwide.

Simply put, without bees there would not be so many different fruits and vegetables. A bee colony is typically the equivalent of a town, with between 30,000 and 60,000 bees in each colony. Queen bees and their health are pivotal to the

COLONY COLLAPSE In recent years there has been growing concern about deaths among bees and colony collapse. In Ireland we have wild solitary bees and there are concerns here too about their numbers, which are also in decline.

Bees are an important barometer of the health of our ecosystem, and the situation of our habitats and species across the EU is worrying. A rich and healthy biodiversity is needed for bees and the situation in the EU overall is regarded as quite dire.

Many insect pollinator populations are in decline because of changing conditions such as habitat loss, climate change, invasive species and pesticide use.

Plant protection products, especially insecticides, can be toxic to bees.

Existing legislation on plant protection products clearly mentions that active substances used in these products can only be approved if they are safe for bees.

The use of some insecticides – three neonicotinoids and fipronil – has been restricted in the EU because of concerns.

There is an ongoing review of the science behind the ban and little agreement between the environmentalists and the companies that produce the products about the results of the scientific research.

A new study just published – Ecosystem Services, Agriculture and Neonicotinoids – says we should be concerned, not just about bees but about the many pollinating insects that are vital for agriculture.

The study produced by the European

Slovenia’s beekeeping tradition is an important part of the country’s culture.

12 EAR TO THE GROUND

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COLUMN

LEFT: Biodiversity is one of the big environmental challenges: how to provide space for nature to ensure that pollinating insects survive and thrive. The new CAP asks farmers to have ecological focus areas on their farms for wildlife.

Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) concludes that the policy debate should be much broader than just about bees and should include natural pests, biodiversity and soil issues.

It argues that as agriculture depends on services provided by nature, maintaining strong functional ecosystem services is a critical part of a sustainable agricultural system.

Pollination is one of the most studied of these so-called ecosystem services provided by nature. Worldwide, 75 per cent of the crops on the global market depend to some degree on pollinators.

Economic estimates place the monetary value of pollination in Europe at e14.6 billion. While bees are often the most important crop pollinators and honey bees are the most widely used managed pollinators, relying on a single species for pollination is not wise, the report says.

Studies show that a diversity of pollinators can improve crop yield or fruit quality. Restoring and maintaining pollinator diversity is thus very important for agriculture, as well as for natural vegetation. This study closes somewhat inconclusively: while there is evidence for increased losses of managed honey bee colonies over winter, no final conclusions can be drawn on recent underlying trends in Europe because of the confounding

socio-economic factors that influence colony numbers.

However, trend data on wild bee species, other pollinators, on insect species with natural pest control functions and on biodiversity indicators, such as farmland birds, all show major declines.

OTHER POLLINATORS Public and political focus has been very much on honey bees, especially focused on the question of whether their colonies are impacted negatively by agricultural use of neonicotinoids. Yet honey bees are just one source of pollination and may not even be the most effective for some crops, according to the report. Many other pollinators have a valuable role: bumble bees, solitary bees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, and more. They are also in decline.

The report suggests that studying honey bee colony trends does not determine what is happening to the wider ecosystem and the other key services provided by nature. It concludes that protecting honey bees is not sufficient to protect pollination services or the other ecosystem services.

The Expert Group found that there is an increasing body of evidence to show that the widespread prophylactic use of neonicotinoids has severe negative effects on non-target organisms that provide ecosystem services, including pollination

“Many other pollinators have a valuable role: bumble bees, solitary bees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths, and more.

They are also in decline.”

and natural pest control. It found that there is clear scientific evidence for sublethal effects of very low levels of neonicotinoids over extended periods on non-target beneficial organisms and that this needs to be addressed in EU approval procedures.

It also concluded that the current practice of prophylactic usage of neonicotinoids is inconsistent with the basic principles of integrated pest management as expressed in the EU’s Sustainable Pesticides Directive and that widespread use of neonicotinoids (as well as other pesticides) constrains the potential for restoring biodiversity in farmland. These are significant conclusions and beg the question about the future direction of agriculture policy and practice.

The reform of the CAP with an emphasis on payment for greening measures, including crop diversification, permanent pasture and ecological focus areas, is part of a shift towards recognising the need for a varied landscape that is mindful of the needs of all creatures great and small.

THE DEBATE CONTINUES The debate about pesticide and insecticide use will continue to rage. It’s one that we should all be involved in – farmers and non-farmers. The all-too-frequent use of these chemicals in our garden and the practice of spraying roadside margins needs a sharp rethink. I, for one, love the wildness of roadside margins and their variety of plants, including weeds, which are habitats for nature.

In our gardens we can create places for pollinators. We do not need manicured lawns and perfectly straight edges, but we do need the birds and the bees and the butterflies and wild insects seen and unseen. Imagine our gardens and countryside without them? A silent and hollow place indeed.

And back to the bees, where efforts are being made by the UN to designate May 20th as World Bee Day, with the Slovenian authorities to the forefront in this effort.

The month of May is when we have the greatest activity in bees, with the number of colonies increasing and swarming taking place. May 20th is the birthday of Anton Janša, regarded as the pioneer of modern beekeeping and one of the world’s greatest experts on the subject.

If we get this designation of World Bee Day, it might make us more aware not just about bees, but about all living creatures and the contribution they make to food production and a healthy environment.

14 EAR TO THE GROUND

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FARM TIPS FOR KIDS FROM IRISH WATER SAFETY

HERITAGE COUNCIL PROJECTS BOOST COMMUNITY COLLABORATION Since it was established, and helped by being based in Kilkenny, the Heritage Council has built strong networks and partnerships across rural Ireland. The case studies that it has sponsored, facilitated and partnered over the past 20 years prove that an approach based on the principle of shared stewardship works. It delivers quality communal landscapes that generate sustainable employment, social capital, community and functioning ecologies.

Working with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine the Heritage Council manages the REPS 4 Traditional Farm Buildings Scheme Initiative. Since 2009, 322 unique farm buildings have been preserved for future generations.

The Pilgrim Paths project was set up by the Heritage Council in 1997 and involved seven routes across Ireland. In association with local communities, it aimed to develop a network of walking routes along medieval pilgrimage paths. It sought to raise awareness of the different aspects of heritage encountered along the routes, while contributing to sustainable tourism and community development.

The Beara Breifne Way follows the line of the historic march of O’Sullivan Beara in 1602. An ambitious undertaking, it will see the development of a walking and cycling route along the spine of the country, from Beara in Co Cork to Breifne in Co Leitrim. With 240 farmers living on the Beara Way alone, the scale of community collaboration becomes clear.

Ponds on farms are often out of view of the house, so always have an adult with you when you are feeding ducks or playing.

Be cautious riding horses near and into water.

Slurry pits are not solid enough to stand on.

Keep well away, as you would quickly sink.

You cannot tell the depth of a hole if it is full of water.

Reeds and grass often obscure the edge of the pond.

Do not play near the edge of a riverbank as it might crumble away suddenly.

The banks of a pond may be weak and could give way under your weight.

Do not retrieve model boats by wading in.

Holes or drains left exposed after farm building work should be closed.

Never walk on ice-covered waterways.

EU APPROVES IRISH FORESTRY PROGRAMME The EU has recently approved the new Irish Forestry Programme for the period 2014-2020.

The highlights of the e482 million new state investment programme include: 1: Increased afforestation grants covering the cost of establishment and maintenance of plantations for the first four years; 2: Increased forest premium payments ranging from e510 to e635 per ha per year, income tax-free, payable for 15 years, no differentiation between farmers and non-farmers; 3: Increased forest road grants, available to forest owners with crops within three years of harvesting, up to e800/ha available in grant aid.

The advice from Forestry Services Ltd is for each landowner to fully utilise every acre on the farm, apply correct husbandry to land that should be farmed and consider forestry, particularly on marginal land. Financial results will follow correct farm-level decisions.

Paddy Bruton is Managing Director of Forestry Services Ltd and a partner in Cillin Farm Advisory Group. For further information see www.farmadvice.ie and www.forestryservices.ie.

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29/06/2015 11:53

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23/06/2015 10/06/2015 11:36 16:55

DAIRY

The

Elmgrove Epic: DARRAGH MCCULLOUGH’S FAMILY FARM THROUGH THREE GENERATIONS

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O

ver the last 12 months the Irish dairy industry has been analysed to death. The impetus, of course, was the removal of the ‘shackles’ of milk quota on April 1st. For the first time in a generation, the handbrake on output was no more, and Ireland was finally free to fulfil its true potential on the global dairy stage.

Cue reams of analysis about how much national output would increase, where would it all go to, and the impact on price, rural communities and the wider environment.

Amid all the hype and macro-analysis, I almost forgot about my own family’s part in Ireland’s dairy story. In many ways, the changes that have happened on the family farm at Elmgrove over the last 80 years embody a lot of what was happening not just in the dairy sector, but also in the cultural changes that the country experienced during those years.

THE BEGINNING My dad Eamon, 71, takes up the story. “I think your grandad first turned to milking cows during the Economic War in the 1930s, when Dev refused to pay land annuities and the British, in turn, put massive tariffs on all our beef exports.

“That created a major crisis in Irish farming, because up until then most of the farmland around Dublin would have been producing cattle or crops. I’m sure it was no different on the home place up in Monasterboise in Co Louth,” he says.

It was at this time that milk merchants in Dublin called Craigie Brothers took advantage of the situation. The Dublin milk market was traditionally supplied by a lot of little dairies all around the city and the suburbs. These ranged from one or two cull cows that were being milked for a few months before being slaughtered as ‘canners’, to farmers with up to 80 cows in places like Drumcondra and Rathfarnham. Farmers close to the city had the added advantage of a regular and reliable feed-source throughout the lean winter months – spent brewers’ grains from the likes of Guinness. But these farmers’ stranglehold on the Dublin milk market was about to be broken.

Craigies realised that cattle farmers outside the traditional catchment area were literally going broke because they couldn’t sell their stock into England. Desperate to turn their hand to anything to try to make a living, Craigies tapped into a new milk pool, at bargain basement rates.

This shift in milk supplies was also facilitated

by the rural electrification that was being rolled out at the time. For the first time, power was present on farms that allowed the Surge Melotte bucket-plant to work – the forerunner of the modern milking machine.

“That’s how we got started. A few cows initially, with the 20-gallon milk churns going onto the train from Drogheda into Dublin,” confirms my dad.

This was an era before refrigeration other than what the dribble-cooler could offer – a device that dribbled milk over pipes channelling cold water from the nearest well.

Quality could be pretty hairy, with stories legion about mice jumping out of milk cans when lids were removed. So getting a good

Below: Darragh McCullough.

Opposite: Darragh’s grandad showing a pedigree bull at the RDS Spring Show in Dublin.

“In many ways, the changes that have happened on the family farm at Elmgrove over the last 80 years embody a lot of what was happening not just in the dairy sector, but also in the cultural changes that the country experienced during those years.”

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DAIRY

cows didn’t milk well on. So you needed to make sure that you cut your cloth to measure.”

Darragh’s grandad, left, and his brother in law Seamus Kelly.

“These newer dairies didn’t come without their downsides... My dad can vividly remember queuing all day in the Ulster Bank branch in Bailieborough to cash his final cheque.” name established for producing clean milk went a long way for the likes of my grandad, Pat McCullough.

By 1945 he had around 30 cows, and decided to make an investment in a 300acre farm in east Meath that would shape the lives of the next two generations of McCulloughs. “‘An aul’ run-down farm’ was how the bank manager referred to the purchase when your grandad went in looking for a loan,” is the anecdote that my dad never tires of telling.

The farm was certainly under-utilised, but this was not just some impulse purchase. My grandad had spent over a year looking at different farms. One of the attractions of the farm was that it was even closer to the Dublin milk market and, crucially, it had light land that you could grow crops on and get stock grazing early in the spring – all essential to help reduce the reliance on variable-quality hay throughout the dreaded winter months.

Pat may have also realised that the Allies were getting the upper hand in the war, but he was hardly to know that land prices would treble within months of his purchase when the Axis powers finally surrendered.

The farmyard was also kitted out with a beautiful cut-stone, tie-stall cattle byre, a staple of farms in the region at the time.

“Meath farmers made a lot of money selling beef to the British army in the late 1800s, and into the 1900s. For this reason, they thought milking cows was simply beneath their dignity,” my dad claims.

“In fact, one of the cornerstones of dairying in the county was the influx of Land Commission farmers from counties such as Mayo and Galway. These guys typically got a 35-acre block, with a house and a shed, and they very often turned to milking cows as the most profitable way of making a living from these farms, which were generally much smaller than their beef-farming neighbours.”

With a daily contract to supply milk to Craigie Brothers, Pat McCullough wasn’t long filling that stone-cut cattle byre with 36 dairy cows.

“That was really the limit of what that farm could deal with. This was the era just before the arrival of silage when it was always in the hands of the gods as to whether you had enough fodder to keep your animals milking throughout the winter. If you got a bad summer, you might end up with mouldy hay that the

SILAGE REVOLUTION The advent of silage-making was an unheralded revolution of sorts in Irish agriculture. The concept that you could pickle grass in its own acids suddenly opened up the prospect of a reliable source of quality feed for all farmers. This was a game-changer in that it allowed farmers to consider increasing their milk output by keeping more stock.

“I can remember our first attempts at making silage in the 1950s,” says my dad.

“There were all kinds of ideas floating about. One year we tried to wilt grass on tripods in the fields before bringing it in.

I can also remember a machine designed somewhere in Scandinavia called a green crop loader. It basically elevated the cut grass up onto a trailer, with two men working on the trailer forking out the grass. This was then brought back to a concrete tower 15 foot high and wide.

The grass was forked again, this time into the tower, where a horse walked around in circles tramping the crop to get the air out of it so that it would preserve properly.”

Silage led to other fundamental changes in how farms operated. The ability to create ‘self-feeding’ systems where the stock ate at the face of the silage pit revolutionised the type of sheds and facilities that were required to accommodate stock.

Gone was the requirement for a tie-up cattle stall, where hay was wheel-barrowed into troughs in front of stock that could often be chained up in the same spot for months on end. Instead, loose housing became the new norm, where the stock lounged in open straw-beds, and fed themselves at a barrier in front of the silage pit.

With this change, it also made sense to re-think the milking facilities. If cows were being herded into a milking facility every day, it was more practical to design a stall that they could walk through, rather than have to reverse out of. And so the concept of the milking parlour materialised, where the cows were lined up herring-bone style on a platform, while the milker moved along beside them in a sunken pit.

“We started building a milking parlour around the time that I was getting married, back in 1970,” recalls my dad.

“At that stage we were milking up to 90 cows. We installed a six-point plant, which was quite sizeable for the time, but we made sure to leave enough room to add another three units if we ever needed to expand further.”

That had been the key aim of both my dad and grandad – more cows.

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DAIRY

“All through the 1950s and 1960s we kept on increasing the cow numbers, because it was what we were making the most money from,” Eamon explains.

The expansion was mirroring the opportunities in local fresh milk markets.

As Dublin’s population grew in size and wealth, the demand for milk increased.

The licence to produce milk for the Dublin market was tightly controlled by the Dublin District Milk Board – and these licences cost money to buy, in the same way as the old taxi-plate system operated in the capital.

Pat McCullough did invest in some of these licences, and my dad followed on with this subsequently, even if it did cause arguments at the time.

“I can remember coming into the farmhouse in the 1970s wanting to spend £25,000 on 110,000 litres of quota to supply Bailieborough. The management there basically said that we could buy as much as we wanted, which I thought was an unprecedented opportunity. At £1/ gallon, I reckoned we could pay for it out of cash-flow at the time, but my dad was wary about investing such a large amount, and he took a lot of convincing.

But money I invested in liquid quotas was some of the best money I spent over the years,” my dad claims.

Smaller dairies like Bailieborough and Drogheda Dairies, which sprung up around the periphery of the Pale during the 1960s and 1970s, allowed milk from Elmgrove to be sold at prices almost double that of milk from spring-calving, ‘creamery’ herds.

But these newer dairies didn’t come without their downsides. Bailieborough was one of the many that went bust in the late 1980s. My dad can vividly remember queuing all day in the Ulster Bank branch in Bailieborough to cash his final cheque.

“There was no point bringing the cheque to the local branch in Drogheda because in the three days that it would take to clear, there would be no money left in the account to pay out,” he explains. He was one of the lucky ones – he got paid in full.

BREEDING FOR HIGHINPUT, HIGH OUTPUT Farm accounts for 1970 show that the farm milked an average of 86 cows throughout the year, producing a total of over 373,000 litres of milk, or 4,337 litres per cow.

Recorded milk sales were less than 3.5p per litre – which might sound like a terrible price now, but when inflation is factored in, this equates to over 57c/l in today’s terms.

The production per cow, while 20 per cent lower than the average per cow today, was also pretty impressive. In 1972,

TOP: Darragh’s grandad’s old notebook from the 1950s recording each cow in the herd.

BOTTOM: Old pedigree certs, farm accounts and milk supply licences.

“I found myself getting side-tracked into opportunities in the agricultural media... At the same time, my dad was beginning to have enough of the 12-hour days. He needed an out.” average output for the 1.3 million dairy cows in Ireland was closer to 2,425 litres of milk.

At this time, many farmers would still have been transitioning to the black and white Friesians. But my grandad was sold on the merits of the Friesian when he first started recording his cows in his wellthumbed grey note-book in the 1950s.

He started registering pedigree cows and new calves with the British Friesian society in the 1960s and, together with his brother-in-law Seamus Kelly, travelled to England and Holland looking to buy the best of Friesian stock-bulls to use on their herds.

The love-affair with Friesians evolved in the 1980s when my dad started using more and more Holstein bloodlines on the cows. Holsteins were basically more extreme versions of Friesians – cows that were genetically programmed to produce vast quantities of milk.

At this stage I was taking a serious interest in the breeding policies of the herd myself. I remember spending hours

poring over magazines such as Holstein International, and AI bull stud brochures dreaming of breeding EX97 cows producing over 10 tonnes of milk a year.

I had also become heavily involved in the Young Members Association – basically a feeder club for the pedigree breeders of the future. I would spend days, weeks and even months training up calves to parade themselves in the ring, clipping their coats and grooming toplines. It was all great fun, but I took it very seriously, investing in my first calf at a sale in Galway, and subsequently working on one of the top pedigree Holstein farms in the world in Illinois in the US. Payment for getting up at 4am six mornings a week for five months was a couple of embryos from some of the mid-range cows on the farm. My dad also imported cows from Canada after a trip to the annual ‘Sale of the Stars’ there in the 1990s.

This move into Holsteins saw our herd average creep up towards 9,000 litres, and our cows become bigger and more ‘dairy’ looking. But I can remember my grandad not being particularly impressed.

He didn’t like how we were breeding the beefing potential out of the calves, making the bull calves almost worthless.

Unbeknownst to both him and my dad, the move to more extreme dairy genetics was also pushing the cow to her metabolic limits. They were becoming harder to get back in calf, as they channelled every ounce of energy into producing more milk.

New technology was harnessed in an effort to manage these F1 machines of the dairy world. Ultra-sound scanning, chelated minerals and fats added to the diet, mercury switches embedded in bracelets on their necks to monitor activity (and hence heat cycles) were all employed.

A switch to robotic milking machines in 1998 was a further step along this journey to a high-input, high-output system. The relentless focus on increasing milk yield and cow numbers – even within quota systems by availing of every opportunity to buy and lease quota locally – meant that we were now spending close to six hours a day milking 180 cows through the same nine-unit herringbone parlour that my dad had built in the 1970s.

The Dutch robotic machines cost close to 100,000 each, and we needed three of them. But this was just before the opening up of the EU to an influx of eastern European labour. Good staff who were willing to milk cows were becoming

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23/06/2015 16/04/2015 11:38 17:10

DAIRY

HOW MUCH IS IRELAND’S MILK OUTPUT SET TO INCREASE? It is widely expected that Ireland’s milk output will increase by 30 per cent over the next five years, bringing the total to approximately 7.5bn litres.

WHY? The imposition of milk quotas until last April effectively capped milk output from Irish farms for 31 years. In the meantime, global demand for dairy products has soared. Ireland has a perfect climate to grow grass almost year-round. This allows us to produce milk cheaply, in much the same way that the Kiwis have done on the opposite side of the globe. Dairying is also, by far, the most profitable outdoor enterprise on a per hectare-basis in Ireland, with top dairy farmers recording gross margins of over €3,200/ha last year.

WILL THE SAME HAPPEN ELSEWHERE? Ireland will have the fastest growing dairy industry in the world this year, which sounds impressive, but is probably more a function of the fact that we are so small, relatively speaking, to start with. Production in the rest of the EU is not expected to increase outside of coastal areas on the west and north.

Overall production is not expected to grow by more than 6 per cent.

Production is almost maxed-out in New Zealand and Australia, while South America is consuming any extra product it produces. Production in China, driven by the establishment of megafarms with up to 40,000 cows each, is increasing but predicted to never be able to match the increase in demand.

US production is also increasing strongly, although this is predicted to tail off whenever oil prices begin to rise again.

WILL ALL THIS EXTRA MILK COLLAPSE THE MARKET? In short, no. There is approximately 650bn litres of milk produced globally, so our increased output of 7.5bn litres will barely represent more than 1 per cent of world production. With international demand predicted to continue increasing at a rate of 2.5 per cent annually, sector analysts believe that markets will be seeking an additional 18bn litres of new milk annually over the coming decades.

rare, and robots were seen as the next step to providing the best possible working conditions. In theory you could start your day at 8am by checking all the machines and computer reports, and finish up at whatever time suited you, while the machines continued milking the cows 24-7.

My dad also believed that they would allow his high-yielding herd of pedigree Holsteins to more fully express their milk production potential because the cows could choose to milk themselves as often as they liked. Indeed, the average milkings per cow did increase to about 2.5 milkings per day, with the highest yielders sometimes choosing to be milked up to four times a day.

It also looked like our total output was maxed-out, with the prospect of either additional quota, or an end to quotas, looking highly unlikely in the foreseeable future. So the focus switched to making the existing set-up as attractive to work in as possible. The fact that we were among the first farmers in the country to install the units didn’t faze my dad. After all, both he and his dad had always been among the early adopters of any stepchange in technology, be it making silage, importing Friesian genetics, or building a milking parlour.

Ironically, it wasn’t attracting hired labour that materialised as the main challenge to the continuity of milk at Elmgrove as the herd entered the 21st century.

INTO PARTNERSHIPS Having spent most of my childhood holidays working on the farm, and studied agriculture at third level, I was the next in line to manage the enterprise. However, on graduation I found myself getting side-tracked into opportunities in the agricultural media, with less and less of my time being spent on the farm.

At the same time, my dad was beginning to have enough of the 12-hour days. He needed an out. So in 2004 he took the decision to go into partnership with a cousin keen to get established in dairying. Eamon provided the cows and quota, while Paul provided the labour and management. It was a massive seachange for us all, but especially my dad.

Not only was it one of the first milk production partnerships in the country but, more significantly, it was the first time in 60 years that cows weren’t being milked in Elmgrove. All the cows were milked through a brand new parlour on Paul’s farm, and Eamon finally got the break from the milking treadmill that he deserved. It was strange initially, not having the noise of the vacuum pump providing the soundtrack to the farmyard

every morning and evening, but my dad will always privately admit that he never misses the daily grind of milking cows.

More recently, as it became apparent that milk quotas were going to cease, our neighbour, Joe Leonard, began to enquire about renting land from us. With Paul well established, and still with a belief that dairying was the most sustainable profit we could generate from our farm, we suggested instead that we form a new partnership with Joe. In many ways, such a proposal was ironic given the type of systems that had co-existed on the two farms in the decades previously. While McCulloughs pursued high-yielding, high-maintenance pedigree Holstein cows, complete with robotic milking, Leonards had always focused on the other extreme – a loweryielding, lower-cost spring calving system more dependent on milk from grass. Joe had spent time in New Zealand, where low-cost dairying has been perfected over the last 30 years, and applied the same principles to his own farm.

Rapidly changing global dairy markets had also shifted the relative profitability of seasonal, spring calving production compared to the liquid-milk, year-round set-up in Elmgrove.

Modern transport and refrigeration meant that cheaper milk from Northern Ireland or further afield could be sold into the honey-pot of the Dublin market.

Meanwhile, demand for dairy products in regions such as Asia and Africa had driven the prices for creamery milk up to levels where it was almost on par with liquid milk. It is all a far cry from the days when Pat McCullough was able to sell milk at double the price that the spring-calving men ‘down the country’ were getting.

But in other ways the Leonards’ setup was a perfect marriage for us. Not only had they built up to a profitable scale with a 350-cow herd, Joe embodied the pioneering spirit that had always characterised major developments in Elmgrove. He was one of the first in the country to abandon the notion that cows needed a shed to over-winter in Ireland.

Instead, he accommodated his herd on a stand-off pad of wood-chip during the winter months when they were not milking. When wood-chip became too expensive, he installed some of the country’s first ‘topless cubicles’ – basically a cubicle shed without a roof.

So after investing 100,000 into stock, roadways and upgrading the fertility of our land, we will be minority stakeholders in a 500-cow, spring-calving partnership with our neighbours. In an era when scale and efficiency count, we think we are well set for the next chapter in our family’s dairy story. ●

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10/06/2015 20:01:41 23/06/2015 11:39 16/06/2015 09:08

DAIRY

IRISH DAIRYING’S

6,000

th

BIRTHDAY

New research shows that Irish dairy farming emerged in 4000BC – thousands of years earlier than previously believed. Megan Cummins reports.

A partially reconstructed Neolithic pot from the enclosed settlement at Tullahedy, Co Tipperary (photo: University College Cork).

T

he story of the year, when it comes to agriculture, is that Ireland’s dairy farmers are basking in the glow of the country’s milk quota abolition after 31 years. As one of the world’s top dairy producers, the elimination of the dairy quotas signifies thousands of potential new jobs nationwide and an additional e1 billion towards the Irish economy. However, this recent development only represents a small portion of Ireland’s long dairy history.

While it was formerly believed to stretch back only a few hundred years, the dairy industry in Ireland was recently discovered to have originated around 4000BC during the Neolithic Era. In her study Milking the Megafauna, Dr Jessica Smyth, a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bristol, analysed nearly 500 ancient cooking pots from a variety of Irish Neolithic sites to confirm that the country’s dairy industry has been around for six millennia.

She launched the project back in 2011

with the aim “to systematically examine the contents of pots from this period with a view to understanding more about daily life in prehistory.” The pottery, which had been discovered during various excavations stretching from the last few years all the way back to the 1950s, originated from across the country, from Antrim and Down to west Cork.

Using a process called ‘lipid fingerprinting’ alongside carbon isotope techniques, Dr Smyth was able to identify that 90 per cent of the residual molecules within the EAR TO THE GROUND 29

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Dr Jessica Smyth, Senior Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Bristol.

Neolithic pottery being excavated at the site of Kilmainham 1C, Co Meath (photo: Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd).

“These are a very determined group of pioneer farmers. They are setting up everything from scratch, and taking a significant gamble with their livelihoods and those of their dependents.” pots were dairy lipids or dairy-meat lipid combinations. The structure of the pots was vital to the discovery of the fats, their unglazed, porous material having allowed the dairy fats to be absorbed into the vessels’ surface and then easily extracted thousands of years later.

“To begin with, a thumbnail-sized portion of the potsherd [pottery fragment] is surface-cleaned and ground to a fine powder. Solvents are added to the powder to extract the lipids, and this lipid extract is filtered and purified before being analysed using a gas chromatograph (GC), which separates out the mixture of lipids into its individual components, or compounds, and displays this information as a gas chromatogram,” Dr Smyth explains.

The varying carbon isotope ratios are then compared, and from there it can be determined where the fat lipids originated.

The Neolithic Era is known as the period when societies switched from hunting and gathering to farming, but the presence of such as high concentration of dairy fats suggests that dairy played a more essential role in Ireland’s prehistoric society than was previously thought.

Given the island’s remote location and its lack of native domesticated animals, cattle and sheep would have had to be shipped here directly from elsewhere.

“These are a very determined group of pioneer farmers. They are setting up everything from scratch, and taking a significant gamble with their livelihoods and those of their dependents,” Dr Smyth says.

REVISING ASSUMPTIONS Prior to this research, dairying in Ireland was guessed to have started during the Middle Bronze Age a couple of thousand years following the Neolithic Era. According to Dr. Smyth, her results have proved that dairying is actually as old as farming on this island, and was not ‘discovered’ or developed later on.

While the first established farmers might have been predominantly invested in another agricultural channel, they were nonetheless competent dairy farmers. The results and the strong dairy signal in these vessels also make us “think more critically about early farming systems, and question the presumption that humananimal relations were primarily about the provision of meat,” she says.

The significance of these discoveries reaches far beyond the scope of merely dating Ireland’s dairy past, but furthermore gives a voice to a society long forgotten by history. Due to Ireland’s high acidic soil, the survival of prehistoric bones, both animal and human, is basically nonexistent, and the country’s earliest

domesticates can thus become “invisible” to archaeologists, says Dr Smyth.

Many of Ireland’s most extraordinary archaeological sites such as Newgrange, the Céide Field systems and Poulnabrone portal tomb were constructed during this period and potentially hold responses to many unanswered, or even unasked, questions about this time in history.

Following such a large discovery, choosing another topic to research is sometimes met with difficulty. However, for Dr Smyth the dairy lipids have only lit yet another research spark.

“I’m interested in exploring the reasons behind these amazing undertakings.

What was daily life like during this time?

What drove people to construct monuments such as Newgrange?” Whatever her next research undertaking may be, however, there is one principle that she stands by when it comes to large-scale investigations in Ireland.

“I think it’s important to recognise the value of interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial collaboration, especially on an island the size of Ireland. Many of the pottery assemblages I worked on were excavated in advance of the motorway construction in recent years. Because these archaeological sites were properly recognised, excavated and properly archived, myself and other researchers could then tap their potential at a later date.

“These results may now in turn have an impact on the modern dairying industry, in terms of how it views itself and promotes itself internationally. It’s all connected – there are enormously valuable conversations to be had across the heritage, farming and the science and technology sectors and so much we can learn from each other.” ●

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DAIRY

Milking it:

RESEARCHING THE FUTURE OF PROCESSING

Two new investments in research aim to guide Irish dairying towards better efficiency, quality and output. Christian Stafford, Enterprise Ireland’s project manager for the new Dairy Processing Technology Centre, tells Ear To The Ground about the plans.

I

n February, two projects received a major funding boost from State bodies and industry. Teagasc’s Moorepark Technology facility in Fermoy, which provides companies with facilities to develop and build up products, received 10m. Meanwhile, a new project called the Dairy Processing Technology Centre (DPTC), to be based at the University of Limerick, received 25m.

At the centre of this is Enterprise Ireland’s Christian Stafford, Project Manager of the DPTC, a collaboration between the State body, eight dairy companies and nine research organisations including UL. “What we’re looking to see come out of this is new technologies, new knowledge and new people,” he explains. The centre will conduct a mix of high, medium and low-risk research with specific targets, “and if we meet those then the centre will have paid for itself.”

SLIPPING BEHIND THE CURVE Work began around 18 months ago under Enterprise Ireland’s Technology Centres project, which gathers together groups of companies in certain sectors, identifies research needs and draws in research bodies. The context, of course, was the removal of the dairy quota, long anticipated by the industry.

“With a view to that change they were looking at a scenario where they had actually underinvested in innovation around dairy processing over that period.

Obviously the wall of milk is looming, a fantastic opportunity, but the capabilities to process that milk effectively, sustainably, and with added value had slipped behind.

“So the sector themselves had realised this and they were looking to catch up with the curve in the first instance, before even thinking of getting ahead of the curve.”

Ministers Simon Coveney and Richard Bruton, along with State and industry stakeholders, announce the €35m dairy research investment. Photos: Seán Curtin.

“What we’re looking to see come out of this is new technologies, new knowledge and new people.”

A further reason was that the food sector as a whole had also underinvested in R&D over the past 20 years. “The Irish food sector was investing at about half of what’s seen as good practice, in terms of international good practice and percentage of turnover invested in R&D, and probably a quarter of what’s seen as best practice – gold standard investment by the food sector into R&D is about 2.5 per cent of turnover. In Ireland we were doing about a quarter of that.” Nor, he says, had State investment been strong.

FIVE YEARS, FIVE PILLARS Expected to be up and running by late summer/early autumn, 50 to 60 research staff should be employed over the five-year course of the centre. Five pillars will guide their research: cost competitiveness, process development, product innovation, quality and safety, and environmental sustainability. The industry wanted classic disciplines at the table like spray drying, filtration and dairy chemistry, but it also wanted

input from non-traditional disciplines like the pharma sector, manufacturing, engineering, mathematics and supply chain logistics. Importantly, it will develop the skills of personnel who will then transfer back to the industry.

What does this mean for farmers on the ground? “Primarily it is a research centre that helps the processors to do their job more effectively, so there are indirect benefits for the farmers,” says Stafford. Farms are at the front end of the supply chain, so they’ll benefit from better products produced more efficiently being sold on. Research on topics such as sustainability will filter back down the supply chain to farmers – he mentions the seasonality of milk as an example, and how milk performs differently in how it’s processed at different times.

Stafford talks of the DPTC becoming a “flagship centre of excellence for the dairy sector,” a “proxy R&D centre” for the industry and a centre that’s internationally recognised. As the first five-year term begins, some hard work lies ahead. ●

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FEATURES

Features OUT AND ABOUT

T

he ultra-modern bedroom above looks like it belongs in a Tokyo boutique hotel – who would have thought it’s on the Aran Islands? We catch up with its creators on page 68. Meanwhile, we find out about traditional activities such as thatching (left), and take a look back at some of the stories featured on the latest series of Ear To The Ground.

IFA 60th anniversary Thatching Uilleann pipes Farm safety From the show Inis Meáin Suites

36 46 50 55 57 68

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IFA 60TH ANNIVERSARY

Top: The first national council of the IFA. Bottom: IFA Day of Action, 2012.

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IFA 60TH ANNIVERSARY

Sixdecade story The past, present and future of the Irish Farmers’ Association Ruraidh Conlon O’Reilly catches up with former Farmers’ Journal editor Matt Dempsey, who has produced the definitive history of the IFA for this year’s 60th anniversary.

I

t’s been a busy year for the Irish Farmers’ Association. Things kicked off with a unique and elaborate celebration at the Convention Centre Dublin, attended by EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, and a who’s who of the industry. A few weeks later, Taoiseach Enda Kenny was on hand to address the IFA’s AGM. Meanwhile, a lovingly produced coffee-table book has been published, chronicling the history of the organisation.

The reason for this flurry of activity?

It’s now 60 years since the formation of the National Farmers’ Association, at its first meeting in Dublin’s Four Seasons Ballroom on Harcourt Street in January 1955.

Reflecting on these six decades is the authoritative voice of Irish farming, former Farmers’ Journal editor Matt Dempsey, who edited the aforementioned Path To Power: 60 Years of the Irish Farmers’ Association. Its 226 pages are an encyclopaedia of people, places, dates and fascinating imagery, a fitting tribute to the occasion and a landmark history in its own right.

MACRA, MOONEY AND GREENE The IFA has its origins in the post-war period and the establishment of Macra na Feirme, he recounts. “There was a farmer in Co Meath who originally came from Co Kildare, John Mooney, who was on the executive of Macra. Macra then started a newspaper, the Farmers’ Journal, which went bankrupt pretty quickly. Then in 1951 John Mooney bought it – he was on the executive of Macra but he also had a clear view that Irish farming needed a strong, centralised body that could negotiate centrally with government.”

At that time there were something

like 63 different agricultural groupings making representations to government, and such a divided field meant that none of them had any real clout. Mooney hired Matt Dempsey’s predecessor as editor, Paddy O’Keeffe, and part of his campaigning stance was that there should be a farming body. He worked in Macra and through the newspaper to try and establish one.

One proposal was that Macra itself should in fact morph into that body, but after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, motions came up to the central body that a completely new organisation should be set up. At that famous meeting at the Four Seasons Ballroom the motion was formally put and carried, albeit with some dissent. But carried it was, and everyone rowed in behind the new National Farmers’ Association headed by its first president, Juan Greene of south Kildare.

“Juan Greene was a remarkable man himself,” recalls Dempsey: he was a medical doctor who had served in the British Army during the war, and had been born in Argentina (where some of his cousins still farm to this day). He gave up his medical practice after the war and concentrated fully on his large farming EAR TO THE GROUND 37

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IFA 60TH ANNIVERSARY

Above: Super levy campaign, 1983. Centre: Mass rally, 1979. Top right: Tractorcade at Government Buildings, 2003.

Bottom right: GATT (WTO) protest at the US Embassy, Dublin, 1990. Below right: Benny Donohue speaking, with Rickard Deasy to the left.

operation outside of Athy. He had a very clear view as to what was needed in a farm organisation.

“He wasn’t a militant in any sense of the modern word, in that he firmly believed that if farmers could demonstrate to government that they had a really valid case, then that government policy would be adjusted to meet what farmers saw as reasonable. So he set about forming an organisation that had real economic and technical capacity to formulate very solid policy positions, based on good analysis and what was happening elsewhere.”

DEASY ON THE MARCH Juan Greene continued as president until 1962, and was succeeded by Rickard Deasy. The organisation was growing by absorbing quite a few of the other fringe associations, but Dempsey paints a troubled picture of the post-war farming economy. Mainly dependent on the British market, there had been a very lucrative trade in beef to the United States forces in Europe, and in beef going to Canada. After the war, the British brought in an act to encourage British food self-sufficiency, having received a fright at how badly prepared they were for World War II. Ireland was effectively

locked out, or was on very small quotas.

“So, very early on, the IFA kept looking at Europe and the development of the Common Agricultural Policy throughout the ‘60s. But in the meantime, in the mid-’60s farm incomes began to decrease significantly, trade was very difficult for a variety of commodities.” For example, Bord Bainne was set up with a monopoly on all dairy exports. Similarly, a Pig Marketing Board dealt with all pig exports – “both of those commodities were subsidised or were in some kind of artificial market situation, so government had an enormous influence on actual farmer returns.”

There had been a boom after the war, but incomes slowly declined in the early to mid-’60s. “Farmers’ incomes were suffering badly and it was at that stage that the Fianna Fáil government of the day really did very little. Deasy had then been elected president. Again, an interesting character,” says Dempsey, with an Irish Army background and an education from Ampleforth and Oxford. “I remember him very well. He was a very clipped speaker, very clear view, didn’t suffer fools gladly and had a very high view of his own opinion. But he was a natural leader and he then set out this enormous national

march on Dublin from the four corners of the country.

“Really, that was the march that made the IFA because they arrived in Dublin and the minister of the day refused to see them; said they should ring up and make an appointment in the normal way. And they simply squatted outside his office. I was a student at the time in what’s now the Taoiseach’s office” – incidentally, Dempsey himself joined the then-NFA as a student – “where some of the agricultural engineering lectures were held. And they refused to meet them. The stalemate lasted and eventually after 21 days sitting on the side of the pavement, government caved in and met them.

“But that strengthened the IFA enormously. Not much came out of it immediately, but it did strengthen them and they were now seen as a very valid voice of Irish farming.” Another boost came in the form of the thriving beet growers, who moved closer to the association from the mid-’60s and amalgamated with it in 1971, leaving the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association as the only major element outside the tent. Deciding upon a change of name in December 1971, the IFA as we now know it had arrived.

THE VERDICT Some 60 years on, Dempsey notes several key achievements. “Very early on, in the

38 EAR TO THE GROUND

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IFA 60TH ANNIVERSARY

mid-’60s, they began campaigning for EU entry and there’s no doubt that when the final treaty was put up for referendum in 1972 they led the national campaign.

They had also taken the view that they should have an office in Brussels, so that they could keep abreast of and influence government policy, and indeed EU policy, as it developed in relation to agriculture.

“So how successful have they been? I think without them, Irish farming would certainly be much poorer, much less well represented. And they would certainly be recognised abroad as being particularly effective.” A few things have stood in their favour, too: the agricultural population in Ireland is relatively large compared to the rest of Europe, and there is a strong economic dependence on agriculture – meaning that agricultural policies hold a lot of weight with government. “But also they tend to hire good people,” says

Dempsey: beneath the radar IFA staff and voluntary officers regularly meet low- and mid-ranking Department of Agriculture officials to simply sort out the nuts and bolts of various schemes. Some of these have gone on to be implemented at EU level.

The fact that Ireland now has its second EU agriculture commissioner is a further sign of influence. Despite the “odd somersault” between initial proposals and the final compromise, Dempsey has no doubt that the IFA did influence government policy in relation to WTO discussions, and especially the outcome of various EU negotiations of CAP reform proposals down the years.

A LONG PATH Many of these events form the most vivid images in The Path To Power. “It was meant to be out for the 50th anniversary!” laughs

Dempsey. Two years ago he retired as editor of the Journal, and had barely left the office before the project was revived and his help was needed to pull things together for the 60th.

“Obviously, I have very easy access to all the Journal archives, so I went through all the material – I went through pretty well every copy of the Farmers’ Journal, all the news pages, the market pages and the IFA pages for the blooming 60 years, and just took hand notes for what might slot in.” IFA General Secretary Pat Smith was enormously helpful during sessions with Naas-based designer Eamon Sinnott: Smith’s suggestion to organise chapters under each presidential term provided much-needed clarity and a natural sequence of events, many of which were slow-burning.

“So I think the book is trying to reflect when the proposals came in, what the

“Farming itself is recognised very clearly as being a victim of market forces if these market forces are left to act in a very unrestrained way... in my view there is always a need for somebody to have a collective voice on behalf of farmers.”

EAR TO THE GROUND 39

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IFA 60TH ANNIVERSARY Left: An early image of the NFA National Council, including Rickard Deasy (front row, third from left).

Bottom left: CAP reform protest, Dublin Castle, 2013.

initial reactions were, how the presidents of the day reacted. Now, the point has been made that for a large voluntary organisation there’s been too much emphasis on the president and I can see where people are coming from on that, but nevertheless it’s the president of the day that gives the stamp to the organisation. And then we’ve included all the council members and try to have as many photographs as possible to give the voluntary officers and the executive staff some kind of exposure and some kind of acknowledgement of their part in the whole saga.”

Reading The Path To Power, one is struck by stark images of protest and anger, with placards and mass rallies very often the order of the day. “Farmers really do have a problem in that they can withdraw their produce, but they end up hurting themselves more than anything else,” explains Dempsey. “Trade unions, obviously, can simply go on

strike, withdraw their labour and there’s a forum then for talks in trying to resolve issues.” Aside from the ballot box and deputations to meet officials, there’s not much else.

Dempsey believes that a really large nationwide protest on Dublin does attract national attention, provokes some kind of a national analysis of the problems that are being articulated, and it does concentrate politicians’ minds even though they might be reluctant or say they’re not influenced by it. Talk to any Dublin person and chances are that protests or tractors on the streets are what they remember most about the IFA. “Ministers in general would take a view that a good, visible demonstration does increase their bargaining power and significance around the Council table in Brussels because they can point to the demonstrations – and this is a world phenomenon in many ways where farmers demonstrate because there’s so little else they can do about it.” Besides, a thousand tractors pictured in front of the Georgian grandeur of Government Buildings sticks in people’s minds much more than eight guys around the dining table in a ministerial office.

was product delivered, that farmers had the right to be paid. Legally it probably should have gone into the receiver’s assets, but farmers took a very clear view that ‘no, this was money legitimately owed for product delivered and accepted under false pretences that the firm were solvent’.

So in fact we’d a series of meetings, the growers involved, and a group of them ended up picketing or threatening AIB. We all got all our money. And to my mind that was a demonstration of where the power to shame people that normally are not subjected to being shamed was demonstrated, with the results coming and farmers got their due.”

So there will always be two needs, he says: firstly, for a body outside of government to analyse the effects of economic policies and government policies on their sector’s income and wellbeing, and with a Brussels office.

Secondly, lobbying the Irish government remains important: it retains control of things such as the taxation regime and has a wide range of discretion as to how the economy operates.

“Farming itself is recognised very clearly as being a victim of market forces if these market forces are left to act in a very unrestrained way. You can see that in the upset over the groceries, and the waste that the Tescos of this world can bear on individual producers. So in my view there is always a need for somebody to have a collective voice on behalf of farmers. And that’s why I think the need for an IFA-type organisation is going to continue.

“The key question, of course, is that in normal times will that need be continued to be recognised by farmers in general?

And I think it will in an Irish case. But they have to earn their crust by way of public approval and the approval of their members every year, and that’s obviously an ongoing task that they have to face into.” •

THE NEXT 60 YEARS? 60 years on, what does the future hold for the IFA? Dempsey, who farms between Celbridge and Maynooth in Kildare, remembers the time that the buyer of his barley went bust just after harvest.

Suppliers, himself included, faced the prospect of getting 10, 20 or 30 per cent on the pound from the receivers.

“But in fact the IFA took a view that this 40 EAR TO THE GROUND

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A small piece of agricultural history was made a century ago, when the 12-25 and 8-16 Mogul went on sale in Britain and Ireland.

THE INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY OF AMERICA was one of the pioneers of tractor production, with its early machines helping to break up the giant prairies of North America. By the start of the First World War, however, a shift in focus saw more compact tractors produced which were better suited to UK and Irish farming.

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The roll out of Origin Green at farm level utilises the existing Quality Assurance infrastructure to undertake sustainability assessment across member farms. Every week almost 800 farm

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The sustainability assessment builds on existing areas such as animal health and welfare, traceability and food safety to include greenhouse gas emissions, water, energy, biodiversity and socio-economic issues. Following the assessment, each farmer receives individual feedback and with suggestions on any potential areas offering scope for improvement that could boost their economic and environmental performance. This is supplemented by feedback and advice tools such as the Carbon Navigator, which involves farmers working with their adviser to set targets for improvements in areas such as productivity, use of grass and manure management. The tool highlights the potential impact of reaching these targets in both financial and environmental terms.

To date, sustainability assessments have been rolled out across beef and dairy farms with pigs, poultry, lamb and horticulture due to follow during the course of 2015. It is the ambition of Origin Green that all primary agriculture sectors will have sustainability assessments in place by 2016.

Potential for sustainability to reduce costs The Carbon Navigator tools developed by Teagasc and Bord Bia for beef and dairy focus on the potential financial and environmental benefits of improved performance in practical areas such as grazing season length, nitrogen efficiency and animal productivity.

Some examples of the potential savings possible include: Grazing Season: • A 10-day increase in grazing season, reduces costs by €1,000 for a 40-cow herd and cuts carbon footprint by 1.7% Productivity: • Improving calving rate from 80% to 85% lifts returns by approx €45 per cow.

• Increasing lifetime average daily weight gain from 900g to 1,000g lifts returns by approx €63 per head.

• Every additional 100 litres of milk per cow through improved productivity or better use of grass is worth €30 based on a milk price of 30c/litre.

www.origingreen.ie EAR TO THE GROUND 45

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THATCHING

master K craft A

OF HIS

Master thatcher Kyran O’Grady talks to Ear To The Ground’s Valerie Jordan about the past, present and future of thatch in Ireland, a traditional roof that’s natural and sustainable – but requires a bit of maintenance. Photos: Liam Blake.

yran O’Grady, master thatcher, is busy finishing harvesting his crop of water reeds when we speak in April. “I haven’t finished the harvest yet this year,” he admits. “But I’m nearly there.”

Winter conditions aren’t ideal for thatching, so the reed harvest keeps Kyran occupied for the first few months of the year. He’s unique in doing this: most thatchers in Ireland import reeds from countries such as Turkey, France and Austria, where the supply is more plentiful. Water reed is the preferred material for thatching – a more durable and water-resistant material than the traditional straw, it could last up to 70 years with maintenance.

“The reed starts to grow in April or May and is fully grown, around six or sevenfoot tall, by September,” Kyran explains.

“It still has green leaves on it then, but they’ll fall off with the first couple of frosts, and you’re left with a golden reed with a very low moisture content.

“I harvest the reed in January, February

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THATCHING

and March. The bundles are stooked, like you stook corn, and left to dry out. Then they’re bailed into bundles of 50 and put into a dry store.”

Kyran didn’t grow up under a thatched roof (he lives under one now), nor did he inherit the profession of thatcher.

However, he was always fascinated by old buildings and thatched roofs in particular.

Studying for a business degree in UCD in the early ‘80s, his plan was to restore and refurbish old houses.

“I thought it’d be handy if I knew how to thatch them too,” he explains. “Then the opportunity came up to do a thatching course with FÁS in Donegal, so I took a break from the BComm and went up to do it. The course gave me a basic knowledge of what was involved in thatching.

“After that I went to England and Holland and then I worked up the North with a master thatcher before I headed out on my own. So I never went back to the BComm,” he laughs.

A thatched cottage is the chocolate-box image of Ireland, and historically thatch was a hugely important roofing material.

However, around the 1920s the newly established Free State gave out grants to homeowners to fund home improvements and traditional thatch roofs were replaced with tiles and slates. The craft began to decline and so became increasingly expensive to maintain.

Today, depending who you ask, there are between 1,300 and 1,500 thatched roofs in Ireland. Only some thatched buildings are protected – not because they’re thatched but because the building is otherwise architecturally significant.

TRADITION AND CHANGE Kyran’s been thatching now for over three decades, and he too has seen significant change in the thatch trade.

“When I started thatching in the 1980s and prior to that there was a large decline.

Take north Co Dublin – Skerries, Rush, Lusk were full of thatched houses, but by the ‘80s a lot of them had disappeared.

“Then there was a resurgence of thatch in the late ‘80s and ‘90s and I would say the stock would have increased. The type of building also changed, from your

typical Irish cottage to building bigger houses with thatch. There were a lot of pubs thatched too.

“Before the crash it was definitely growing, but in the last seven or eight years people in all walks of life have been affected, and from a thatching point of view people were putting off their repairs and things, but people are getting on with their lives again now. There aren’t many building new thatches, but the ones that are there are being looked after.”

Kyran has been involved with both large commercial projects and smaller residential thatch work. He says that The Orchard pub in Stilorgan, Co Dublin, stands out to him as an important project – one of the first pubs he thatched. After that he was commissioned to thatch the Playwright Inn in Blackrock and the Lord Mayor’s in Swords.

“Well, it helps get people through the door,” he surmises. He’s also thatched the corporate headquarters of Kepak in Clonee and Bunclody Golf Club, Co Wexford.

“The other one that stands out that I EAR TO THE GROUND 47

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“Thatched roofs are really for people who want them and who can afford them. Loads of people like the idea of having a thatched roof. But unless you really want it, it’s too dear.” did is a historical replication of an early Christian, or Viking, dwelling for Armagh council. The archaeologist had found a dwelling like it up near the Navan Fort in Armagh, and they wanted to see if it could be reconstructed. It was a circular dwelling, but instead of weaving the walls and using rafters to form the roof, we just kept weaving the roof like an upturned basket.

“I built the whole thing and then thatched it. So that was an interesting and unusual project to be involved in.”

HIGH MAINTENANCE Thatch requires maintenance, and Kyran recommends that normally a thatched roof needs a new ridge every eight to ten years. He also advises: “A stitch in time saves nine. It’s the old adage: if something needs to be done to the thatch, then an hour or two’s work is better than leaving it too long and it turning into a much bigger job.”

Have thatching methods changed or been modernised? Kyran says the method he uses is pretty traditional. Some thatchers use a screw fixing to secure the reeds to the rafter, but Kyran ties on each bundle individually.

“That method goes back a very long way,” he says. “The screw fixing is probably a modern adaptation, and it’s probably a bit quicker, but tying on is what I prefer.”

However, Kyran does use modern

methods for fireproofing his roofs. He was one of the first thatchers in Ireland to start fireproofing thatch using a fire retardant spray and foil. The treatment means the thatch complies with fire regulation. “Basically, the roof could burn for an hour before it’ll affect the building or the building could burn for an hour before it will affect the roof,” he explains.

If a building is particularly prone to moss, which can cause thatch to deteriorate a lot more quickly, it can also be sprayed to keep the moss at bay.

Thatch is natural and sustainable, as the reeds take in carbon as they grow.

It’s also probably the most insulating roof available. I wonder if there is a costefficiency case for thatch over a long enough period, but Kyran isn’t convinced.

“To be honest, it is a luxury. Most people who have thatch will know what’s involved before they get it and they’re happy to pay to maintain it.

“Thatched roofs are really for people who want them and who can afford them.

Loads of people like the idea of having a thatched roof. But unless you really want it, it’s too dear.”

After 34 years of harvesting reeds and thatching roofs, does the master thatcher still enjoy the challenge?

“I do,” he confirms. “You’re meeting people and travelling all around the country, which makes it very enjoyable.

“Though sometimes it’s a case of ‘don’t

look at the mountain, just climb it’. When you’re doing a roof you just have to keep the head down and keep going, but when you look back at it, yeah, it is very enjoyable.” ●

The Thatcher’s Method There are various ways of fixing thatch. The most traditional is using ‘scallops’ – pieces of hazel or willow are twisted into a staple-like instrument and driven down into the reeds. The method Kyran uses is to tie the bundles on individually with a polypropylene twine. Some thatchers use a screw fixing with a stainless steel wire that’s drilled down into the rafter and screwed in. The wires come up to secure the reed. Rods are laid across the reed. Traditionally the rods were also made from willow or hazel. Kyran has found that bamboo is straighter and lasts longer. The thatcher’s most important tool is the leggett – a hammer-like instrument with a honeycomb-studded surface. The leggett catches the ends of the reeds and dresses them into position.

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MUSIC

Pipes Still THE

ARE

The none-more-traditional uilleann pipes are undergoing something of a resurgence these days, led by radio presenter Donal Dineen as well as the efforts of young enthusiasts in west Cork.

Ian Maleney reports.

C ALLING

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T

he sound of the uilleann pipes is one of the most distinctive hallmarks of Irish culture, and yet few people could tell you exactly how they work.

A remarkably complex instrument to build and play, the pipes seem to be played with the whole body, requiring two elbows, two hands and even a bit of a leg to operate the bellows, bag, chanter, regulators and reeds. The sound they produce is just as complex: the instrument can cover a melodic range of over two octaves, as well as producing drones and bell-notes, creating a dense and, at times,

overwhelming sound. And they’re a bugger to keep in tune.

“As a machine, it’s pretty baffling for people who don’t play them,” says Donal Dineen, the radio presenter, DJ and visual artist behind a new show called The Pipes, The Pipes. Commissioned by the Dock Arts Centre in Carrick-on-Shannon with the help of a grant from the Arts Council, the project is an innovative mixture of traditional music, abstract art, video and live performance. At the heart of the project are three pipe players, Pádraig McGovern, Leonard Barry and Maitiú O’Casaide.

A single set of pipes can dominate a

room, but three together is quite another experience altogether. On top of that, Dineen has teamed up with French visual artist Lionel Palun, and Guillermo Carrión, a Spanish painter, to produce a live visual accompaniment for the music, created on the spot through painting and digital manipulation. It’s a lot to take in, and Dineen admits that creating a strong visual aesthetic on top of the unmistakable sound of the pipes has been quite difficult.

“It’s been a fairly steep learning curve because my own experience of doing something like that would be more with electronic music and in there there’s a lot more room to manoeuvre when it comes to conjuring something or when it comes to responding to a sound or interacting with the sound,” he says. “With the pipes, I think what all three of us found was that they leave very little room for improvisation. There’s a little bit of a challenge there.

“What we’ve all discovered is that they deliver such a full sound, and it’s something which has its own kind of imagery in many ways. I’ve noticed when people are at the concerts, they very often close their eyes because sensory-wise they’re a very full-on experience.”

While the pipes come loaded with associations for Irish audiences who have grown up hearing them in particular situations, like at funerals or in films, Dineen’s European companions are approaching the instrument in a very different way. Their on-going discovery of the instrument has been an inspiring part of the project.

“I think initially both of them would have probably confused uilleann pipes with bagpipes and probably have been slightly put off by the idea of having a project where they’d be dealing specifically with that instrument,” says Dineen. “Their response has been intriguing really because I think they found themselves a little ill-prepared for just how deep the deep end probably was when it came to the sound of them.

It’s been really fascinating seeing people from completely different backgrounds respond to something we would regard as a very traditional art-form.”

Dineen’s own epiphany with the pipes came just a few years ago, when a mutual friend brought Leonard Barry over to his house. Barry began to play the pipes in Dineen’s living room, and he’s not been the same since.

“I’d never really heard anything like the pipes in your own living room, it was like they’d been blessed by somebody, or the room had been,” he says. “It was something, just the range and the actual size of the sound, it was just phenomenal.”

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pipes, but it wouldn’t have struck me as being sonically something as great as what it turned out to be. I was just not prepared for hearing such an all-encompassing sound which filled the room in a way I’d never heard any instrument do. I guess just the loudness and the power of them really struck me and from that day on I’ve been fascinated.”

Dineen has previously worked with This Is How We Fly, an Irish/Norwegian quartet doing strange and wonderful things to the traditional musics of both countries.

The band’s fiddle player, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, is widely regarded as one of the finest and most innovative players around, and through watching him play,

Dineen began to think about possible methods extending the range of the pipes, and updating the ways in which they’re listened to. Given the long history and cultural importance of traditional music in Ireland, such experimenting with form isn’t always easy to pull off.

“To various degrees, traditional music has met, in recent times anyway, with more electronic forms and that can work,” he says. “It can be a disaster, equally.

But without trying you’re not going to find out. I think with practitioners like Caoimhín and Leonard Barry, you’ve got more room to manoeuvre when it comes to those experiments. From my own point of view, it’s audacious to assume that you

could marry these two things, or that you could align them in some way. But you know, there’s no harm in trying and I think as long as the respect is there, I don’t think you can actually do any harm to the traditional form or anything like that.”

Dineen’s own position as a passionate and curious outsider has allowed him to engage with the pipes without getting too bogged down in technical detail, keeping the spirit of the instrument and its players to the forefront at all times.

“I do like to keep on the side of the line of not knowing exactly how it works, because it’s all the more magical,” he says.

“There isn’t a formula as such. I really love being in that position of not really knowing exactly what’s happening, and if you have three people involved in a loop with visuals and there’s live stuff – it’s all live – anything is possible. That’s a great position to be in. Setting up that kind of high-wire act takes a lot of rigging, so that’s where I come in.”

When we speak, Dineen is in the process of organising performances of The Pipes, The Pipes at festivals around the country.

As the show continues to develop and the relationships between the players and the artists deepen, he is sure the experience for everyone involved will only get better.

“Having done two performances, I think it’s something which might really come together in show number three or four,” he says. “It takes a little while to break people out of the learned way of doing things and to step outside the box.

The more opportunities we have, the better it’s going to be.” •

Glengarriff: a new generation takes up piping It’s a sad fact that the uilleann pipes had almost disappeared by the middle of the last century, only to be preserved and resurrected by Na Píobairí Uilleann, otherwise known as the Pipers’ Club. At the heart of that movement was Jim Dowling, a former secretary of the Pipers’ Club in Dublin, and a founding member of the Comhaltas branch in Glengarriff, Co Cork. Though Dowling died in 2008, his legacy lives on through a music festival held each summer in that west Cork village.

Kieran O’Shea and Chris Harrington, young musicians from the village, enlisted a small team of volunteers and started planning the first edition of the festival in late 2012, and the first Jim Dowling Uilleann Pipe and Trad Festival was held in June of the following year. They are now planning their third weekend of traditional music around the town, and the event has grown in size and scale each year, attracting an array of traditional musical talent that is a testament to Dowling’s importance.

“Jim Dowling was such a vibrant man in the traditional music area in Glengarriff, we thought it would be fitting,” says O’Shea.

“He had a big influence in traditional Irish music and the playing of it here in Glengariff and west

Cork. He just loved the music and he used to travel around to all the Fleadh Cheoil. There was huge record there one time, he didn’t miss a Fleadh Cheoil for well over 30 years anyway. It’s a nice tribute to honour him and run the festival in his name. We approached the family and asked the family and they were delighted.”

The festival is one of only two in the country that gives pride of place to the uilleann pipes, and the traditional playing of the instrument is clearly something that everyone involved in the festival cares deeply about.

“Our aim is to create an interest in uilleann pipe playing and traditional music playing in the area, and ensure that it continues,” says O’Shea. “That’s our main aim, to make sure that the message gets across.

There’s a lot of people who mightn’t be so interested in the music, or who weren’t aware of the music in the area – the playing of uilleann pipes and different instruments – but I think it’s getting across to people.

People are becoming more aware of it and enjoying it, which is a big thing.”

As well as drawing traditional music fans from around the country and a few from further afield, word has also spread among musicians, who have

begun to approach the festival in the hopes of playing there. O’Shea believes this is a strong sign that they’re going in the right direction.

“We found this year, for the first year, several musicians approached us wondering if we’d be willing to have them perform,” says O’Shea. “They wanted to perform and be part of the Jim Dowling Festival, which we thought was fantastic. I think it’s great to see that they have an interest in coming to the festival as well.”

Last year, the festival hosted a series of workshops for young people on how to begin playing fiddle, accordion and the pipes and it was such a success that they will be repeated again this year. O’Shea believes that there’s a real sense of a younger generation taking up the baton of traditional music now. Aged just 24, he can include himself in that.

“I honestly have had that conversation numerous times with people over the last few months and I one-hundred-percent believe there is a u-turn with traditional Irish music, and a lot of young people getting interested,” he says.

“Especially here around the Beara peninsula, I see a lot of young people, and even further afield toward Kenmare and heading towards Cork.”

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FARM SAFETY

There are two major risks when working with slurry ● Drowning in slurry tanks ● Gas poisoning Drowning accounts for

33% 10% of deaths of children on farms

of deaths of elderly farmers in their workplace

Slurry

SAFETY SEMINAR INFO The course covers: ● Steps involved in slurry spreading

Slurry is no laughing matter. An essential element on many farms, working with it is one of the most dangerous activities a farmer can undertake due to the dangerous gases it releases, and the risk of drowning.

Now a new online course, Farm Safely With Slurry, has been launched by the Health and Safety Authority.

Narrated by our very own Darragh McCullough, the half-hour resource is available for free on www.hsalearning.ie.

● Best times for spreading slurry

● Dangers associated with mixing/ agitating ● Prevention of workplace accidents ● Role of the Health and Safety Authority

THE STATS

140,000 farms employ 160,000 people

400,000 poeple are at risk on the farm

The solid crust

Prevents atmospheric oxygen coming into contact with decomposing materials and prevents the release of slurry gases produced during anaerobic digestion.

Agitating causes dangerous gases to be released ● One lungful of slurry gas can kill ● It’s extremely poisonous to livestock and humans

● Relatively low levels knock out your sense of smell

20

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Most risks are involved in the slurry handling process

● High concentration causes breathing difficulty, headache, disorientation

● Death can occur after only a few breaths ● Levels above 200ppm give no smell or warning

Find out more: www.hsalearning.ie

EAR TO THE GROUND 55

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FROM THE SHOW

Heroes WATER RESCUE

The Boyne Fisherman’s Rescue and Recovery is a service that the country should be thankful for.

Giving invaluable service and time to help recover missing persons from the rivers across Ireland, its group of volunteers offer commitment and dedication to an important cause. By Jane Quinn.

T

homas Daly has been giving his time and energy to the Boyne Fisherman’s Rescue and Recovery service for 11 years, and with the rescue’s record of saves standing at 36 in one year, Thomas is no stranger to the constant hard work, commitment and dedication that is required of its volunteers.

After sadly losing his sister to the River Boyne, Thomas decided to join the service that helped to recover her, and began to participate in searches for missing persons in waters across the country.

The rescue service is responsible for all 32 counties. In Drogheda, 16 of the team’s members carry pagers on their person 24/7, in case of a callout. As well as maintaining day jobs, the service’s volunteers try to give as much of their spare time as possible to the needs of the rescue and the people it saves. Thomas – a dairy farmer – and the rest of the volunteers are constantly giving as much as they can. “When a search is ongoing you try and give as much time as you can to it, so it means you just don’t get a minute off.

You’re either searching or working...”

The Boyne Fisherman’s Rescue members also partake in twice-weekly training, as well as offering in-house training to facilitate their newer members.

“We actually do a lot of our own inhouse training ourselves with all the new members, and then after a while the members are sent off to do the swift water technician course.” The team also contains a couple of paramedics, so there are members who are trained to different levels of first aid and emergency response.

A BUSY WINTER The team are busy all throughout the year, but unfortunately Thomas says that it is the winter months that seem to be their busiest time. “During the summer time it’s more boating accidents or accidents in the water […] but we always seem to be very busy from December right through to March, and unfortunately that’s people more or less taking their own lives. We’ve been on, I think, seven searches so far this year, and it’s only May.”

On the Boyne at Drogheda.

With searches sometimes lasting anything up to five months, both the team and the families of the casualties suffer the emotional effects of a long and anticipatory search. “The difficulty really is if a search is ongoing for quite a while it’s difficult to see the family there… They are relying on you to return their loved one to them and you are trying to do your best. So you could be looking for ten minutes or it could be for a few days or it could be ongoing for a few months.”

The service has its own boathouse and an emergency medical room for casualties once they have been recovered from the water, and can resuscitate a casualty while waiting for an ambulance to arrive, a crucial factor when it comes to the number of lives saved.

However, when it comes to finance, the rescue’s funding is generated purely by its members and the people in the communities it serves. After a search, those affected often host fundraisers for the rescue service, and once a year the members go around as many houses as

they can in Drogheda as well. “We get no state funding, it’s all fundraised,” Thomas explains.

The Boyne Fisherman’s Rescue service selflessly offers a huge and indispensable service to the country, and is something that Thomas and the rest of its dedicated members will continue to do in the future as best they can.

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FROM THE SHOW

haven SAFE

Donkeys have inhabited Ireland for hundreds of years, but in the last decade efforts to care for animals suffering from mistreatment and abandonment have been building. Sue Paling and Sathya Sai Trust for Nature set out to right the wrongs that these animals have endured, and shed a light on donkey welfare in Ireland. Interview: Jane Quinn.

S

athya Sai Trust for Nature first opened its doors to donkeys in 1991. Founded by equine lover Sue Paling, the sanctuary aims to act as a healing ground for donkeys who are abandoned, abused, unwanted or injured. Situated in the vast and picturesque surroundings of Castlebaldwin, Co Sligo, the sanctuary

provides a spacious area of peace and comfort for its recovering furry friends.

A loving and friendly creature, the donkey originally hails from the African deserts but has been a resident of our greener pastures for centuries. Despite being a surprisingly strong and stoic animal, with a tolerance and resilience unexpected of its size and stature, it has been susceptible to many counts of abuse and mistreatment in Ireland.

Sue Paling, over the last two decades, has done admirable work in aiding their recovery and rehabilitation. After receiving a donkey to look after from a neighbour upon her arrival to Ireland in 1990, Sue began to realise that there was more to be seen and done when it came to donkeys who needed care. “I was quite horrified to find how many donkeys were just lying around on the grass verges in really bad condition, and somebody gave

me a donkey to look after. I didn’t know much about them except they needed company, so I told the neighbours that I could take another one or two. I realised that there was a problem and that I could help and ultimately it led to setting up a proper sanctuary, which is where we are today.”

Arriving to the sanctuary in various poor conditions, the donkeys Sue takes in suffer with overgrown hooves, tooth problems, matted coats and in some cases emotional distress that can last a lifetime. With a total of 53 donkeys and 33 horses and ponies in her care, the sanctuary runs on devotion and unfazed dedication. “The vast majority that come in even today will have very bad feet, very long overgrown twisted hooves, neglected hooves basically... some of them are in rented situations so we do have to drive out every day and check them, make sure they’re alright, but the biggest job of all is keeping them clean and fed, which in the winter of course is constant.”

OVERBREEDING The Celtic Tiger saw what Sue describes as an immense overbreeding, as demands for donkeys as pets began to rise.

However, after the crash, abandonment figures began to creep up as a lack of money meant less spent by owners on important but expensive donkey care, such as castration, which often resulted in their abandonment and neglect.

Sathya Sai offers donkeys a chance to be re-homed to a devoted owner, and to join fellow donkeys and horses once they have gone through the process of their rehabilitation. “We do it on a foster loan scheme, which protects both the donkeys and the people who take them on because whatever the circumstances, if for any reason they can no longer keep them, we take them back here – but that works both ways: if we do a home check and we find that we’re not happy with the way they’re being treated we reserve the right to bring them back here.”

Donkeys offer great companionship and in most cases quickly bounce back from any neglect they have suffered, and prove a very friendly and loving companion to people of all ages, Sue says. “They’re great as pets. They’re generally lovely with children, they’re very understanding of people with disabilities, emotional disabilities as well as physical. They’re very empathetic with people in that way.”

That empathy is returned at the Sathya Sai Trust For Nature. ●

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FROM THE SHOW

haven SAFE

Donkeys have inhabited Ireland for hundreds of years, but in the last decade efforts to care for animals suffering from mistreatment and abandonment have been building. Sue Paling and Sathya Sai Trust for Nature set out to right the wrongs that these animals have endured, and shed a light on donkey welfare in Ireland. Interview: Jane Quinn.

S

athya Sai Trust for Nature first opened its doors to donkeys in 1991. Founded by equine lover Sue Paling, the sanctuary aims to act as a healing ground for donkeys who are abandoned, abused, unwanted or injured. Situated in the vast and picturesque surroundings of Castlebaldwin, Co Sligo, the sanctuary

provides a spacious area of peace and comfort for its recovering furry friends.

A loving and friendly creature, the donkey originally hails from the African deserts but has been a resident of our greener pastures for centuries. Despite being a surprisingly strong and stoic animal, with a tolerance and resilience unexpected of its size and stature, it has been susceptible to many counts of abuse and mistreatment in Ireland.

Sue Paling, over the last two decades, has done admirable work in aiding their recovery and rehabilitation. After receiving a donkey to look after from a neighbour upon her arrival to Ireland in 1990, Sue began to realise that there was more to be seen and done when it came to donkeys who needed care. “I was quite horrified to find how many donkeys were just lying around on the grass verges in really bad condition, and somebody gave

me a donkey to look after. I didn’t know much about them except they needed company, so I told the neighbours that I could take another one or two. I realised that there was a problem and that I could help and ultimately it led to setting up a proper sanctuary, which is where we are today.”

Arriving to the sanctuary in various poor conditions, the donkeys Sue takes in suffer with overgrown hooves, tooth problems, matted coats and in some cases emotional distress that can last a lifetime. With a total of 53 donkeys and 33 horses and ponies in her care, the sanctuary runs on devotion and unfazed dedication. “The vast majority that come in even today will have very bad feet, very long overgrown twisted hooves, neglected hooves basically... some of them are in rented situations so we do have to drive out every day and check them, make sure they’re alright, but the biggest job of all is keeping them clean and fed, which in the winter of course is constant.”

OVERBREEDING The Celtic Tiger saw what Sue describes as an immense overbreeding, as demands for donkeys as pets began to rise.

However, after the crash, abandonment figures began to creep up as a lack of money meant less spent by owners on important but expensive donkey care, such as castration, which often resulted in their abandonment and neglect.

Sathya Sai offers donkeys a chance to be re-homed to a devoted owner, and to join fellow donkeys and horses once they have gone through the process of their rehabilitation. “We do it on a foster loan scheme, which protects both the donkeys and the people who take them on because whatever the circumstances, if for any reason they can no longer keep them, we take them back here – but that works both ways: if we do a home check and we find that we’re not happy with the way they’re being treated we reserve the right to bring them back here.”

Donkeys offer great companionship and in most cases quickly bounce back from any neglect they have suffered, and prove a very friendly and loving companion to people of all ages, Sue says. “They’re great as pets. They’re generally lovely with children, they’re very understanding of people with disabilities, emotional disabilities as well as physical. They’re very empathetic with people in that way.”

That empathy is returned at the Sathya Sai Trust For Nature. ●

58 EAR TO THE GROUND

058 ETTG_Summer 2015_Donkeys.indd 58

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26/06/2015 24/06/2015 08:54 16:49

FROM THE SHOW

form BACK ON

Cork dairy farmer Con Murphy has endured a harrowing battle with depression – and now gains new energy from helping fellow strugglers. Ruraidh Conlon O’Reilly reports.

M

en, eh? Proud.

Stubborn. Guarded.

But for Cork dairy farmer Con Murphy, the stereotype was no laughing matter: it was the source of a huge upheaval in his life six years ago.

“Towards the end of 2008 I wasn’t exactly feeling my normal self, but I kind of struggled on to the end of the year and then it wasn’t getting any better,” he recalls. “I lost energy and I just had no interest, and I struggled. Then at the beginning of 2009 it was the same story, nothing better, and it was hard for my wife and my son to understand how a fellah who was so active and energetic could suddenly turn off, pack up and have no interest in anything.”

The Coachford man looked perfectly healthy, but preferred to stay in bed when he would normally would be up at the crack of dawn and work until it was dark.

“I just struggled on, and eventually with a lot of persuasion – because most men are stubborn – I admitted that I might have depression.”

With the encouragement of his family he eventually consented to go to the doctor, who put Con on an antidepressant, which he reluctantly took. After about six weeks he felt way better than before. He came off medication after about three months “and I haven’t taken an antidepressant since, thank god. And it’s great.”

BREAKING THE STIGMA It had been quite a scare to Con and those around him. “The thing about depression is that it just immobilises you.

It gets a grip on you,” he explains. “Men in particular don’t want to admit that they’re depressed. Because men, by their nature, are supposed to be macho. But I can tell you: there’s no such thing as a macho man. All grown-up men are only children with wrinkles in them, that’s all they are.

It’s very, very easy to break a man down.”

Cork dairy farmer Con Murphy with Ear To The Ground presenter Ella McSweeney.

Con shared his story on Ear To The Ground earlier this year, after which the tale took an unexpected twist: he began to receive phonecalls from fellow sufferers all over the country, and found that he was in a position to talk and to help. Some have become friends. “Originally, when it was put to me about going on Ear To The Ground I reluctantly agreed, because I don’t want to be putting myself up as an example to other people. I was saying to myself: look, if I can do good to any single person, I will gladly do it.”

The biggest problem tends to be that men don’t talk openly about it: there is still a stigma attached to depression.

“Because nobody wants to admit that they’re depressed,” he says. “If I put up my hands on the first day and said ‘look lads, I’m not feeling the best. I’m feeling very low...’ I didn’t want to do that because

I felt that I’d be letting them down. I was supposed to be the father of the family, the leading figure, and if the leading figure falls down you’re letting down the rest of them.”

Con still can’t put a finger on what triggered his slump: he hadn’t been worried about anything in particular.

“Normally, after the Ploughing Championships I’d be talking about it for months after. But I went back into bed again. I thought the Ploughing would give me a lift, but it didn’t,” he recalls. A “debilitating wretch of a thing” set in, and it was soul-destroying for those around him too.

These days, Con reports that he feels fantastic. There’s an extra spring in his step, as he’s found helping other people hugely satisfying. “It’s great now at the moment, and I hope to god it will stay that way. There’s only a very short space between a pat on the back and a kick up the rear end,” he laughs.

EAR TO THE GROUND 61

061 ETTG_Summer 2015_Depression.indd 61

29/06/2015 12:14

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23/06/2015 29/05/2015 11:58 12:56

FROM THE SHOW

M

aize is a phenomenally popular crop worldwide.

Growing it in Ireland hasn’t been easy, a cold and damp climate being the biggest obstacle. Yet that dampness could in fact be the country’s biggest advantage, as we have none of the expensive irrigation costs of farmers in warmer climes – if only the plant could be protected, particularly for the crucial first six weeks of its germination.

The Samco story starts in 1979, when Sam Shine started contracting. As the years went on, he faced a problem: there was a lot of slurry and farmyard manure being produced, and it was being spread in January, February and March – so far so good, but bacteria and high nitrogen levels in the slurry were upsetting the fermentation of the grass that was clamped for the winter feed.

Shine looked at different crops to grow for farmers instead, and plumped for maize. “Of course, the weather is not always that suitable,” he explains: they had a few years that weren’t too bad, and then one year in which the crop didn’t develop well at all. “One of the suppliers that was supplying us with seeds suggested that we go to France and look and see what they were doing with a machine for laying film in France,” he recalls. “So we went to France and brought a machine here that laid film on the fields, made a hole through the film and put a seed down through the hole.”

Of course, France experiences much less rain than Ireland – and the French system allowed water to run down the hole and physically rot the seed, making things worse instead of better. But Shine noticed that when the film got pulled and the plant was no longer in line with the hole, it was much better protected. “So then we looked at designing a system that could lay a sheet of film without holes in it to totally cover the maize plant until it was ready to come through,” and the Samco business began.

The first step was to design the machine, then find the right varieties that would perform well under these conditions – then weed control issues cropped up, because weeds were now thriving just as the maize was. Each of these was solved in due course, but the main sticking point was the degradable film. They worked with different manufacturers over the years, but they never really got it right until they took on the project themselves, working with polymer engineers to solve the design, strength, degradability, elsasticity and strength of the film, which would have to be laid at high speed.

“When we got that right then the business started to grow. So that happened about seven years ago; since then the

A-maizing Samco

THE

STORY

Limerick’s Sam Shine has defied the elements to make maize more growable in a rainy Irish climate. He recalls the origins of his innovative Samco System, and predicts the future of the crop in Ireland. business has been growing very fast every year since then. I suppose today, 85 per cent of Samco’s turnover is involved in the selling of that film that we manufacture ourselves in a factory in China. Whereas the film-laying machine that we produce and designed is only 15 per cent of the total sales.

“It was a long road, because we had too many hurdles: it’s not just a machine, it’s not just a variety, it’s not just a herbicide, it’s not just a film – it’s a system. That’s why we christened it the Samco System, because if you leave out one of those ingredients you will not have success.”

Every year they have 30 or 40 trial sites in many different countries with different varieties, different herbicides and different film types. The machine has to work in each of these conditions, but the degradable film types vary. The price they get for the machine doesn’t quite cover its development and support – so the film business effectively subsidises it.

All of this makes for 27 busy employees on Samco’s Adare, Co Limerick site.

Samco itself keeps developing, having introduced the Samco Bagpress to the market. “It’s a new machine, a new concept of storing buffer feeding like maize or whole-crop wheat or crimped wheat onfarm in a fermented form, because we don’t believe that it’s necessary for a stock farmer to buy expensive dried grain from a miller,” says Shine.

“We believe that a farmer should be able to store grain that he buys from a combine or maize or whatever on his own farm in a moist format, which has 14 per cent higher feed value anyway.” Feedback so far is good.

Meanwhile, they’re constructing a new factory on the Adare site, bringing more capacity for export on-stream: the Samco System has come a long way since its inventor’s early attempts to grow maize in Ireland.

ON THE UP?

Sam Shine characterises maize as a very palatable crop for an animal to produce either milk or beef. Although it needs warm and dry conditions, he believes that it will become more popular in Ireland in the wake of milk quota abolition: grass can only do so much for an animal; it has to be supplemented. Maize complements grass: grass is very high in protein and low in energy, whereas maize is the opposite. It’s a drier feed, and an easier feed for an animal to digest. Furthermore, it can consume an enormous amount of slurry, which has to be spread in springtime and maize is a spring-grown crop. It’s ideal for buffer feeding, which takes place and when grass is wet or short or at the end of the season when the grass quality is not high: you can supplement it with maize to keep the cow’s stomach right and keep her producing milk for a longer period, Shine says.

EAR TO THE GROUND 63

063 ETTG_Spring-Summer 2015_Samco.indd 63

29/06/2015 12:15

FROM THE SHOW

M

aize is a phenomenally popular crop worldwide.

Growing it in Ireland hasn’t been easy, a cold and damp climate being the biggest obstacle. Yet that dampness could in fact be the country’s biggest advantage, as we have none of the expensive irrigation costs of farmers in warmer climes – if only the plant could be protected, particularly for the crucial first six weeks of its germination.

The Samco story starts in 1979, when Sam Shine started contracting. As the years went on, he faced a problem: there was a lot of slurry and farmyard manure being produced, and it was being spread in January, February and March – so far so good, but bacteria and high nitrogen levels in the slurry were upsetting the fermentation of the grass that was clamped for the winter feed.

Shine looked at different crops to grow for farmers instead, and plumped for maize. “Of course, the weather is not always that suitable,” he explains: they had a few years that weren’t too bad, and then one year in which the crop didn’t develop well at all. “One of the suppliers that was supplying us with seeds suggested that we go to France and look and see what they were doing with a machine for laying film in France,” he recalls. “So we went to France and brought a machine here that laid film on the fields, made a hole through the film and put a seed down through the hole.”

Of course, France experiences much less rain than Ireland – and the French system allowed water to run down the hole and physically rot the seed, making things worse instead of better. But Shine noticed that when the film got pulled and the plant was no longer in line with the hole, it was much better protected. “So then we looked at designing a system that could lay a sheet of film without holes in it to totally cover the maize plant until it was ready to come through,” and the Samco business began.

The first step was to design the machine, then find the right varieties that would perform well under these conditions – then weed control issues cropped up, because weeds were now thriving just as the maize was. Each of these was solved in due course, but the main sticking point was the degradable film. They worked with different manufacturers over the years, but they never really got it right until they took on the project themselves, working with polymer engineers to solve the design, strength, degradability, elsasticity and strength of the film, which would have to be laid at high speed.

“When we got that right then the business started to grow. So that happened about seven years ago; since then the

A-maizing Samco

THE

STORY

Limerick’s Sam Shine has defied the elements to make maize more growable in a rainy Irish climate. He recalls the origins of his innovative Samco System, and predicts the future of the crop in Ireland. business has been growing very fast every year since then. I suppose today, 85 per cent of Samco’s turnover is involved in the selling of that film that we manufacture ourselves in a factory in China. Whereas the film-laying machine that we produce and designed is only 15 per cent of the total sales.

“It was a long road, because we had too many hurdles: it’s not just a machine, it’s not just a variety, it’s not just a herbicide, it’s not just a film – it’s a system. That’s why we christened it the Samco System, because if you leave out one of those ingredients you will not have success.”

Every year they have 30 or 40 trial sites in many different countries with different varieties, different herbicides and different film types. The machine has to work in each of these conditions, but the degradable film types vary. The price they get for the machine doesn’t quite cover its development and support – so the film business effectively subsidises it.

All of this makes for 27 busy employees on Samco’s Adare, Co Limerick site.

Samco itself keeps developing, having introduced the Samco Bagpress to the market. “It’s a new machine, a new concept of storing buffer feeding like maize or whole-crop wheat or crimped wheat onfarm in a fermented form, because we don’t believe that it’s necessary for a stock farmer to buy expensive dried grain from a miller,” says Shine.

“We believe that a farmer should be able to store grain that he buys from a combine or maize or whatever on his own farm in a moist format, which has 14 per cent higher feed value anyway.” Feedback so far is good.

Meanwhile, they’re constructing a new factory on the Adare site, bringing more capacity for export on-stream: the Samco System has come a long way since its inventor’s early attempts to grow maize in Ireland. ●

ON THE UP?

Sam Shine characterises maize as a very palatable crop for an animal to produce either milk or beef. Although it needs warm and dry conditions, he believes that it will become more popular in Ireland in the wake of milk quota abolition: grass can only do so much for an animal; it has to be supplemented. Maize complements grass: grass is very high in protein and low in energy, whereas maize is the opposite. It’s a drier feed, and an easier feed for an animal to digest. Furthermore, it can consume an enormous amount of slurry, which has to be spread in springtime and maize is a spring-grown crop. It’s ideal for buffer feeding, which takes place and when grass is wet or short or at the end of the season when the grass quality is not high: you can supplement it with maize to keep the cow’s stomach right and keep her producing milk for a longer period, Shine says.

EAR TO THE GROUND 63

063 ETTG_Spring-Summer 2015_Samco.indd 63

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29/06/2015 17:36

FROM THE SHOW

N

ot far from Mitchelstown in Co Cork, one of Ireland’s most unusual herds is found: the wild boar of Ballinwillin House Farm, which appeared on Ear To The Ground earlier this year.

Beginning with deer in 1985 and importing wild boar ten years later, Pat Mulcahy and family have built up a unique organic farm, with everything they produce either sold online or to top hotels and restaurants in Ireland and the UK. “The reason we got into the wild boar is that they were extinct in Ireland for somewhere around 400 years,” Mulcahy explains. “We always had pigs at home when I was a young lad, and my father used to rear them a particular way – organically in those days, with potatoes, turnips, apples [and grain] and it would produce a very sweet meat.

“When we got the wild boar we imported them from Hungary in through the UK and when we got them we took to feeding them like that. So the chefs realised that there’s a much different flavour in this type of meat than there would be, obviously, to a conventional pig that was reared in a house. The flavour just sent them into orbit!” Feeding with fodder beet and grain leads to a very distinctive, unique flavour thanks to the beet’s sugar content.

Working with wild boar is not without its pitfalls, though. “That’s the dangerous thing about working with wild animals.

They are wild boar – you have to be very careful with them because they are wild, they are fast and they don’t play by any rules really.” But Ballinwillin has very good facilities, and the highly experienced Mulcahy does the handling work himself.

COOKING UP BUSINESS Business, he says, is good, with weekly visits from chefs. Wife Miriam cooks them a range of products, then the guests go to see and perhaps feed the animals in their organic environment. More chefs should visit farms, Mulcahy suggests. “A key ingredient in working long-term with a chef is to have a good working relationship with him. He knows exactly where his food is coming from; if he brings his staff along they see animals so when they go to the table to meet the customer it’s very easy for them to recommend the product.”

The herd of deer is reared in much the same way as the boar, its meat highly

boar FULL

Wild boar is on the menu at Ballinwillin House Farm in Co Cork, where Pat Mulcahy and family produce a meat that’s notable for its sweetness.

BELOW LEFT: Pat Mulcahy with one of his rare breed pigs, a Tamworth sow.

BELOW: Wild boar at Ballinwillin House.

regarded and consistent: a stable level of quality is key for any farm, he says.

With no major expansion plans, Mulcahy aims for quality and improvement, not quantity. All sales go to hotels, restaurants and online customers, and he’s adamant that the supermarket route is not for him. “Absolutely not. I would stay well away from supermarkets because I think the day a product like ours would hit the supermarket would be the death of it. We used to work with supermarkets when we started first and every year we were getting less for the product.” Having to do more promotions and waiting eight or nine months for payment are discouraging.

“You just couldn’t run a farm like that.”

It sounds like things are doing OK without them anyway: online sales are

strong. “That’s the growth area. We would sell a lot of stuff to the UK and the greater London area; that seems to be a growth area. We’re the only people doing wild boar in Ireland, and very few people would be doing organic venison in the UK either. It’s kind of a niche market,” he says. ● EAR TO THE GROUND 65

065_ETTG_Summer 2015_Boar.indd 65

29/06/2015 12:36

FROM THE SHOW

Business is mushrooming

On the first episode of this series Ella McSweeney visited the Galtee Mountains, where she met Mark Cribben and Lucy Creegan of Ballyhoura Mushrooms. The business started when they were disappointed at the narrow variety of mushroom available on the market – but fortunately, being scientists, they could do something about it. They now produce a wide range of mushrooms and have built up an impressive reputation among world-renowned restaurants such as the Michelin-starred Chapter One, as well as those who use mushrooms for their healing qualities. And as these photos show, not only are their mushrooms tasty – they look like they’re from another world. ● www.ballyhouramushrooms.ie

66 EAR TO THE GROUND

066 ETTG_Summer 2015_Mushrooms.indd 66

29/06/2015 12:37

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HOSPITALITY

Stone SET IN

Inis Meáin Restaurant & Suites, on the sleepiest of the three Aran Islands, is a combination of extraordinary architecture, a restaurateur couple’s dreams – and a big change in plan. Ian Maleney talks to Marie-Thérèse de Blacam.

68 EAR TO THE GROUND

068 ETTG_Spring-Summer 2015_inis Meain_3pp.indd 68

29/06/2015 12:38

HOSPITALITY

O

pening a high-end restaurant and hotel on a remote island with a population of 150 could easily be construed as madness, but looking at what Ruairí and Marie-Thérèse de Blacam have done on the rocky outcrop of Inis Meáin, the term “living the dream” comes to mind instead.

Ruairí de Blacam is an island native, having grown up on Inis Meáin before leaving for Dublin to attend secondary school. Having spent 15 years cooking in kitchens across Ireland and Europe, de Blacam also worked as a globe-travelling salesman for his father’s island-based knitwear business. Around the turn of the millennium he started to think about opening a restaurant of his own, but the burgeoning property boom made setting up in Dublin almost impossible. He bought three acres of land on Inis Meáin, married Marie-Thérèse and, inspired by the Island Cottage of John Desmond and Ellmary Fenton on Heir Island, started to work on what would become Inis Meáin Restaurant & Suites.

“I think Ruairí originally would have thought that, at some point in the future, I’d like to semi-retire back to Inis Meáin and do a small restaurant there like John and Ellmary have done,” says MarieThérèse. “In reality, when the numbers weren’t stacking up in Dublin, that plan was brought forward and he realised this isn’t just a semi-retirement plan, it’s a life plan.”

De Blacam enlisted his award-winning architect uncle, Shane de Blacam, to design a truly unique building for them.

Clad in that distinctive island stone, its low, graceful profile makes it feel as if it’s emerged whole from the bedrock. The building contains five spacious suites, each entered through its own veranda, while the restaurant commands 180-degree views of the bay.

“You don’t see a hell of a lot of sea if you just look one direction, but if you can make windows where you give people 180 degrees of views, you feel like you have an amazing sea view because you see so much of it,” says Marie-Thérèse. “I remember walking on to the site after Ruairí had bought it in the year 2000 or so and I remember thinking, OK, it’s central and it’s big, but there’s much more amazing views from higher up on the island and could he not have got something with a deeper sea view? But it just shows that

Shane could see what I couldn’t see.

We’re really happy with the building and we couldn’t have done it without Shane.

We were only lucky that he was in the family; he’s not someone we could have afforded otherwise.”

While Ruairí began to craft a menu for the restaurant using the available local ingredients, Marie-Thérèse designed the bespoke interiors, developed a range of baked breads and biscuits, and managed the front-of-house. Together they started a kitchen-garden just outside the building, growing their own vegetables and salads, while the Atlantic provides lobster, crab

and fish as well as sea urchins that were described by Darina Allen as the best meal she’d ever had.

Inis Meáin itself is the least visited of the three Aran Islands, attracting just a tiny fraction of the tourists the other two receive. While this makes opening a hospitality business even more daunting, the island’s isolation and quietude is a boon for those who make the trip.

“Inis Meáin is very much the piggy in the middle island, and in terms of services, would be very much be behind the other two,” says de Blacam. “It’s not the easiest place to make something

EAR TO THE GROUND 69

068 ETTG_Spring-Summer 2015_inis Meain_3pp.indd 69

29/06/2015 12:38

HOSPITALITY

“It’s not the easiest place to make something sustainable because it is very, very quiet. On the other side of things, that’s the beauty of it because guests just have the place to themselves pretty much.” sustainable because it is very, very quiet.

On the other side of things, that’s the beauty of it because guests just have the place to themselves pretty much.

“We do a minimum two-night stay and that’s because it’s a real getaway winddown, but you can really only appreciate that if you take long, three or four-hour treks out the back of the island where you’ve absolutely nothing, just you and the landscape or you take the time and you wander down a couple of lanes, you meet a farmer, you get to talk to people.

It’s the kind of place that deserves the time to be taken to experience what it has to offer, which is that slowing down.”

Of course, visitors might not have to leave the building to find locals to talk to, as the islanders regularly book some of the restaurant’s few tables.

“Plenty of the islanders come in to eat with us,” says de Blacam. “Special occasions, particularly in the summertime when they have visitors coming, they’ll come in. I don’t know if it’s because of the prices we have or whether people think of the island as a more basic place, but it’s like a business in any town; it’s frequented.

Obviously there aren’t people in here

dining four courses every night of the week or anything, but thankfully the islanders do come in and really add to the mix.”

While the de Blacams have never advertised their business, Marie-Thérèse says that their continued investment in both the building and in their online presence has been key to attracting visitors. Over the last two years they completely redesigned their website, and commissioned documentary-maker Ruán Magan to make a short film around the island. These investments are beginning to pay off.

“We’ve had a very slow evolution,” says de Blacam. “When we started we were only open weekends, then just mid-week July and August, then we were open four nights a week for six months and now we’re open six nights a week for six months. That’s only since last year, so demand has grown in tandem with supply.

That website has made a huge difference in filling the extra supply. The difference between the visitors to our old site and the amount of bookings, and the visitors to our new site and the amount of bookings, there’s more conversion thanks to the investment we’ve made in the film and the

site itself. It’s fantastic to see because a lot of work went into it.”

The Suites have also seen a growing amount of international visitors coming to the island, though half of their guests are still Irish. De Blacam suggests that the “staycation” mentality kicked in during the recession and, thankfully for them, remains strong. While they’ve not had time to engage with it fully, she says initiatives like the Wild Atlantic Way tourism trail can only help people in their line of business.

“We’ve done the Garden Route in South Africa and come back and driven in Connemara and thought: what we have is so much better than the likes of the Garden Route,” she says. “I think the idea is fantastic, I think it’s a no-brainer, and I hear from other businesses in the trade, friends of ours on the mainland, that it is helping. So it’s only a matter of time before it contributes to what we do as well. The overall feeling from everybody on the island – including ourselves – is that at the level the island operates at, the more people can do to have activity here, to have people coming here, to have places available and open has to be good.”

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29/06/2015 12:38

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23/06/2015 05/06/2015 12:00 10:52

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Connacht Gold winning the taste test

CONNACHT GOLD BUT TER PERFORMS AHEAD OF THE C ATEGORY

REAL BUTTER IS BACK, AND FINDINGS from annual Nielsen yellow fats data has shown that Connacht Gold’s butter is performing well ahead of the category and is in continued growth year on year.

This is a significant position for the brand as the overall yellow fats category is experiencing a decline in sales.

Results from an independent sensory analysis competitor benchmarking report conducted by St Angela’s Food Technology Centre has resulted in Connacht Gold Low Fat butter deemed the number one choice for taste and texture versus competitor brands in a blind tasting, and combined with the brand’s six Great Taste Awards and Blas na hÉireann accolades in 2014, Connacht Gold is certainly winning the taste test.

Commenting on the findings, Lydia Rogers, Communications and Brand Manager, Aurivo Co-op said: “We are thrilled with the success of Connacht Gold butter;

the encouraging sales figures and positive outcome of the recent independent blind taste tests show that an excellent quality product can achieve growth, even in a challenging category. We have more exciting plans for the brand and look forward to continued success for the range in the year ahead.”

Connacht Gold has invested in its Low Fat butter through an integrated ‘real butter’ campaign over the past two years and will continue to invest in the brand throughout 2015 – the first campaign will feature Connacht Gold Low Fat butter on national and regional radio, along with press, online and instore tastings right across the country in the coming weeks. The key message of the campaign highlights that Connacht Gold Low Fat is real butter with half the fat and all the taste.

Butter’s recent rise in popularity is lifted by consumer trends towards more

natural foods with simple ingredients and exceptional taste. This trend is also kindled by celebrity chefs and cooking shows that show butter as an everyday essential cooking ingredient. With its real butter credentials, Connacht Gold teamed up with RTÉ last autumn to sponsor its food series Rachel Allen: All Things Sweet, adding value for Connacht Gold Softer and Unsalted butters as the trend towards home baking and cooking continues.

Connacht Gold Low Fat, Softer and Unsalted butters are positioned in the top 10 products contributing to category growth in retailers, while the Connacht Gold brand continues to innovate in the category, with two new products launched towards the end of 2014: a gourmet butter with sea salt and cracked pepper butter, with further exciting NPD in the pipeline.

For further information about Connacht Gold products visit www.facebook.com/ ConnachtGold. ●

72 EAR TO THE GROUND

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30/06/2015 16:46

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28/11/2014 12:59 23/06/2015 16/04/2015 12:01 17:25

Business BUY & SELL

H

ow good is your internet connection? And does it affect your livelihood? Helen Carroll found herself worrying about the exact same thing, as she recalls. Meanwhile, access to the land is topical for young and would-be farmers, Ian Maleney learns about a Gaeltacht economy dependent on food, and the skills and talents of Irish musical instrument-makers come to the fore.

Musical instruments 76 Helen’s broadband battles 80 Gaeltacht business 91 Leasing and partnerships 94 FilmOffaly 99 Climate: Tom Arnold 103

Waste disposal Forestry news Moy Park chicken IFA Smart Farming Macra land transfer Career clinic

107 113 114 118 122 124

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Business BUY & SELL

H

ow good is your internet connection? And does it affect your livelihood? Helen Carroll found herself worrying about the exact same thing, as she recalls. Meanwhile, access to the land is topical for young and would-be farmers, Ian Maleney learns about a Gaeltacht economy dependent on food, and the skills and talents of Irish musical instrument-makers come to the fore.

Musical instruments 76 Helen’s broadband battles 86 Gaeltacht business 91 Leasing and partnerships 94 FilmOffaly 99 Climate: Tom Arnold 103

Waste disposal Forestry news Moy Park chicken IFA Smart Farming Macra land transfer Career clinic

107 113 114 119 122 124

EAR TO THE GROUND 75

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30/06/2015 10:59

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Music makers

Irish music and musicians are renowned the world over – but behind the scenes are some exceptionally skilled craftspeople who make world-class musical instruments, as Ian Maleney discovers.

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

T

here are times when it seems like the art of making musical instruments is just as creative, as technical and as mysterious as the art of playing them. Across the country there are dozens of makers who, day after day, craft stunning instruments of all shapes and sizes. Usually every instrument that leaves their workshop is unique; a particular meeting of material and maker that creates a beautiful and unreproducible effect.

Like many older craft traditions, it’s not always an easy business to be in. The job satisfaction factor can’t be discounted, but there’s an inherent instability involved as well. While professional players are likely to want something special, factory-produced instruments, first in Europe and increasingly in Asia, have eaten into the amateur market for hand-built instruments. The right woods, the right tools and the right help can all be hard to come by, and when someone is looking for a high-quality instrument they are increasingly able to go abroad in search of the best quality and value.

In a globalised market, Irish instrument makers have to offer something special.

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

The Bow Maker NOEL BURKE

The long-standing tradition of French bowmaking is an exceedingly fine and detailed craft and Noel Burke is one of the world’s leading practitioners. Every other instrument maker I speak to seems to know who he is, and the respect they hold him in is clear. Handling one of his viola bows in his workshop in Carlow, it’s easy to see why.

“All the musicality and the mood and the character that the musician wants to portray is coming through the bow. It’s critical to what they do, it really is.”

Looking at the bows in the workshop, it’s the ephemeral quality of them that is most fascinating. Here is something that makes no sound by itself, but influences the sound of the instrument and can be the key to unlocking the upper reaches of a musician’s talent. And, while the finest violins have famous lineages and fetch jaw-dropping prices at auction, the bow seems somehow more humble and more personal. It’s all about the way it feels in the hand; what it allows the musician to achieve. The bow itself is made primarily from pernambuco wood, a rare, dark wood that grows only in a particular forest along the east coast of Brazil. It is combined with ebony, mammoth ivory, horse hair, silver and awabi shell from Japan to create something Burke describes as both beautifully simple and extremely complex.

His workshop is suitably small, and filled with beautiful French hand-tools. Bows in various states of completion hang on the walls, and Burke’s apprentice, Niall, works away as we talk. There is a sense of intense concentration as each stroke of a chisel or file gradually carves out the final product. Burke makes three or four bows a month here, and there is an 18-month waiting list. Almost all of his bows are exported.

Unlike the violin makers, there is no school for bow-making. Burke originally attended the Newark school, but he learned how to make flutes instead. After meeting the bow-maker Charles Epsey in Paris and being fascinated by his work, Burke went to learn from Epsey at his

workshop in Seattle. He then spent five years with master bow-maker Stephane Thomachot in Paris before moving to Mayo and striking out on his own. In 2005, he moved to Carlow and says the town’s lack of distractions has been great for his work. Having an apprentice there is also very important to him, and indeed to the craft itself. When Burke landed back from Paris in 1995, he was the only person making hand-crafted bows in Ireland. Now there are three professional bow-makers, including Gary Leehy, who was Burke’s first student.

“I wouldn’t be a French bow-maker if the guy I met hadn’t offered to teach me, and that really stuck with me somehow,” he says. “So if anyone shows an interest, I’m very happy about teaching them. It means I don’t have to sit there on my own. That was the main driver for it; it’s a very solitary trade and I found it very hard. It’s a difficult part of the trade because it’s not really talked about. It’s really odd sitting there on your own all day, and it’s boring.”

While the techniques that Burke uses have remained practically unchanged for 300 years, there are threats to the future of the craft.

Pernambuco stock had depleted to just 1 per cent of what it was in 1900, but recent initiatives have seen new plantations begin to bear fruit.

The new wood isn’t quite as good as the oldgrowth stock, but it’s perfectly workable. “It’s a lot less grim for the future than it was ten, 20 years ago,” he says.

The main development in bow-making in recent times has been the appearance of carbon-fibre bows, which are light, agile and pretty much bomb-proof. Burke, though, is committed to his particular tradition.

“I’m into making things by hand,” he says.

“I like the specialisation of this. Each bow is different from the last one and it’s tailormade to suit the specific requirements of an individual. I really like that idea. It’s a challenge. Rather than sitting here churning out bows all day and trying to sell them, it’s much nicer to have an individual in mind and make something tailor-made for them.”

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

The Violin Makers JAMES BEATLEY & MARK KEENAN “You’re making a hand-made instrument; it’s unique,” says James Beatley, a violin and cello maker from Dublin. While there are certain techniques for getting the results you’re after, Beatley says that the raw materials of the instrument dictate the fine details of the final product, and so the maker has to decide what approach to take, each and every time.

“Everything you do really has an effect,” he says. “No two pieces of wood are the same. You have to make judgements every time you’re making each single instrument. You have to make a call yourself.”

It’s this personal input into the process that can give an instrument the character that allows a musician to stand out from the crowd. While Beatley is quick to point out that “90 per cent of what you hear from these instruments is coming from the musician”, it’s that final 10 per

cent that can make all the difference to a professional player.

“Really good musicians will exploit the idiosyncrasies of the instrument, to their advantage,” says Mark Keenan, a violin maker from Dublin, who lives and works in Belmont, Co Offaly. “An instrument might be very easy to play, it might sound quite nice, but it mightn’t have the character that allows them to really push it to a new limit.”

Both Beatley and Keenan took up instrument making after years working in other trades. Beatley was a mechanical engineer for the ESB, while Keenan worked in the bar trade. Both studied at the Newark School of Violin Making in Lincoln, Nottinghamshire, and came back to Ireland to make instruments full time.

Beatley had been making instruments as a hobby for almost 20 years at that point, but Keenan discovered a family connection to the violin which spurred

him on. Keenan’s great-grandfather, Edward Keenan, started making violins sometime around the beginning of the 20th century, and developed a prizewinning reputation for his work. Almost a hundred years later, his descendent got his hands on one of the instruments.

“There were a couple of cousins of my father who had violins made by Edward, and I got the chance to see one or two of them,” he says. “Unfortunately one of those ladies died, and she left the violin to my father. He gave it to me and just seeing the craftsmanship, seeing that it was possible, that you really could make a violin, that got my interest going.”

As well as making new instruments, both Keenan and Beatley repair and sell older instruments. This has been an important part of their business, particularly over the last seven or eight years, as the market for expensive new commissions has tightened.

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Left: Mark Keenan.

The Harp Maker JAN MUYLLAERT Jan Muyllaert makes traditional Irish harps from his workshop just outside Navan. Muyllaert was born in Belgium, but moved to Ireland over 40 years ago. He had begun making guitars and mandolins for fun, but a chance meeting with a harpist in Gibstown who wanted a harp with more strings set him off on his unusual path. The Irish harp is quite different from the more common concert harp, with a different tension in the strings and a different overall shape to the body. The tone is softer, and Muyllaert says there are some practical differences too. “The child can carry it,” he says. “With the imports you usually need a good strong daddy and a four-wheel drive.” Muyllaert learned his trade through trial and error, as there is no school for harp-makers.

His approach to the work is a world away from the luthier workshops of Paris and Vienna. His harps are all hand-carved and assembled, but his most popular model, the “32 Counties” harp, launched only last year, competes on price with factory-made imports. Keeping overheads low, buying Irish wood and making many of the brass components himself has allowed him to set a very fair price for his work. “I would call myself a tradesman and an instrument maker; I don’t go for this name ‘luthier’,” he says. “I do a day’s work and I treat it as such. I know I’ve been given a good pair of hands and a brain to go with it to sort things out, but I’ve no illusions about myself being fantastic or anything. What I do I try to do well and do right and I charge a fair price for it; the rest can go to hell.” Muyllaert has hopes to open a school to teach harpmaking, if he can find the financial support to get it off the ground.

He mentions many of the craftsmen who started out around the same time as him, and most are either retired or have passed away. He hopes to have the opportunity to pass on an important traditional craft with a deeply practical edge. “I would train people to make harps for a living, not just for a hobby,” he says. “There’s a big difference. Design it from scratch, build it yourself and go home with a playable instrument. And be in a position to make harps for a living after that.”

“You’re looking at about four or five thousand at least for a violin and in the last seven years or so, there’s been a dearth of demand for instruments in that category,” says Keenan, who says that about one third of his work is retail, and even that sector is becoming more and more competitive. Students are always looking for the best deals, and professionals have a wealth of options to choose from.

“If people have a lot of money to spend on a violin, you can go around London, Paris, all the European cities and have your pick of hundreds of instruments,” says Beatley.

“Even locally, people who have a few grand to spend, they shop around and buy that way. It’s not really that often you get commissioned to make an instrument, it’s more that you have one made, they try it and say: ‘I like that, I’ll buy it’. That’s the way it goes.”

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

The Guitar Makers GEORGE LOWDEN & ROB O’REILLY

You’d never guess it, but George Lowden had to figure out how to make instruments by himself. When he started building guitars in the early ‘70s, there was no-one in the country to teach him. 41 years later, Lowden guitars are played by people like Paul Brady, Eric Clapton and Ed Sheeran, and the Lowden company employs some of the finest craftspeople on the island, as well as most of his family.

About a quarter of the Lowden staff are related to George, with his sons working in production and his daughter working as head of merchandise.

Lowden’s son-in-law, David Ausdahl, is a director of the company, which is currently undergoing a multi-year expansion plan. The Lowden workshop in Downpatrick, Co Down employs over 20 full-time staff who make around 700 guitars a year. Even so, they are at full capacity, with a waiting list of around 11 months. Ausdahl says they plan to take on an extra craftsperson every other month for the rest of the year, and hope to be hand-crafting close to 1,000 guitars a year by 2017. It is already, by some distance, the largest traditional instrument-making business on the island, and Ausdahl says that getting the company structure up to the same quality as the guitars has been his main concern as director. Their strategy seems to be working.

“We’re really trying to focus on that, on building the company to be strong, healthy, productive,” he says. “To provide jobs, but also to preserve an industry and to preserve fine hand-crafting skills that need to be preserved. That’s why we use the methods we use; much more timeintensive. It takes a lot longer to build instruments than if you’re building them other ways.”

Combining the hand-crafted appeal and quality of a luthier-made guitar with an increasing production schedule hasn’t been easy, but Ausdahl says it’s down to the skill and attention to detail of both Lowden himself and his team of craftspeople.

“Even for somebody with guitarbuilding experience, it takes a long time to get up to the Lowden standard,” he says. “It’s definitely a learning process, it’s an apprenticeship process which takes years to get up the right blend of standard and speed. We’ve got some folks

that are really passionate about building guitars and that really comes through.

That’s who we’re looking for when we’re hiring new folks.”

Lowden himself remains central to operations, training new employees and doing quality assurance work alongside the increased administrative workload.

However, he still receives personal commissions for guitars, and there is a several-year waiting list for one of his personal builds. He maintains a supply of master-grade tone-woods for these oneoff designs, and it’s clear that, as you’d expect for any maker, this is the work that gives him the greatest pleasure.

“I have plenty of motivation but not so much time and I plan to make a change to my role next year precisely to give myself more time for this,” he says. “That’s when I’m happiest – at my bench.”

It’s sometimes surprising how conservative the music industry can be, particularly when you realise that the dominant guitar models – acoustic and electric – haven’t fundamentally changed in decades. Rob O’Reilly, an electrical engineer and entrepreneur from Kerry, is out to change that. His instruments aren’t just strange and shiny new models, they are also intelligent synthesiser controllers, allowing a guitar

player to interact with music software and keyboard-based instruments without having to put down the guitar.

“There was never anything there that would give a guitarist the same level of control over a synthesizer as a keyboard player would have,” says O’Reilly. “That’s what we’re trying to achieve.”

O’Reilly has developed his own unique system for turning the actions of a guitar player into messages that can be understood by computers and synthesisers, something which many companies over the years have tried but few have successfully managed. The few similar technologies out there can cost several times what O’Reilly’s does, and none are as effective.

O’Reilly’s “smart fret” system, which picks up the notes being played and translates them into electronic information, has the potential to be a ground-breaking development, giving guitar players a whole new way of playing.

At the same time, the guitar remains a normal plug-and-play electric guitar, and this integrated dual-functionality is what really separates O’Reilly’s product from its few competitors. When it’s so simple, it’s easy to see how this technology could in time become a part of almost every guitar, so does O’Reilly see himself working with other, bigger manufacturers?

“Down the line, we might end up doing that if a decent manufacturer wanted to do that with us,” he says. “Initially we’re going to make sure that every guitar that has the thing in it is done really well, and that’s why we’re going to do the products ourselves and modify other guitars or manufacture other guitar designs that have the same thing in it.”

With a unique set of features, and a unique look, only time will tell whether guitar players take to O’Reilly’s guitars.

As he well knows, it’s not easy updating the classics.

“It’s a funny thing with guitars, people can really turn their nose up at you if they think you’re trying to do something other than what’s traditional,” he says.

“They’re very, very touchy. I mean, I love traditional guitars, but I’m just trying to do my own thing. Some people get it up in their nose if they think you’re trying to somehow take off traditional guitar or something like that.”

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23/06/2015 27/05/2015 12:02 14:06

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23/06/2015 16/06/2015 12:02 09:13

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Nova Broadband ANNOUNCE

major expansion plans

FOLLOWING €250K INVESTMENT The Cork-based broadband provider expects to complete its expansion

by July 2015, connecting new areas and creating over 20 jobs.

MUNSTER’S NUMBER 1-RATED broadband provider, Nova Broadband, has announced huge expansion plans, revealing that it will be expanding its scope across a large proportion of the country in the coming months.

Due to popular demand, the Corkbased company has invested heavily, over 250,000, into broadening its customer base beyond Munster and into areas such as Limerick, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Laois and Waterford in the first phase of its expansion throughout Ireland.

The expansion will mean that rural broadband customers, who have suffered for years with slow fixed-line, 3G and satellite broadband, unable to conduct business or enjoy online entertainment, will finally get relief and investment into their broadband service which to date has been ignored and extremely poor in many areas.

Speaking about the expansion, Managing Director of Nova Broadband, Dave Mc Donald says: “I started the business in 2004 when I saw the problems people in low-density rural areas were experiencing with poor broadband service.

“I knew I could provide an excellent broadband service for the people in those areas and so went on to set up Nova Broadband, which started off with just me, a one-man show. 11 years on, we are thriving and solving broadband problems for residential users right up to multinationals and are continuously growing at a rate we could not have predicted. We are going from strength to strength, achieving record months every month and doubledigit growth in the last three years.”

Dave continues: “As we have grown, so has our demand and so we feel now is the right time to broaden the service we offer outside of Munster. For years people

have been asking us when we are going to offer our service throughout Ireland, and now we are delighted to announce that we finally are. We are very excited about the expansion and looking forward to solving many people’s years-old problem of poor broadband service.”

The rollout of the first phase of the expansion is expected to be completed in July 2015 and once the expansion plans are complete it is expected that over 20 new jobs will be created.

To coincide with the expansion, Nova Broadband will embark on a roadshow up the country stopping in major towns, including Abbeyleix, Laois, Kilkenny, Clonmel, Urlingford, Thurles and Cashel, plus many more where they will be on hand to meet new customers and answer any questions.

To see when and where Nova Broadband will be available, or for further information, see www.novabroadband.ie. ● EAR TO THE GROUND 85

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23/06/2015 14:25

COVER STORY

Helen’s Battles BROADBAND

Ear To The Ground presenter Helen Carroll struck a chord when her story of broadband woes aired on the show: all over the country, families, farms and small businesses are placed at a disadvantage because they can’t get a reliable, fast internet connection. Helen talks to Ruraidh Conlon O’Reilly.

H

ere it is, folks: the 21st century. There’s unlimited entertainment available at the touch of a button. Skype and social media make loneliness a thing of the past. Wikipedia and a free mass media enable us to inform and educate ourselves better than ever before. And there’s a revolution in work too, with greater efficiency and mobility meaning we can work from home and finally find that work-life balance.

Sounds like nonsense, doesn’t it?

It certainly is for Helen Carroll. Like thousands upon thousands of people living outside the biggest towns and

cities, the Ear To The Ground presenter has found it impossible to get a foothold on the digital world in the most basic of ways: a reliable internet connection. And with more and more business being done online these days, it’s a problem with serious implications for agriculture, small business and family life.

Helen’s tale begins with a step she once thought she’d never take: returning to her native Kilkenny and setting up home near the picturesque village of Johnswell, north-east of Kilkenny city. “We started building 13 years ago and we moved in almost 11 years ago,” she recalls. “At the time when we were building, both

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COVER STORY

Eastenders, Holby City, Casualty and the BBC’s The Musketeers. “One of the reasons we moved to rural Co Kilkenny is that he had the kind of job where he could work from home. So he was gone full-time for almost a year working in Dublin, and a lot of that time he was prevented from working from home because of the lack of broadband.”

Helen and Peter aren’t the only ones in need of a good internet connection: the family also encompasses daughter Katie and young son Luke. “Now we’re at a stage where we have a teenage daughter who’s at secondary school and can’t complete a lot of her homework because we don’t have proper broadband. It’s a case of driving into Kilkenny city, sometimes sitting in a hotel, most times begging and borrowing broadband from various family members.

So it’s by no means ideal and we’re by no means unique: a lot of my neighbours and friends living around me are in a similar situation.”

“11 years ago were told we’d have fixedline Eircom broadband within two years of moving in. We’re still waiting!” of us worked from home: Peter is a screenwriter and writes for television, and I’m a freelance journalist. So it was vitally important that we have broadband. At the time when we inquired we were told we’d have fixed-line Eircom broadband within two years of moving in. We’re still waiting!

It hasn’t come.

“We’ve used a variety of different services, none of which are ideal, some of which are very expensive. So there did come a time last year when, because of Peter’s work, he could no longer work from home.” Husband Peter McKenna wrote recent TV3 crime drama Red Rock, not to mention his work on The Clinic,

ON THE AIR Unlike the neighbours, though, Helen is a presenter on a long-running RTÉ rural affairs TV show. So in January she went on air to talk about her experiences, met Minister for Communications Alex White and heard from businesses that have come up against a brick wall when they’ve tried to get online at this late stage.

The government’s answer to the impasse is the new National Broadband Plan, announced late last year (see map).

It pledges to deliver full connectivity to everyone within five years. “We met the minister and people within the department who have been charged with rolling out broadband. Yes, he said that he recognised that it is a basic utility. It’s no longer a luxury item: it’s not about Facebook or Netflix or anything like that.

It’s about doing basic day-to-day tasks.

The minister gave a commitment that every house in the country would have broadband by 2020. A cynic could say: “we’ve heard it before; let’s wait and see if it actually happens.”

CONNECTING COUNTRYSTYLE Helen began researching her piece from a personal point of view: rather than wait hours to upload 50mb of work, it has been quicker to get in her car and drive up to Dublin to deliver it in person. Then she cast around to find a company that shared her experiences.

“It was very easy to find a company that was struggling. I got in touch with our local Leader office and they said “there

you go. Choose from one of these!”

So Helen met CountryStyle foods in Kilmacow, on the north bank of the Suir – practically the southernmost tip of Kilkenny, with Waterford city in sight.

The firm produces pork products such as ham, bacon and rashers. “They could and should be able to have an online retail presence. But there’s no way they can now. The funny thing is that they have fixed-line Eircom broadband – what I would like to have! And on a rainy day the signal doesn’t work.

“They have a very basic website. There are no bells and whistles because they can’t do it properly: when we filmed with them we asked them to show us their website and they couldn’t even call it up because the service is so bad. They deal with a lot of large retailers so they have to fill out order forms, invoicing, stock control. As Managing Director Rory Williams told us when we were with him, it was frustrating and very time consuming – even as regards man-hours lost. Somebody sitting at a computer for hours doing something that should take ten minutes. For small businesses that’s just a price they can’t afford to pay.”

HIGH SPEED BROADBAND MAP 2016 The Government’s National Broadband Plan map: the vast areas in orange will require State intervention. This year has seen the announcement of new rural broadband projects from Eircom, Siro (an ESB/Vodafone partnership) and Nova Broadband.

NBP INTERVENTION AREA COVERED BY COMMERCIAL OPERATORS BY 2016

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ON THE FARM AND IN SCHOOL Those same frustrations surface at the source of the food that companies like CountryStyle produce: farms up and down the land. There’s a lot of hype these days about high-tech farming through connected sensors, apps, GPS tracking and suchlike. Not much of that is possible without a decent data connection, but many farmers would settle for something much more elementary at this stage.

“There is some activity like that: monitoring grass growth is a big thing that a lot of farmers are getting into, but I think the problem is more basic than that. It’s not about state-of-the-art apps or playing around with a new toy, it really is often about going online to do the very basic administrative work that farmers have to do, like dealing with the Department. In some places the service is that bad that the most basic work of inputting data and information is difficult.”

Meanwhile, the brand new state-ofthe-art primary school in Johnswell, the village near Helen’s house, was in the news recently because they were fitted with interactive whiteboards that couldn’t be used because – why else? – broadband wasn’t available. “The only way we got broadband was by kicking up a bit of a fuss, went on national radio on Newstalk, did a report on the school and a solution was found quite promptly. It’s a bit of a McGuyver solution, belts-and-braces

involving putting an aerial up on a neighbour’s house. It’s not ideal but it’s better than it was.”

A TEMPORARY SOLUTION Helen appreciates that there’s no overnight solution – but there are things that could be done right now. “An awful lot of people are using mobile broadband dongles. That’s not ideal, not consistent, it’s expensive and it’s limited. I would love to see some kind of interim solution: a temporary measure for a lot of people, such as making mobile broadband more affordable and less limited. Many people are coping with 15gb a month, which isn’t enough. It would be great to have something that could sustain us through the next five years while we’re waiting for a proper solution.

“It’s very much an issue of urban-rural divide. A lot of people living in cities – and not just Dubliners, it could be people living five miles from my front door – don’t realise how bad the service is in rural areas. There are times when I’m angry. I’m shouting things I shouldn’t be shouting at a computer! Frustration is the main feeling: I’m just trying to earn a living and I can’t.

“There’s a drive on to encourage people to stay living and working in rural areas.

So if you want people to do that and not emigrate or migrate to big cities, then you have to give them broadband. It’s the only way it will work.” ●

Knock-knock-knocking on Helen’s door Helen’s Ear To The Ground piece clearly struck a chord in January. “It got a huge reaction. I had people knocking on my front door and saying “have you tried suchand-such?” It’s amazing how many people share my frustrations; how many people were going through the same thing. A lot of people contacted me by email, I got texts saying they were in the same boat as me. Of all the reports I did this season, it definitely got the biggest response.”

So what about having everyone connected by 2020? “The way I look at is: that would be great, but it’s 2015 now so what do we do for the next five years?”

No doubt the more commercially viable areas will connected first. But the point she returns to is that sometimes the real importance of the internet can be lost among the hype around social media and entertainment. In fact, the knock-on effects can be serious for local communities.

“I’ve spoken to a lecturer in a university in the west of Ireland, who said there are a lot of students who no longer travel home at mid-term to various places in the north-west of Ireland because they can’t complete their college work there: they don’t have proper broadband. Think of the knock-on impact, if teenagers and people in their 20s aren’t going home to their small towns and villages at weekends.

They’re not spending money at home.”

Could Chinese technology connect Kilkenny?

In researching her story Helen contacted her local Leader office, whose CEO Declan Rice was more than willing to help: he knows all about local businesses trying, and failing, to get online. Investment will avoid rural Ireland and go to towns that have decent connectivity, he says.

ABOVE: 12 LEADER companies signed an agreement with the newly established Telecom Tua company (the Irish subsidiary of the parent Wuhan Vstar) in a ceremony in Kilmeague, County Kildare on February 2nd. Minister for Rural Affairs Ann Phelan attended the meeting that preceded the signing.

Pictured with her is Zhang Bo, Chairman of Wuhan Vstar.

Taking the initiative, Rice and 12 Leader companies became involved in an EU research project called Connecting Communities. Some contacts in the UK told him about a wireless-based technology that Chinese company Wuhan Vstar had developed and recently exported to Australia. “We made some contact, I was talking to them, and they initially talked about doing a pilot.”

Vstar reps arrived in January, went around the country for two weeks, and decided to do 13 pilot projects of at least 30Mb download and 10Mb upload speeds this summer, lasting three months or so. “Then if they work they’re talking about mainstreaming it and setting up a national system.

It’s a big deal and we’re really excited by it; it will be great. But in the end it won’t really be everything we want: we want security and futureproofing. To get that, you really have to talk about community ownership of fibre networks.”

And so Rice also takes inspiration from the north of England, where a community-owned fibre-tothe-home project is making waves. Broadband For the Rural North (B4RN, pronounced ‘Barn’) came about when a group of technical-minded people

came together and asked: “why don’t we just build it ourselves?”, he explains.

The high cost of digging broadband is usually based on using the public road and other complicated infrastructural snags. “But if a community can do this and use local farmers, use their equipment and use their land and have a deal where everybody gains from it, and make it a co-op, maybe it can work,” says Rice. B4RN put together an impressive business plan and tried, and failed, to get grants, resorting to community loans and service charges instead.

“They have been spectacularly successful. The banks that wouldn’t lend them money four years ago can see that this is going to work. Not only are they able to build and expand the system, they’re also talking about what they’re going to do with this excess money that they have: dividends, community halls, daycare or whatever else.” Now the EU, in the form of its DG Connect project, is enthusiastically promoting it, and a group of Leader companies are likely to pioneer things on this side of the Irish Sea: community-owned broadband systems could well become a reality.

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GAELTACHT BUSINESS

Staidéar Gnó

FOOD AND WORK IN THE GAELTACHT A combination of entrepreneurship, land, workforce and state support make the Gaeltacht regions a significant producer of artisan foods. Ian Maleney checks in with local producers.

I

reland’s Gaeltacht areas are home to some of the most beautiful scenery, and the most memorable people, the country can offer. Often, though, the natural beauty and unique heritage are offset by stories of emigration, unemployment and lack of services. The Irish language itself, while now an official language of the EU and present upon every public document, product and road-sign, has faced similar battles: loved for its character and its history but often maligned as useless, or simply forgotten, after one leaves school.

The traditional industries have changed relatively little over the years, with fishing and fish processing remaining of central importance to the Irish-speaking areas along the west coast. These days, they are joined by a strong tourism and service sector, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors. Operating between these two sectors are a host of smaller artisan food businesses. Údarás Na Gaeltachta is the semi-state organisation charged with preserving the Irish language and, with it, maintaining the population of the Gaeltacht. It seeks to do this by facilitating investment and job creation, with a strong focus on food and processing. For most new companies starting out in the Gaeltacht over the last 30 years, Údarás has been the first port of call for advice and support. Over 1,000 people are employed full-time in the Gaeltacht food sector by companies working with Údarás, and its investment in infrastructure, in terms of industrial and enterprise properties, has been vital in getting these businesses off the ground.

“The state, via Údarás, has invested in business infrastructure in the Gaeltacht because we’ve seen in the past that the private sector will not invest in an area that is so far west from Dublin,” says Siubhán Nic Grianna, communications manager at Údarás Na Gaeltachta. “When you’re focusing on the west of Ireland, I think there has to be state investment in business infrastructure in order to entice businesses to locate there because they can then lease those buildings. If their business is successful, they can usually buy those properties off Údarás, which is the model we’ve been working on.”

Having started out in a 30x10-foot Portacabin over 30 years ago, Mairin O’Lionaird of Folláin Preserves is hoping that their soon-to-be-built new facility in Baile Bhuirne in west Cork can attract people who are interested in seeing behind the curtain of food production. “We are building a new facility in which we will have a visitor centre, and a viewing gallery from where people can see the jam being made. We also hope to have a small cafe where visitors can try our products, and a shop where they may purchase anything that they like,” she says. “Over the years, we’ve done some school tours and third-level student tours. People are very interested in seeing how their food is made. We propose to use modern technology in our new facility whereby we can zoom in on the preparation of the fruit, the cooking, bottling, and labeling of the jars.” As native Irish speakers, both O’Lionaird and Gabriel Faherty (see page 92) have included the Irish language at the heart of their businesses. They say that it has made them more approachable, and more memorable, in shops and at fairs around the country. “My husband always used the Irish language when calling to supermarket buyers, and they remembered him because of it,” says O’Lionaird. “I suppose he used it as a point of difference, so that next time he would call they would remember him as the man who spoke Irish and they would try and use whatever cúpla focal they had themselves.” Both O’Lionaird and Faherty also stress the importance of training. As someone with little farming experience, training courses were vital to Faherty’s ability to start making goat’s cheese, while

FOLLÁIN PRESERVES

BAILE BHÚIRNE, WEST CORK

O’Lionaird says that Folláin place a huge emphasis on up-skilling their staff. “We are completely focused on the training of our workforce, and the development of their natural skills,” she says. “It generally means that they take pride in doing a good job for the company. We can then justify paying them a good salary as opposed to a minimum wage.” Siubhán Nic Grianna of Údarás echoes the sentiment, suggesting that the way Gaeltacht-based companies are embedded in their communities creates a stronger bond between employer and employee, meaning far less staff turnover than in other parts of the country.

These longer-term relationships naturally allow for the development of skills and expertise in ways that city-based companies might not. “I think the Gaeltacht is a place well suited to developing skills and training, and having worthwhile skilled jobs,” says O’Lionaird. “That is what we try to do, and will continue to do in our new facility. I think that it is in a skilled, and highly trained workforce that the Gaeltacht can excel.”

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GAELTACHT BUSINESS

SYNERCHI KOMBUCHA

GAOTH DOBHAIR, CO DONEGAL

CÁIS GABHAIR ÁRANN

INIS MÓR, CO GALWAY

One person who has availed of Údarás’s infrastructure is Laura Murphy, founder of SynerChi Kombucha, a healthy soft-drink made from fermented organic tea. After starting out in Dublin, Murphy moved SynerChi to Gaoth Dobhair in Donegal, taking up some of the space vacated by Largo Foods, the makers of Tayto, in the Údarás industrial park there. Raymond Coyle, the CEO of Largo Foods and an early investor in SynerChi, introduced Murphy to Údarás. SynerChi now employs four local people in the Gaoth Dobhair brewery, and has just begun to trade into the UK. “We looked at everything and it seemed that it was a perfect opportunity,” says Murphy. “I’ve got incredible staff up there.

My head brewer is a local guy, Seamie McGowan, he’s really talented. He trained with me and now he’s absolutely flying. I found a fantastic home in Gaoth Dobhair and the support that Údarás provided really was so key in making it all happen.

We hope to be adding to our plant, maybe even by next year, and just growing and growing. We’ve got the space to be able to do that up there, as in we’ll be able to afford to rent the space, so it offers huge benefits in that regard.”

Both Nic Grianna and Murphy point out that one of the main challenges facing a company located in the Gaeltacht is an increase in transport and haulage costs.

“The majority of the companies are all involved in exports, so you have to think of the cost of shipping something,” says Nic Grianna. “It might be a light product, but it may need an awful lot of transport space to carry. The haulage costs might be higher than other parts of the country, so all of that needs to be taken into consideration. Our focus is attracting niche food products that would probably have a high margin of return so that they can actually manage the higher costs that would be involved in the transport from the west of Ireland.”

Laura Murphy of SynerChi also highlights the importance of Carrickfinn Airport in Donegal to her work, particularly now as the business is expanding into the UK. Maintaining these kinds of transport links is vital, and Údarás themselves have a shareholding in the airport. Similarly, Gabriel Faherty of Cáis Gabhair Árann relies on the local ferry service to get his goat’s cheese from his farm on Inis Mór to the mainland.

“Finding a route to market wouldn’t be as easy because you have things like when the weather’s bad, the ferry might only leave the island three times a week,” he says. “I’ll bring it out myself and deliver it myself. I do a lot of deliveries myself.

I’m not big enough yet to go through a distributor. Personally I can’t see, for a small company, any use in giving away a third of what you make. Your margins are tight enough without having to give a third of it away to somebody who is going to deliver it for you, especially if you can do that yourself.”

Doing his own deliveries has seen Faherty slowly working his way into Galway and extending his business up and down the coast over the last two years. This expansion has been built on a strong core market on the Aran Islands themselves, making use of family connections along the way. While his mother-in-law uses the cheese in her cafe and restaurant on the island, his uncle-in-law harvests the Dillisk seaweed that lends the cheese its unique flavour. On the mainland, his father sometimes helps out with deliveries.

“We said we’d concentrate locally first, as local as we could,” he says. “It’s easy because it didn’t go into the logistics of getting it off the island or anything like that. The other two islands, when the Doolin ferry starts up and there’s also a plane that comes into the islands, I can get the cheese to them that way, quickly.

Then there’s the cargo boat to Galway. It’s a case of get the locals happy first, and we moved to Galway then.”

Before a conversation with the late Brian Lenihan sparked the idea of making goat’s cheese, Faherty spent 15 years working as a fisherman, and then ran historical tours on Inis Mór. He’s now looking at opportunities to integrate the tourism and the food production sides of his businesses with a visitors’ centre at the farm, where people can see the cheese being made.

“My vision for the future of it was that people would come over and we would do a cheese tasting and visit down to the goat farm, and run that in conjunction with the historical tour of the island as well; [a] little package,” he says. “People could come and see a hand-to-fork kind of thing: they could see where the goats were in the field, or in the shed if it was raining, and they could go in. It’s all behind glass; it’s transparent, as the man says. There’s a visitors’ centre and a walkway between the shed and the production areas so people can see the whole process; and how the whole process of cheese making goes, from milk to the finished product, can be explained to them.”

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LAW

LEASING AND FARM PARTNERSHIPS:

THE LAW With young farmers and expanding dairy setups on the lookout for additional land, partnerships and leasing deals are topical – but the law isn’t always straightforward.

Agricultural solicitor Aisling Meehan gets to grip with the ins and outs of leasing, partnership and tax law.

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W

ith the abolition of milk quotas and reform of the CAP system in 2015, farmers are looking to secure additional land in order to expand their farming enterprises. The Agri Taxation Review, which occurred last year, reported that further tax incentives were required to encourage more landowners to lease out their land long-term; these incentives were introduced in Budget 2015. Additionally, a range of incentives through CAP reform are being introduced to encourage more landowners to form registered farm partnerships.

Income Tax Leasing Exemption With effect from January 1st 2015, the amount of income that may be exempted under a qualifying long-term lease was increased. The exemption limits are as follows: n 40,000 where the qualifying lease is for 15 years or more n 30,000 where the qualifying lease is for ten but less than 15 years n 22,500 where the qualifying lease is for seven but less than ten years n 18,000 where the qualifying lease is for five or six years However, the rental income is subject to PRSI and the Universal Social Charge.

If the land is owned by more than one person such as a spouse, each joint owner is entitled to claim the exemption in their own right i.e. the exemption levels may be doubled.

Lease Agreement The IFA Master Lease document, which is available on the IFA website, may serve as a good starting point in discussing the terms of the lease with the farmer who is proposing to lease the land. The lease agreement between the parties will set out the amount of rent to be paid and when and how it is to be paid. Increasingly, landowners are insisting that rent be paid on a monthly basis in advance to a specified bank account by direct debit so that if a month’s rent is missed, the issue is flagged immediately rather than at the end of a year when a year’s free use of land has been availed of. The standard lease

agreement provides that if the rent due is in arrears for 21 days after becoming due, the landowner is entitled to re-enter the land and the lease will terminate and the landowner may follow the farmer for the rent owed.

The standard lease agreement provides for various covenants or promises from the farmer that he/she will look after the land such as keeping it in good and substantial repair, order and condition; maintaining hedges in stock-proof condition, and managing and cultivating and using the farm at all times in accordance with the rules of good husbandry. If the farmer does not comply with these promises, he/she is deemed to be in breach of the lease agreement and the landowner can re-enter the land and the lease agreement will come to an end.

Basic Payment Scheme Under the new BPS, the payment right can be transferred to the farmer, provided the landowner received a direct payment in 2013 and continues to meet the definition of an ‘active farmer’ in 2015 i.e. by retaining at least one hectare of land and one entitlement and making an application under the 2015 BPS. A Private Contract Clause form should be used where the landowner is leasing out land for a period that includes the 2015 scheme year and also wants to lease out the corresponding number of entitlements.

The entitlements that are leased to the farmer will revert back to the landowner on expiry of the lease. It is common for a farmer to pay back a landowner the value of his/her BPS as part of the rent and this payment will qualify as rent for the purposes of claiming the income tax lease exemption.

Succession and Capital Gains Tax Retirement Relief Landowners can be fearful about losing out on tax reliefs by leasing out the farm.

Capital gains tax (CGT) will arise where a farm is transferred/sold by the landowner during their lifetime. It does not arise if the land is left in a will. An important relief called CGT retirement relief can

“There are many benefits of having a registered farm partnership, including financial benefits offered by the Department of Agriculture to help encourage their development.” be availed of by the landowner to ensure that he/she pays little or no CGT at the time of transfer. In order to avail of CGT retirement relief, the landowner must be 55 years of age or over and own and farm the land for ten years prior to transfer.

If it is proposed to transfer the land to a child during a landowner’s lifetime, the landowner can lease out the land for up to 25 years and still claim CGT retirement relief provided the landowner owned and farmed the land for ten years prior to the first lease. If it is proposed to transfer/ sell the land to someone other than a child, the landowner can lease out the land for up to 25 years and still claim CGT retirement relief provided the landowner owned and farmed the land for ten years prior to the lease and each lease is for a minimum period of five years.

Registered Farm Partnerships There are many benefits of having a registered farm partnership, including financial benefits offered by the Department of Agriculture to help encourage and maintain the development of farm partnerships.

These benefits include the Support for Collaborative Farming Grant Scheme and preferential stock relief for registered farm partnerships (i.e. 100 per cent for EAR TO THE GROUND 95

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young trained farmers and 50 per cent as opposed to 25 per cent for other partners).

It is also envisaged that registered farm partnerships can avail of preferential treatment in the implementation of TAMS, GLAS, ANC and BPS whereby each partner will qualify in their own right for the maximum grant notwithstanding that the partners are farming through one entity being a registered farm partnership.

Partnerships are regarded as a good

“Partnerships are regarded as a good option to formally recognise the younger generation’s contribution to the farming enterprise where the parents are not quite ready to transfer.”

option in succession planning to formally recognise the younger generation’s contribution to the farming enterprise where the parents are not quite ready to transfer ownership of the farming assets to the younger generation.

Historically the only partnerships that qualified as registered farm partnerships were those relating to milk production partnerships (MPPs). However, the department has recently published new rules that will apply to all registered farm partnerships to include non-milk partnerships. These new rules will be given legal effect once the statutory instrument is signed by the minister in the coming weeks.

farm partnership entitles him/her to at least 20 per cent of the profit-sharing arrangement.

Other persons aside from those described in categories (i) and (ii) above, for example family members or a person who wishes to make an investment, may also be registered as participants in the partnership but will not have access in their own right to EU and State support scheme benefits that may accrue to the registered farm partnership.

There is a specimen Farm Partnership Agreement and On-Farm Agreement available on the Department of Agriculture website. The specimen Farm Partnership Agreement provides that land, BPS entitlements and milk supply rights are licensed by the owner to the partnership while stock and machinery are generally transferred by the owner to the partnership. The specimen agreement provides that should the partnership terminate the assets licensed to the partnership are automatically returned to the owner while the assets transferred to the partnership as partnership capital are repaid to the partners, with any surplus or deficit shared according to the profitsharing ratio.

The rules provide that the partnership agreement must cover a minimum term of five years, although an exemption from the minimum term can be sought in the case of force majeure or other duly justified cases. Further, the partners are obliged to submit all their agricultural holdings and farm assets to the farm partnership subject to limited exceptions such as lands leased out to another user.

The rules require the partnership to operate through a bank account opened in the name of the partners. While most partnerships operate through a common herd-number, the DVO can assign further herd numbers depending on where the partnership lands are located. An application form for registration of the farm partnership and further information in relation to the application are available on the Department of Agriculture website, www.agriculture.gov.ie.

New Rules for Registered Farm Partnerships In order to form a registered partnership, there must be at least two people, one person from category (i) below and one or more persons from categories (i) or (ii): i A farmer who has been farming in his or her own right for two years preceding the date on which the partnership is established; and ii A person with an appropriate agriculture qualification whose contribution to the

DISCLAIMER

This article is intended as a general guide only and professional advice should be sought in all cases.

This paper was compiled on the basis of information available on May 4th 2015. Whilst every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of information contained in this article, the author and/or Aisling Meehan, Agricultural Solicitors do not accept responsibility for errors or omissions howsoever arising.

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Swim with others, never alone.

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Swim with others, never alone.

4

3

2

3

Swim close and parallel to shore.

Avoid water filled holes, drains, containers.

5

Swim close and parallel to shore.

5

6Avoid water filled holes, drains, containers.

6 Don’t stay in the water too long.

Never swim out after drifting objects.

Supervise kids at all times.

7

safety tips

Supervise kids at all times.

7

8

Beware of hidden hazards and currents.

Beware of hidden hazards and currents.

Never swim out after drifting objects.

8

9

Don’t stay in the water too long.

9

Wear a Lifejacket when boating.

Wear a Lifejacket when boating.

Swim between the Lifeguard flags.

Swim between the Lifeguard flags.

REMEMBER THESE RULES • ENJOY YOURSELF • COME HOME SAFELY REMEMBER THESE RULES • ENJOY YOURSELF • COME HOME SAFELY

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Swim within your depth. Beware

Swim within your depth. of currents and Beware rip-tides. of currents and rip-tides.

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Do not use inflatables

Do not in use inflwater. atables open in open water.

SimpleRescues Rescues Simple

SHOUT–– SHOUT

call out, out,encourage encouragethem them shore call to to shore

REACH REACH––

with etcetc with clothing, clothing,branch, branch,

THROW THROW––

ringbuoy, rope, anything that ringbuoy, rope, anything that floats

floats

In A n Eme r ge ncy, Dial 112 o r 9 9 9

InInAAn n Eme r ge ncy, Dial Dial 112 112 or o r999 999 Emergency,

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www.ringbuoys.ie – report missing ringbuoys 29/06/2015 08/06/2015 10:57 14:53

ARTS

LIGHTS, C AMERA,

Offaly!

Oft-derided Offaly punches far above its weight in attracting lucrative film productions such as The Other Side Of Sleep and Pat Shortt’s Garage. It’s all thanks to the county’s natural beauty and pro-active film commission, as native Ian Maleney reports.

Emilie and Will.

I

reland is an extremely camerafriendly country. From hit TV shows like Game of Thrones and Vikings through to big-budget Hollywood movies like Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan and P.S. I Love You, there are few parts of the country that haven’t seen a film crew roll through at some stage, with all the glamour, employment and excitement they bring with them. For many productions, though, our dramatic coastlines and urban centres are the places to find stunning backdrops and bustling street scenes, while the midlands have too often been a place to drive through on the way. FilmOffaly, a film commission set up by Offaly County Council, has spent the last ten years putting an end to that injustice.

The initial spark for FilmOffaly appeared in the form of Pure Mule, a six-part series made for RTÉ and shot around west Offaly in 2004.

“We knew from the production company afterwards, after they’d done their wrap and all the rest, they calculated they’d spent 1 million in Banagher over the whole production time, from going down scouting locations right up to finishing,” says Sinead O’Reilly, the county’s arts officer and head of the FilmOffaly Commission.

“Using that as a catalyst, we went out and said: either we can sit back and wait for this to happen again, or we can get more proactive and make it happen again.”

The commission’s first major intervention in the industry was setting up an an-

Becoming Jane.

nual Bursary Award, in association with Filmbase in Dublin, to support the production of short films and documentaries in the county. Every year they receive over 100 scripts, which are eventually whittled down to a shortlist of just eight. The production teams behind the films are brought in for interviews, and the recipient of the 8,000 grant is picked shortly after. The first bursary was awarded in 2009, to Noreen, a short film about “two men who don’t have a clue”. The film was produced by El Zorrero Films, and directed by a then-unknown and inexperienced director named Domhnall Gleeson, who cast his dad, Brendan, and brother, Brian, in the lead roles.

“It really was a jammy kind of thing to happen,” says O’Reilly. “You couldn’t design that to happen, you couldn’t pay for that to happen. It was just one of those things. Even now, it’s the short that people talk most about which has come from here.”

A CULTURE OF SUPPORT Noreen was an auspicious start for the bursary, and the film went on to win the Best Short Film award at the Galway Film Fleadh, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the country. Since then, FilmOffaly have funded a further five short films through the bursary, as well as providing a knowledgeable, enthusiastic point of contact for dozens of productions, big and small, which have filmed in the county. Places like Donegal, Mayo and Kilkenny have followed suit, but FilmOffaly have tried to stay one step EAR TO THE GROUND 99

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ARTS

Pure Mule.

Noreen.

Terrible Beauty.

ahead. They’ve become regional officers for the Irish Film Board, and helped to develop the Offline Film Festival, which started within the council but has since grown into an independent festival in its own right. It now provides a platform for both local and national films that would rarely, if ever, make it into cinemas.

“We were developing this culture of supporting film, but we didn’t have a platform to show film,” says O’Reilly. “Offline is developing an audience for film; an appreciation for film.”

As well as providing a “vendor card” that allows production companies to avail of discounts from local businesses, FilmOffaly maintain an archive of thousands of photos from potential locations around the county and a database of local actors and crew. One such local was Sam Keeley, who landed his first ever acting role in The Other Side of Sleep in 2011, a dark drama directed by Rebecca Daly.

Keeley has since been working non-stop, lately appearing alongside Bradley Cooper in Monsters: Dark Continent, after a run in RTÉ’s steamy culinary series RAW. The Other Side of Sleep was also a success for its director, premiering as an official selection at Cannes and winning awards in Galway and Toronto. O’Reilly also points to the film as a prime example of FilmOffaly’s artist-led approach. Rather than prioritising the projects that best portray the county as a potential tourist attraction – at a time when tourism has

become so economically important to rural Ireland – their only concern is with the quality of film.

“Arts and culture were going to save the economy, save tourism, all these things, but that’s not why arts and culture are there – they have their own intrinsic value,” she says. “We aren’t using the arts as something instrumental for something else, we’re valuing it in itself. So we’re not doing it from a tourist perspective.”

NATURAL BEAUTY Of course getting the county on screen, whether in a romantic comedy or chilling drama, can only help to make people aware of its idiosyncratic beauty. O’Reilly calls the expansive boglands the county’s “unique feature”, used to such powerful effect in perhaps the most critically and commercially-successful Offaly-shot production, Lenny Abrahamson’s Garage starring Pat Shortt. The under-explored natural environment is something that has drawn Ruth Meehan, director of the 2012 Bursary-winning short Men & Women, back to Offaly time and again. Her first project in the area was a 2002 documentary for TG4 called An Slí Mór.

“Even then I was struck by the fact that, ten miles south of the Dublin road, there was this really gorgeous, peaceful, serene, kind of lush landscape,” says Meehan.

“It’s a very beautiful county; people don’t realise.”

Returning a decade later for Men &

“I was struck by the fact that, ten miles south of the Dublin road, there was this really gorgeous, peaceful, serene, kind of lush landscape.”

Women, Meehan was humbled by how supportive the local community were in the making of the film, with one farmer helping her to find a sheep she could stick in the back of a vintage VW Beetle, and a crowd of locals spending a day in a freezing cold town hall for the sake of a single scene. That sentiment was echoed by crew from several films made in the county, including Ciara Gillan, producer of Toy Soldiers, which won the Bursary Award in 2011.

“People were just so generous with their time,” she says. “We even got an ambulance at one point, because it was part of the story. I mean, getting an ambulance in Dublin for a short film would not be a possibility really. We had a Garda car and an ambulance, and they were very kind, they came down and gave us a couple of hours. It was just brilliant. It was a great experience, they were very kind and very generous.”

O’Reilly is deeply aware that the character and support of the local communities are key to the whole FilmOffaly enterprise, and she sees it as their duty to make film-makers aware of what is available for them within the county, and to facilitate the kind of relationships that enrich both sides.

“The last thing we want is for a group to leave and to go ‘Jesus, that was painful, and we got lost and nobody would return our phonecalls and we couldn’t get this or that’,” she says. “Bad news travels far quicker than good news, so we just try to make sure everyone leaves having had a good experience here. I don’t care if they’ve been in shooting for an hour, and they’re not two days out of [film school] IADT, it doesn’t matter. They’ll be back. If they’ve had a good experience, they’ll be back.” ●

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01168RO Aust IFA JournalQuarterPg.indd 1 15/04/2015 09:42

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26/06/2015 08:49

INTERVIEW

GOOD SCIENCE AND GOOD MANNERS

TALKING CLIMATE WITH TOM

Former Concern CEO Tom Arnold has a new role: guiding Ireland’s agricultural and environmental policy by drawing in all the key players for a series of talks and a report. He tells Ruraidh Conlon O’Reilly why he thinks climate-smart agriculture represents the way forward for the country – and for its farmers.

I

t seems, at this juncture, like there has been a lot of talking: through exhaustive UN summits, governmentbody initiatives and widespread media focus climate change is, at long last, one of the highest-profile issues in current affairs today. Now for action.

If only it were that simple.

Internationally, governments and blocs continue to position and prepare ahead of the landmark UN climate summit in Paris at the end of this year. Meanwhile, back at home the question is asked: despite a vast literature of international studies and reports, what should Irish agricultural policy be in the light of climate change?

That’s what former Concern CEO Tom Arnold is attempting to tease out with the Climate-Smart Agriculture Forum, a collaboration between his pro-EU Institute of International and European Affairs think-tank and the RDS. Launched

by Minister Simon Coveney in March, the aim is to bring together key players at the policy level, invite high-quality international thinkers to contribute, and provide a forum for discussion among

RIGHT: Tom Arnold outside the IIEA offices on North Great George’s Street, Dublin.

agriculturalists, environmentalists and anyone in between. He speaks of a need to “improve the quality of debate about this issue in Ireland”.

“These matters need to be discussed in, I would say, a more thorough way based on the best science that’s available. And the ultimate objective is to try to work towards what I described as a new Irish narrative for climate-smart agriculture. Because it’s a huge issue, and if Ireland could establish itself as a leader in both practice and policy in this area that could bring real benefit to the country both in its EU positioning and in its international positioning.”

What would this new Irish narrative look like? “I think it would be very much starting on the basis that we would be attempting to be leaders – real leaders – in the production of carbon-efficient food.

At the farm level there would be practices there which would be producing food in a more sustainable way, which would have

“This is an area which has been characterised at times by a degree of intolerant discussion... So when we were launching this I said it was going to be based on two principles: good science and good manners.”

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INTERVIEW

economic benefits for the farmer, and this whole ability to be seen to produce sustainability is increasingly an important competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

The context is unique, he says: Ireland has a particular challenge in that the proportion of our national emissions that are accounted for by agriculture is by a long distance the highest in the EU, and internationally the only real comparitor is New Zealand. Taking that into account in the rules of the game will be important if we’re to get anywhere. “But unless we have a very coherent national policy ourselves, and a convincing national policy which shows that we are really contributing, in our own small way, to dealing with this issue at global level, that’s the basis for securing a better understanding of the Irish position internationally,” he says.

The end-product of the forum will be a comprehensive report on Irish agriculture with the best up-to-date science, published in the first quarter of 2016, fingers crossed.

There will be no reinvention of the wheel: Arnold talks of a “pulling together” of the available science and applying it to Irish agriculture with the input of all involved.

INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT The idea of climate-smart agriculture has gained traction at international level over the past few years, and Arnold became aware of it from a developing-country point of view while working at Concern. After joining the IIEA he felt be could bring his

From farm to world stage

The recognisable Tom Arnold became a high-profile figure as head of Concern from 2001 to 2013, coming after stints in the Department of Agriculture and ACOT, the predecessor of Teagasc, when milk quotas were being introduced. His career always seems to involve food and nutrition in some respect – in fact, he was raised on a farm in Lusk, north County Dublin, was active in Macra na Feirme, and ascribes some of his career path to that background. “I actually worked at home on the farm for a few years before going to university. I probably figured that I would be better talking about it than actually doing it!”

He also had two relations, one a priest, the other a doctor, who both worked in Nigeria and would return home to share their experiences when he was young, a further formative influence. He worked with the European Commission just as Ireland joined the old EEC, and later worked in Africa for three years from 1977. “I suppose one of my earliest experiences would be that we had horses on the farm: two horses. This was before we had tractors. And what I have seen over the years is just this remarkable change in productivity that has happened.

Haymaking, for example, and how labour-intensive that was, turning it with a fork. I was mainly looking at my father and other people turning it with a fork, but that’s what I remember.”

“The question is how do you square some of these circles. And I think you have to do so by going back to very good science and being very honest about all of this.” experience and contacts to bear on the subject. “There was a sense that if we are to try to position Ireland in a leadership position it has to be on the basis that all the key players here are speaking the same language, moving their policies in broadly similar directions,” he says. “We felt that there was an opportunity if we provided a forum which was, if you like, a ‘safe space’ to debate some of these issues.

“This is an area which has been characterised at times by a degree of, I would say, maybe intolerant discussion of people who from their respective viewpoints were keener to press home those respective viewpoints rather than listen to other viewpoints. So when we were launching this on March 4th I said it was going to be based on two principles: good science and good manners.”

Has he met resistance? “No. I think we’ve been getting on very well. We’ve spoken to a lot of the key players and a number of them are already on board.”

Has he encountered climate change deniers at this level? “I haven’t, actually,

no. That’s been one of the positive things so far. I think everyone realises that it is a reality. There’s different perspectives on it.

“Clearly, from the agricultural lobby... they don’t deny that climate change exists but they say that more account needs to be taken of what they call food security issues, when these matters are debated. Whereas the people on, let’s call the environmental side, they are putting more stress on what happens if agriculture is to expand, there are potentially negative implications for emissions in this country. So the question is how do you square some of these circles.

And I think you have to do so by going back to very good science and being very honest about all of this.”

TOPLEVEL POLICY This is policy leadership, operating at a top level, so finding some mechanism to engage people at grassroots level will be important when it comes down to it. The argument may be that time and money are too tight to take the environment seriously on farms, something he says might be an initial starting point, but sustainability goes beyond just the environmental: there has to be recognition that it’s economic too.

He flags forestry as one potential area of focus: it may be a better use of land than low-productivity suckler cow farming, for instance. Debates like land usage, farmer demographics and land mobility might ruffle feathers along the way.

Throughout his career and upbringing (see left) Arnold witnessed a revolution in Irish agriculture – and sees that change as relevant to what’s now happening in the developing world, where poor countries are all characterised by having large agricultural populations.

Indeed, the developing world is where climate change will probably be felt most radically. In Ireland, “no matter what way the cat jumps, the climate issue is probably not going to be of what you might call existential importance to us: we’ll probably survive one way or the other.” But Bangladesh, for instance, has 160m people in a country one and a half times the size of Ireland and about a third of the land is effectively at sea level.

The clock is ticking, and so a year of thinking and talking will take place – and then at last, hopefully, a plan for action.

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SCIENCE

T

he normal day-to-day operations of an Irish farm can produce a wide variety of waste products, from tyres and engine oil to plastics and old chemical fertilisers. Those then can be recycled or are often reused.

Ireland has made great strides in this area in the past decade after lagging behind many of our counterparts. Most recently there has been a major initiative to collect hazardous waste materials from Irish farms. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been active in this regard, setting up waste collection points at ten strategic locations around the country.

DANGER HERE A typical Irish farm uses an increasing number of chemical products. These chemicals are safe when used and housed appropriately, but they could pose a serious threat to the environment or to a

Waste Not

WANT NOT

Dr John Bradley casts a scientist’s eye over what happens to our agricultural waste – and discovers innovative Irish projects involving bioplastics and shellfish byproducts.

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SCIENCE

farmer’s health if not stored or disposed of correctly.

One example is chemical fertilisers high in nitrogen and phosphorous. An uncontrolled release of fertilisers into a nearby water supply will result in the formation of algae blooms, rendering the water uninhabitable for fish.

Veterinary medicines and equipment such as anaesthetics, painkillers and syringe needles can also pose a risk to the farmer or his/her family. Each of these medications must be stored correctly and securely, and safely disposed of when no longer in use. EPA information is available to farmers on how and where to best dispose of these hazardous waste materials.

The establishment of hazardous waste collection points by the EPA took place in collaboration with Teagasc and local county councils. This is in accordance with the National Hazardous Waste Management Plan, 2014-2020, which aims to prevent waste, as well as reducing it. The plan was well received by Irish farmers, pleased to have a means for the safe disposal of their waste material.

“Overall, the production of bioplastic has a positive impact on the environment, while at the same time highlighting a high-tech and innovative home-grown industry.” vast amount of unusable waste material.

Incredibly, over six million tonnes of this waste material are produced worldwide every year.

The shells of these crustaceans are composed of a strong biological material called chitin. This material has some very desirable properties for the animal that produces it: it’s lightweight, but tough and durable. It is secreted from the skin of the animal, meaning each shell is custommade and fits perfectly. However, in terms of human consumption, chitin is a useless by-product of shellfish processing.

Despite this, modern biomolecular science provides an innovative use for this otherwise redundant by-product.

AQUACULTURE

REPROCESSING SHELLFISH WASTE

But it’s not just Irish farms that produce waste by-products. The Irish fishing industry is an essential source of income for our more remote communities.

For many, fishing is more than just a traditional way of life. It represents a thriving and important economic activity with revenues in excess of 850 million per annum. Exports from Ireland find their way as far afield as Russia and China.

Total revenue is expected to hit 1 billion by 2020 thanks, in part, to a recent 241m investment in the seafood sector, announced by Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, to stimulate jobs and develop the industry, as well as to win new contracts. There is also an emphasis on environmental impacts and conservation measures to help sustain and conserve this important industry for future generations.

Sales of shellfish account for 20 per cent of all seafood revenue, of which shrimp and crab are a significant part.

Currently, both shrimp and crab undergo processing to remove the edible meat from the inedible shell. This results in a

Errigal Bay, an Irish-based seafood processing company with plants in Donegal and Wexford, specialises in shellfish processing, with established markets in the US, UK, and Asia. In 2012 they teamed up with Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT), and with the help of EU funding began researching a better way to treat shellfish waste. The ChiBio project, as it’s known, was born.

This partnership between industry and academia set out to turn chitin into a useful and profitable product in its own right.

Thanks to advancements in modern biology, scientists at LYIT are working on turning chitin into a new product called Chitosan. Chitosan is obtained by chemically modifying chitin to obtain a unique biopolymer with fascinating characteristics. The most exciting properties of this product are its biomedical applications, where it is currently being used for everything from promoting bone growth, to wound dressings and even artificial skin.

“Shrimp and crab undergo processing to remove the edible meat from the inedible shell. Incredibly, over six million tonnes of this waste material are produced worldwide every year.”

Until recently, manufacturing Chitosan from chitin was expensive and environmentally damaging. But researchers at LYIT have been able to build on a growing body of scientific research in this area to make Chitosan production a cleaner and greener process. It’s all thanks to the applications of molecular biology to create genetically modified microbes capable of munching on chitin and generating Chitosan in the process.

Dr Catherine Lynch heads the research team working on the ChiBio project at LYIT, and believes that Chitosan production is important in terms of reducing the waste that Irish shell fishing produces. “The fishing industry creates a major source of biowaste in Europe. The legislation calls for marine biowastes to be disposed of in landfills. This is expensive and not environmentally friendly,” she says. Dr Lynch found the research both challenging and stimulating. As for her motivations, she says that “the major incentive was to use raw material that was considered waste and produce a valuable product such as Chitosan. The main challenge was to generate enough material for our EU partners to work with.” Thanks to the work of people like Dr Lynch, Ireland can expect to reap significant benefits from Chitosan in the future.

BIOPLASTICS Plastics are ubiquitous in every aspect of modern life, and farming is no exception.

From pesticide containers to fertiliser bags, Irish farmers dispose of 25,000 tonnes of waste plastics every year. Of all the plastics used, polyethylene (PE) is the most common, being used to make piping, chemical storage containers and agricultural films. However, as governments and businesses alike begin to appreciate that oil reserves are limited, is it now time to rethink how we make and use plastics. A young Irish company appropriately named Bioplastech aims to do exactly that.

Bioplastech aims to convert waste plastics into what is known as bioplastic.

By screening through hundreds of microbes found in local soil, Bioplastech struck gold, or rather plastic, when they identified a stain of bacteria called

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29/06/2015 11:03

29/06/2015 11:05

SCIENCE

“Sales of shellfish account for 20 per cent of all seafood revenue, of which shrimp and crab are a significant part... This results in a vast amount of unusable waste material.”

Secondly, traditional plastics are made using petroleum, which is derived from crude oil. With finite oil reserves it makes economic and environmental sense to use the vast amount of waste plastic already available for the production of bioplastic. This reduces the global demand on oil supplies. Finally, bioplastic is biodegradable, meaning it can be safely disposed of in landfills, or recycled as a starting material for more bioplastic.

Overall, the production of bioplastic has a positive impact on the environment, while at the same time highlighting a high-tech and innovative home-grown industry.

THE FUTURE OF WASTE DISPOSAL IN IRELAND

Pseudomonas putida. Headed by Dr Kevin O’Connor at UCD, the company’s scientists grow these bacteria under laboratory conditions using a special diet of glycerol and polyethylene. As the bacteria feed and grow they convert PE to a new biodegradable plastic called polyhydroxyalkanoate, or PHA for short.

Amazingly, research has shown that it is also possible to produce PHA from common-or-garden ryegrass, a plant that Ireland has in abundance.

It might seem counterintuitive to make bioplastic from existing plastic materials, but this strategy makes sense for three reasons. Firstly, there is an abundance of PE plastic. Currently this material is either sent to landfill sites or simply warehoused until it can be incinerated.

Both of these waste streams are harmful to the environment. By using PE to make bioplastics, the amount of harmful plastics being sent to landfill can be dramatically reduced.

Ireland’s enviroment is one of our most valuable assests. The Irish landscape is recognised worldwide for its breathtaking scenery and idyllic countryside.

As a nation we have worked the land and trawled the sea for generations, all the while maintaining the natural beauty of this unique land. The industrialisation of farming and fishing was necessary for Ireland to remain competitive and productive. We must continue to be mindful of our impact on the environment in the future, and build on a continued success in reducing and reusing waste materials. Clean waters and uncontaminated land are essential to our continued economic success as a country.

The education and industry sectors also have a role to play. Continued government investment in the biosciences will ensure that Ireland has the expertise required to drive innovative waste management solutions. Errigal Bay and Bioplastech are both great examples of what can happen when industry and universities work together.

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Forestry is an excellent source of income for farmers and a sound investment for all land owners with: • 100% planting grants available, • attractive annual forestry premiums, • income from thinning and clearfell, and is a valuable national asset, as: • an important national resource, • a raw material for industry, • a wildlife habitat, • a positive environmental factor (water & climate change), • a renewable energy source, • an important recreational resource.

For information, contact: The Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Johnstown Castle Estate, Co. Wexford or see: www.agriculture.gov.ie/forestry

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@agriculture_ie

29/06/2015 19/05/2015 11:28 15:53

Image Copyright: CatalystDNA.com

Forestry can create some wonderful landscapes

Cavan Burren Park, Cuilcagh Mountain, Cavan.

Ireland’s forests provide a renewable energy source and raw material for a range of products, while contributing significant social, economic and environmental benefits for all.

Coillte, Irelands national forestry company, delivers sustainable management of these forests and landscapes and preserves our shared natural heritage, such as the Cavan Burren Park.

Coillte. Trees are just the start of it.

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FORESTRY

Seed scheme OFFERS BROADLEAF BOOST

A new scheme has been announced to help conserve Irish oak woodlands.

A

t the recent national conference entitled What Shall We Do With Our Hardwoods?, Tom Hayes, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine with responsibility for forestry announced the launch of a Seed Stand and Seed Orchard Scheme. The conference was held to discuss the management and marketing challenges of growing hardwoods in a softwood culture.

In his keynote address Hayes said: “in the longer term, Ireland needs to reduce its dependency on imported seed and increase the supply of superior homeproduced genetic material which is well adapted and productive in the Irish environment”.

The state-funded scheme will provide financial support for existing seed stands registered on the National List of Basic Material and for the establishment of seed orchards, both indoor and outdoor.

The aim is to conserve and bolster Irish oak woodlands by increasing acorn production from these forests, increasing the supply of superior home-produced

seed to grow genetically improved trees for new planting and reforestation, and to provide breeding populations of designated broadleaf species.

The benefits of the scheme will include better resilience to the Irish climate, local pests and diseases as a result of capturing genetic adaptation in landraces; improved stem straightness and increased wood density leading to higher recovery rates and better quality wood; and enabling the continued improvement of the tree breeding programme.

The results of the Second National Forestry Inventory 2012 showed that broadleaved forests had increased to 25.8 per cent of national forest cover. The national target for broadleaf planting is 30 per cent and will be achieved through higher grant premiums for planting broadleaf species. There is also now a requirement to include 10 per cent broadleaves within all new afforestation projects.

The scheme falls under the Forestry Programme 2014-2020. The programme allows for 428 million of exchequer investment in forestry, 44,000ha of

forests, 700km of new forest roads, and includes the introduction of more native trees such as alder and oak.

The increased planting of broadleaves promotes bio-diversity and produces high-value hardwood timber for uses such as furniture, joinery and craftwork.

The premiums are also changing, which may prove attractive to landowners not previously involved in forestry – both farmers and non-farmers are eligible for the same premium rate paid after 15 years, instead of 20 years previously. The cost of afforestation is also covered by grants.

The programme also includes 20 per cent higher premium payments, five per cent higher afforestation grants and 14 per cent higher road grants.

NATIVE WOODLANDS Funding has also been set aside for 300-360ha of native woodland conservation per annum. This includes support for public and private landowners, and also for emergent native woodlands.

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POULTRY

Park Life Poultry producer Moy Park has recently hit an extraordinary milestone: it now produces five million birds every week, cementing its position as a leading player on the island and far beyond. UK and Ireland Director Alan Gibson talks about the past, present and future of the Northern Irish giant.

I

t’s one of Northern Ireland’s very biggest companies. They employ over 12,000 people there and in England, Holland and France. The group generates an annual revenue of £1.4bn.

In addition to their own well-known brand they supply KFC, Nando’s and McDonald’s. They even make the latter’s apple pies. They recently announced that they process five million chickens every week: vegetarians aside, there’s a very good chance you’ve eaten their chicken in the past year, whether you know it or not.

In short, Moy Park is an economic giant, and UK and Ireland Director Alan Gibson is our guide. “For us the strength of the brand is very much around the

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POULTRY

“I think it’s fair to say that when we were bought by a Brazilian company there was a great fear that there wouldn’t be a commitment to local, fresh agriculture... the reverse has happened.”

fact that we’ve been around for over 70 years; there’s a very strong focus on our provenance, our heritage, our expertise.

I’ve been in the business 28 years and I lead our UK and Ireland business.

“Being in the business 28 years I’ve experienced first-hand how the values of the business carry through right from our farmers the whole way through to our customers... It’s really all about trying to do the right thing and trying to build a really sustainable supply chain. We always try to do right by our farmers, our customers and our employees, and I guess having that philosophy has helped to underpin what we do.”

Needless to say, the company has

changed immensely in that time. Gibson joined in 1987 as a graduate trainee after a food science degree at Queen’s, and at that stage turnover was a mere £50m.

“I started in our Craigavon facility and I think we had something like 50 people.

Today there’s probably 1,400 people on that site. There are a lot of things that have changed, but there are a lot that haven’t”: the values and integrity have been a constant, he says.

He’s now under his third set of owners.

Back in 1987, Moy Park was a privatelyowned company with Trefor Campbell the main shareholder in a group of local businessmen who had bought the business from Courtaulds. The four sold to an American company, OSI (“they were able to invest and help get the company to the next stage”, as Gibson recalls), before they in turn sold to the Brazilian Marfrig group.

“They’ve been a tremendous support as well. I think it’s fair to say that when we were bought by a Brazilian company there was a great fear that there wouldn’t be a commitment to local, fresh agriculture, but I can say that the reverse has happened: they’ve really been supportive of us, as exemplified by this announcement of achieving the 5m chickens a week production. They’ve been really supportive of fresh, locally grown agriculture.

“We’ve had more investment in the last six years under Brazilian ownership than in the previous 20.” And they remain under Brazilian ownership: just as Ear To The Ground went to press it was announced that Marfrig has sold Moy Park to JBS, the world’s largest meat packer, in a deal worth $1.5 billion.

back 50 years in itself. Moy Park then rears the grandparent stock, producing parent stock and broiler birds – giving the company a fully traceable supply chain.

The company provides support to farmers to build new houses, which gives them the confidence to invest and produce seven flocks a year or so, depending upon specification.

“So they have a chance to get a sustainable, long-term return – I’m going to say reasonably predictable, although nothing in agriculture is ever truly predictable. But we believe that for many of our farmers it gives them a nice way to diversify from dairy and beef, and it complements what they may be doing on the home farm. Maybe if there are grownup children coming back to the farm, they will invest in one or two houses to get started. It allows them to stay on the home farm and again to get a return and then they can expand to four or six houses.

“So for us it’s about long-term partnership with our farmers, and it’s very much a synergistic relationship where there’s clearly an interdependency to

ON THE FARM Those five million chickens per week have to come from somewhere: namely 800 farmers, of whom 600 are in Northern Ireland. “Farming is very much at the heart of our business,” Gibson says, and it’s underpinned by what he describes as a “unique” business model involving three generations of chickens.

Grandparent day-old chicks are sourced from Aviagen, a relationship that goes EAR TO THE GROUND 115

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POULTRY

Factory facts Until the JBS deal was announced, Moy Park was part of Marfrig Global Foods and led Marfrig’s entire European operations from its headquarters in Craigavon, Co Armagh. Today, Moy Park has grown to four production facilities in Ireland. Two primary chicken plants produce fresh chicken: one in Dungannon, which is just undergoing a £20m investment, and one in Ballymena, which used to be the former O’Kane’s work together for the long term.” At a recent trade show farmers showed huge interest in signing up, he says.

A FEATHERY FUTURE Headed by Northern Ireland Businesswoman of the Year Janet McCollum, exponential growth means that the company has clearly outperformed many if not all of its competitors.

Gibson offers a few pointers as to why: it has invested above market rates in the business for many years, and consumers have undertaken a move towards fresh, locally sourced food. He describes Moy Park as a “top-quality consumer serviceorientated business” that spends a lot of time doing consumer insight work, figuring out what shoppers are looking for.

Reducing risk and maximising control are further factors, including animal welfare measures. “We actually have a saying: ‘if we look after a chicken, the chicken will look after us’,” he says.

So what does the future hold?

Continued growth, albeit sustainable and in line with what the market can bear. An expansion programme will see 250 new poultry houses constructed in Northern Ireland. The £20m Dungannon investment (see panel) will take the plant’s kill capacity up to about 2.2m birds per week. The aim is to go

from 5m birds per week to 6m birds.

“That would be our stated ambition; that’s well known in the markets and when our parent company talks to the market and talks to its investors,” Gibson acknowledges: they should be at that 6m point in two years’ time.

“So I guess we’re always looking beyond that – but what’s beyond 6m? I think like all these things it’s a journey.

I’m a great believer: if we do the right things, then I believe that we will continue to sell an increasing volume of high-quality product into the market and I feel very optimistic about that.

“It’s probably worth making the point: chicken is one of the healthiest proteins – together with turkey,” he says.

“Health is going to continue to be really important to consumers in the future, and I think the fact that chicken is such good value for money and it is very sustainable in terms of feed conversion – it takes less kilogrammes of feed to produce a kilogramme of finished weight of meat – means that the outlook for poultry production is very strong.

“And with that in mind we believe that as the population grows, as the demand for healthy foods increases, and the demand for convenient products increases, we will have to invest today and plan to meet the future needs of customers and consumers.”

poultry factory, a well-known brand that was bought in 2010 and is a substantial producer of Christmas turkeys. There’s also a breaded and ready-to-eat facility in Craigavon, and Walsh Family Foods in Finglas on Dublin’s Northside produces products such as the famous Spice Burger.

McLarnons Feeds, three broiler hatcheries, and a parent hatchery complete the roster in Northern Ireland.

“For many of our farmers it gives them a nice way to diversify from dairy and beef... Maybe if there are grown-up children coming back to the farm, they will invest in one or two houses.”

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SMART FARMING

Concentrating on

COSTS

Conor Forrest speaks with the IFA’s Environment and Rural Affairs Chairman Harold Kingston to discover more about how Irish farmers can cut their costs through efficiency.

O

ver the course of the past decade the cost of farming has increased by a staggering 50 per cent, rising from e3.2 billion to e4.9bn, while the cost of products and inputs has also increased.

As the representative body for many Irish farmers, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has long held the issue of reducing such costs and improving farm incomes at the centre of its activities, and maintains that every one per cent reduction in inputs will lead to savings of e49 million for the agricultural sector.

It was against this backdrop, and that of a global recession and uncertain times in some sectors of agriculture, that the organisation introduced the Smart Farming programme, an initiative that focuses on ways in which farmers can reduce costs through resource management in eight key areas: feed, grassland, water, inputs, time management, soil fertility, machinery management and energy use.

“We are always looking at any ways in which farmers can improve their income.

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SMART FARMING

“The focus is not only on how much money each farming enterprise can save – there’s an environmental aspect to the programme too.” incomes and benefit the environment at the same time, based on the Teagasc Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MCAC) that examines the best-value ways of getting a return on reducing emissions, etc,” explains Harold Kingston, the IFA’s Environment and Rural Affairs Chairman and Smart Farming champion. Though the programme is helmed by the IFA, it brings together the resources and know-how of a number of stakeholders including Teagasc, the Fertiliser Association of Ireland, the EPA, UCD and others. “We decided to pull together all of the resources into one place, looking at all of the various elements that go together in running a farm,” Kingston adds.

FINANCIAL FOCUS Choosing to walk before it could run, the Smart Farming programme began in 2013 with six pilot studies on Irish farms, resulting in average savings of 5,000.

In 2014 the scheme moved to recruit participants from the discussion groups, with 30 taking part. Average savings per farm rose to 6,600, and the aim for 2015 is to ensure a minimum savings figure of 5,000. “The savings are quite significant, but the one thing to be aware of is that it’s not simply the case that you’re going to automatically make money by following the steps. There’s an investment involved in some aspects, water use in particular; there may be an investment required for water troughs or pipes,” Kingston explains.

The focus, however, is not only on how much money each farming enterprise can save – there’s an environmental aspect to the programme too. Measures adopted by farmers who participate in the programme will lead to better fertiliser applications, reduced energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions, less risk of runoff and extended grass grazing.

Nor is it about taking huge steps that will radically transform the way in which you farm – Smart Farming is about getting the basics right. “There’s no major, fancy technology in a lot of this – much of it is using the correct lightbulb, the right amount of fertiliser in the right place. In some cases it might be actually using more fertiliser because the soil index is too low. It’s not necessarily cutting back on resources, it’s about using your resources properly,” says Kingston.

Andrew McHugh, a farmer from Longford, is one of those farmers who took part in the programme via the discussion groups in 2014. Farming 170 dairy cows, he found the project beneficial. “Going through the process was very useful in making you think as to exactly what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, how you can do things more efficiently or where you can save costs or get more out of what you’re putting in,” he explains. “When you get someone else to look at your farm from the outside, they will always see things that you don’t notice. It’s the same when you walk into someone else’s farm,

you’ll notice things that the farmer might not have noticed. It can only be of benefit; there’s no downside to it.”

RESPONSE Two years into the programme, Kingston is quite happy with its progress and the response from all sectors of the agricultural community. “It has been very positive. Initially people were wondering if we were going to be competing with Teagasc but that was never the intention,” he says. “The intention here was to make use of the existing information and to simply provide another way by which we could get information to people.

We’ve had a positive response from the legislative and environmental sides also.

All in all it’s working very well.”

And, while the programme has sufficient numbers signed up for 2015 (though there may be one or two spaces for those involved in a discussion group), if you’re searching for this information you don’t have to wait – everything is available on www.smartfarming.ie or via the IFA’s iFarm app for mobile devices.

“Not everything might apply to every farm but there may be some items that you could use. It’s all there and is easy to access and it would be worth your while to take a look. It’s about getting the basics right and focusing on what will save you money, possibly help you to make a bit more and also have an environmental benefit at the same time,” says Kingston.

Though some aspects of the programme represent a more long-term effort, Andrew McHugh’s farm has already seen the implementation of cost-saving measures.

For example, he has added more plates to the pipe cooler in his milking parlour and so will save on electricity costs. There have also been other simple changes like checking the feeders in the milking parlour, as well as water troughs and their flow rate. “To sort out problems like that can mean a big difference in yields,” he says. “It’s good to make you focus on those things you may be a little weaker on. It’ll be this coming year that, hopefully, it will make a difference.”

“If you’re looking for this information you’ll find it on www. smartfarming.ie or you can access it through the IFA-sponsored iFarm app.”

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29/06/2015 11:11 11:07

LAND MOBILITY

NEXT GENERATION INTRODUCING THE

With exciting opportunities ahead for young farmers, Conor Forrest speaks with Austin Finn of the Macra na Feirme Land Mobility Service about helping the next generation get all-important access to land.

T

here is no doubt that these are exciting times for young farmers.

The agricultural environment has witnessed the abolition of milk quotas, the introduction of EU payment top-ups and the National Reserve for young, trained farmers, and support structures like Macra na Feirme’s Land Mobility Service. It is clear that for the first time in perhaps 30 years, real opportunities are there to be grasped by young people interested in pursuing farming as a career and way of life, regardless of whether they own land or not.

That’s the strong opinion of Austin Finn, Programme Manager with the Land Mobility Service, an expert support service founded with the aim of linking these young farmers with land to ensure their prosperity, accomplished by brokering arrangements between landowners and young farmers. The service is based on a tradition that has long been a part of rural Ireland – collaboration – whether in terms of co-operatives or farmers helping one another during the harvest. “Going ahead, the new quotas are going to be available land and skilled labour – young, trained and skilled farmers. They have to be able to access the land,” Finn explains.

These arrangements deliver for both parties, representing excellent opportunities for all – land for the young farmer and maximising potential for the landowner, increased leisure time, reduced stress, reduced risk of investment, greater efficiency, and more.

Finn gives the example of a recent visit he made to two farmers in Waterford, one a highly skilled young dairy farmer in his thirties who was milking 80 cows under quota, with good grassland management and high milk solids per cow and per hectare. His neighbour is a beef farmer in his fifties.

“What they are doing is setting up a shared arrangement where the neighbour is allowing him to use his land and facilities, doubling the younger farmer’s grazing block. I’d say that the intention is that he will go from 80 cows to perhaps 200 or so in three years time,” says Finn.

“In this case it’s a win-win for both sides: the younger farmer can develop his skills and his farm business while the landowner will receive some income benefit. That’s an ideal example of what we’re trying to do.”

The service has been running for the past year and a half and while it is something of a slow burner, Finn points towards a growing momentum. “What has surprised and is continuing to surprise us is the level of acceptance that is out there.

People want to engage with the service.

When we first started out we thought [the issue would be] getting the landowners to engage, but that hasn’t been the case – 43 per cent of our clients are actually landowners looking at their options. It doesn’t always work out for some, but in most cases we are able to do it. It’s an exciting area and it is definitely gaining in momentum.”

“The new quotas are going to be available land and skilled labour – young, trained and skilled farmers. They have to be able to access the land.”

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23/06/2015 12:37

CAREERS

OPTIONS OPEN There are several options and specialties open to vets: you can specialise in particular branches of medicine such as equine, zoological, or food hygiene. You could develop a career in research, teaching, academia, research institutes or pharmaceutical companies. Vets today also play an important role in the protection of public health, in research into diseases and in areas such as conservation and wildlife protection.

CAREER

Clinic For thousands of people, this summer will be a season of awaiting exam results, pondering options – or even considering a change of career. Are you thinking about becoming a vet?

Here’s what to expect.

HOW MUCH? Newly qualified vets are paid around €35,000 a year. More senior veterinary surgeons typically earn €50,000 to €60,000, though this can rise to around €110,000 a year.

AFTER YOU GRADUATE

V

ets, or doctors of veterinary medicine, are medical professionals responsible for the care, treatment and protection of the health of animals.

They also advise pet and livestock owners about proper care for their animals.

It’s an increasingly diverse career – the day-to-day role of a city vet is very different to the role of a vet in a zoo or a rural location. Vets can be involved in agriculture and safe food production, environmental protection, wildlife conservation, biomedical research and disease control. It’s not an easy career path, but it is a rewarding one.

Lots of points

The good news is that there is almost full employment for vets in Ireland. Most graduates work in clinical practice but increasing numbers pursue research in the public service or private sector.

THE COURSE Veterinary Medicine in UCD is the only undergraduate course of its kind in Ireland. It takes five years to complete. UCD also offers a fouryear graduate course to those with a 2.2 honours degree in biological, biomedical or animal sciences or a master’s or PhD in a relevant area.

THE LEAVING CERT It’s not easy to get into veterinary medicine. Last year 575 points were required for the course in UCD and not all applicants with this result were offered a place.

VETERINARY NURSING Another career option for people interested in animal health and welfare is veterinary nursing.

Veterinary nurses play an important part in the running of modern veterinary practices, from advisory roles in animal husbandry, to laboratory analysis, medical treatment, minor surgery as well as practice and stock management. Veterinary nursing is a registered profession and can only be practised by those holding qualifications recognised by the Veterinary Council of Ireland. The following institutions offer accredited courses: UCD BSc, Athlone IT, St John’s Central College, Dundalk IT, Letterkenny IT.

BEFORE YOU APPLY Applicants for veterinary medicine are recommended to get a few weeks’ work experience with animals on a farm, in a practice or an animal shelter. This is likely to become a requirement for application from 2017. It’s also a good way to ensure you’re making the right choice.

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Michael Doyle, Head of Agri Business at Zurich Insurance; 2014 Farmer of the Year Kevin Nolan; and Managing Director of Sparrow Insurances Michael Sparrow check out Zurich’s new Farm App.

Farm insurance A SMART MOVE AS

Zurich

MAKES PROGRESS Michael Doyle, Head of Agri Business with Zurich Insurance, talks about the progress the company has made since entering into the farm market in Ireland in 2012.

ZURICH IS ONE OF IRELAND’S LEADING INSURANCE COMPANIES, offering a wide range of products including private motor, home, commercial property and professional indemnity cover. In 2012 it entered the farm market in Ireland, having already insured farmers worldwide for more than 30 years. Its success over the past two years has proved that this expansion into agribusiness was a smart move.

Since launching, the insurer has

significantly grown its market share by working closely with brokers and agriculture organisations to ensure it understands the specific risk management needs of farmers and delivers products to provide them with the peace of mind they’re looking for from their insurer.

With a focus on quality that the global insurance giant has a reputation for, Zurich’s Farm Protection Insurance enables brokers to tailor-make a single

insurance policy to protect Ireland’s farmers’ assets, including their home, farm property, equipment, vehicles and livestock, as well as providing public, product and employers’ liability cover.

According to Michael Doyle, Head of Zurich’s Agri Business and himself from a long line of Irish farmers, “It’s been a tremendous two years: we’ve made great progress in terms of establishing ourselves among Ireland’s farmers and we believe EAR TO THE GROUND 125

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

it’s because of our total focus on creating the same reputation for our farm product as we have for our other more established lines of business here in Ireland, such as home and motor.”

SUPPORTING AGRICULTURE To build its name among Ireland’s farmers, Zurich has strengthened its support for major agricultural events. Last year, the company sponsored its first Farmer of the Year competition in association with the Irish Independent, won by Carlow tillage farmer Kevin Nolan.

So successful was it in raising Zurich’s awareness among the agricultural community that the sponsorship has been renewed again for 2015 and the search for Kevin’s successor is well under way. The “long list” of 50 farmers was published by the Irish Independent recently, ahead of a rigorous process to reduce it down to a shortlist for each of the competition’s eight categories. The finalists are in with a chance to win a share of the 25,000 prize fund, with the overall winner walking away with 6,500.

This year, perhaps fittingly given Zurich’s reputation for their focus on helping customers identify and protect themselves from risk, a special section has been developed to highlight farms

Photo: Roger Jones.

that are paying particular attention to safety.

Michael attributes Zurich’s early success in gaining market share to a number of factors. “In addition to raising awareness of our brand directly among farmers through our ongoing support for these major events, we’ve done a lot to develop relationships with

brokers who work with farmers to find the right insurer for them. We’ve gained their trust by showing we understand the needs of farmers and are ready to provide the right products to help them understand and more effectively manage their risks. That relationship with the broker is important.

“Our partnership with organisations like the ICMSA with Campion Insurance and the ICSA with Sparrow Insurances at the Ploughing Championships, where last year, together with the Irish Independent, we gave away a tractor worth over 64,000 to young Moate beef farmer Michael Martin, shows our support for and commitment to the agricultural community.

“In addition to these larger-scale events, we’ve also run smaller focus groups. These meetings are an important part of the way we do business. Talking, face to face, with Ireland’s farmers gives us an opportunity to listen and learn from them, to hear about what their challenges and issues are, what matters to them when it comes to insurance, what they’re looking for in an insurer and what they need when selecting the right policy.

These insights really help us to make sure that our products and services continue to be valued by them and meet their needs.”

The launch of the Zurich Farming Independent Farmer of the Year Awards 2015. (L-R): Darragh McCullough, Assistant Editor, Farming Independent; Kevin Nolan, Farmer of the Year 2014; Simon Coveney TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food, the Marine and Defence; Michael Doyle, Head of Agri Business, Zurich Insurance.

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“We worked closely with brokers to develop a tool specifically for our farm market which is not only easy to navigate around but is actually as useful as we intended it to be.”

Photo: Roger Jones.

GLOBALLY STRONG He also believes that the fact that Zurich is part of a worldwide, financially strong and secure group established over 140 years ago is an advantage. Following the very public collapse of insurer Setanta last year, which left a reported 75,000 motorists with no cover and uncertainty around new or existing claims, Michael is convinced that customers are now more alert to the need to make sure that their insurer, whatever type of product they’re buying, is financially strong.

“With so many other challenges facing them every day, the last thing farmers need is to worry about whether their insurer is going to be there when they need help”, said Michael. “Farmers need to know that we’re going to be around in the long term. We have a great advantage in that although we’re firmly part of Ireland and have been for a very long time, employing almost 400 people across Dublin and our recently expanded operation in Wexford, we can offer the peace of mind that dealing with a longestablished, financially strong global organisation provides.”

Zurich’s financial strength was demonstrated when, following the wind storms in February last year, the company paid out around 2,000,000 to farming customers in Ireland, helping them get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

FARM APP In addition to the financial support for agricultural events, the company has also been investing heavily in new technology to support its agri business.

It has just launched its Farm App, which will make it even easier for brokers to take farmers through the products and

services that Zurich has to offer in a faster and more straightforward way. With a farmer’s time a precious commodity, the app will provide instant quotes based on each farmer’s specific needs, allowing customers to choose the level of coverage required and, if the farmer is happy with the product and price, the coverage can be bound literally out in the field using a broker’s wireless tablet device.

“We’re delighted with the new app,” said Michael. “We worked closely with brokers to develop a tool specifically for our farm market which is not only easy to

navigate around but is actually as useful as we intended it to be.”

Looking to the future, Zurich has clear ambitions to grow its reputation and market share in the agri business still further. “We’re excited by the progress we’ve made after just two and a half years,” says Michael, “but this is just the beginning. Times continue to be challenging for Ireland’s farmers but we plan on being there, right by their side, to repay the support they’ve shown us and the trust they’ve placed in us when buying our products.” ●

Photo: Roger Jones.

The Zurich Farm App will help the broker to guide farming customers in making the right insurance choices.

Zurich’s innovative new Farm App.

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23/06/2015 12:39 09:39

COMPETITION TIME

WORETRH OV

I

conic craft studio Jerpoint Glass have introduced a new blue hue to their summer collection. To celebrate, the Irish handmade glassware studio have offered one lucky Ear to The Ground reader a chance to win a bespoke set of handcrafted jugs in their new shade of ‘Cornflower’ blue. For almost 40 years Kathleen and Keith Leadbetter have created a unique collection of handmade glassware from the family-run craft studio in Co Kilkenny. As Ireland’s only glassblowing studio to use traditional 2,000-year-old techniques to create a full range of table-top glassware, Jerpoint pieces are instantly recognisable to those with an eye for design and craft. The vibrant use of colour and individual character of the pieces exudes from each of their handmade creations.

The collections combine everyday functionality for modern homes with great design and craftsmanship.

Located in the heart of the Kilkenny countryside, yet just 15 minutes from the city centre, visitors are invited to come to the glassblowing studio and gallery-shop to witness the glassblowers creating the handcrafted pieces right before their eyes!

W: www.jerpointglass.com T: @JerpointGlass PH: +353 56 7724350

€110

Win!

A SET OF JERPOINT GLASS HANDCRAFTED JUGS

To be in with a chance of winning a bespoke set of handcrafted Jerpoint Glass jugs, simply email ETTGcompetitions@ashvillemediagroup.com with your name, contact details and answer to the following question:

In what county is Jerpoint? a) Waterford b) Tipperary c) Kilkenny Closing date: September 1st. Competition not open to employees of Ashville Media Group or Jerpoint Glass. No cash or gift card will be awarded in lieu of prize. Winner will be selected at random.

Competition entrants must be resident on the island of Ireland. One entry per person. Usual terms and conditions apply.

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COMPETITION TIME

Win!

DINNER AND A NIGHT AT THE OLDE POST INN

To be in with a chance of winning a fantastic dinner and one-night stay for two at The Olde Post Inn, simply email ETTGcompetitions@ashvillemediagroup.com with your name, contact details and answer to the following question:

Who is the head chef and owner of The Olde Post Inn? a) Gearoid Lynch b) Jack Lynch c) David Lynch

L

ess than an hour from Dublin and just minutes from Cavan town, head chef and owner Gearoid Lynch runs the highly regarded and award-winning fine-dining restaurant and guest house The Olde Post Inn alongside his wife Tara.

Renowned for its fine food, genuine hospitality and luxurious surroundings, The Olde Post Inn is steadfastly becoming one of Ireland’s favourite fine-dining venues. Ideally nestled in the picturesque hamlet of Cloverhill, Co Cavan, diners and guests can relax in the authentic surroundings soaking up the atmosphere of the Old Post building which dates back to the 1800s.

Gearoid is passionate about genuinely championing local food producers and the majority of produce used in the restaurant is sourced from within a ten-mile radius of the restaurant such as Paddy Gaynor’s Cavan beef, Tamworth bacon, Silke Cropp’s Corleggy goat’s cheese, Felix Cropp’s spring lamb, Eamon Hand’s 100 per cent pure Irish honey and specially grown fruit, vegetables and salad leaves.

The establishment has received numerous awards; notably the Georgina Campbell Jameson Guide Newcomer of the Year 2004, Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Stay, Bridgestone 100 Best Places to Dine, Georgina Campbell Jameson Guide Most Atmospheric Restaurant 2012, and Hospitality Ireland’s Best Fine Dining Restaurant in 2012.

Guests and diners can enjoy specially created Taste of Cavan menus, private dining rooms and overnight accommodation in the original part of the postmaster’s residence.

See www.theoldepostinn.com / +353 (0) 47 55555 / @OldePost

Closing date: September 1st. Competition not open to employees of Ashville Media Group or The Olde Post Inn. No cash or gift card will be awarded in lieu of prize. Winner will be selected at random.

Competition entrants must be resident on the island of Ireland. One entry per person. Usual terms and conditions apply.

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Supporting:

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FOOD,

Lifestyle & ART

I

n their own fields, Emmet Kane and John Carlos have quietly produced very different bodies of work that both have something to say about the land and about nature. Kane, a wood turner, and Carlos, a photographer, are at retrospective stages of their long careers, one with an exhibition and the other having published a book – and as these images suggest, both are admirable achievements.

RosĂŠ veal Wood turning Photography Hen harriers Bats

135 140 147 154 158

Edible insects Free from Recipes Fashion Motoring

163 164 166 173 179

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Innovation Partner for the Agriculture and Food Sector Teagasc researchers partner with the industry to drive innovation in the agriculture and food sector. The Teagasc advisory network assists farmers to combine environmentally sensitive technical innovation with prudent business management, and Teagasc education courses equip future farmers to become lifelong innovators.

Sustainable Agriculture

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Maintaining Clean Water

Grass based Livestock Systems

New Technologies

Breeding New Potato Varieties

Satellite Mapping for Precision Farming

Sexing semen for Animal Breeding

Technology for the Food Sector

High Quality Gluten Free Breads

Phage Therapy for Controlling MRSA

New Product Development

www.teagasc.ie

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23/06/2015 13/04/2015 12:41 10:25

ROSÉ VEAL

Rosé A

FUTURE?

J

ack Madigan, the next generation of farmers in the Madigan family, who have been farming at Windgap in Co Kilkenny for over 300 years, is enjoying some unusually fine weather when we speak, but it’s business as usual on the farm. Jack and his father, Bill Madigan, have about 120 calves at the moment and they’re gradually increasing this number.

Jack says they’ve expanded production slightly since they appeared on Ear To The Ground early this year. “We’re just after purchasing a calf feeder,” he says. “There are two reasons for that: one is because we’re feeding calves all year round and it’s very labour-intensive. The other thing is Compassion in World Farming wanted us to have something to replace a cow. The calves are given the exact same quantity of milk as being on a cow and they know no different.

It’s also healthier, there’s less need for antibiotics and it makes a higherwelfare calf.”

Kilkenny Rosé Veal became Ireland’s first recipient of Compassion in World Farming’s Good Dairy Award. The award recognises food businesses that produce higher-welfare products and promote animal welfare.

Calves are a byproduct of the dairy industry. For a dairy cow to produce milk she must calve regularly: female calves are added to the herd and some male calves are used for meat. However, there is little use for the remainder in Ireland, where veal is largely unpopular. The majority of Irish bull calves are exported to veal markets in Europe.

White veal was at the centre of animal cruelty issues in the 1990s, when calves were kept on a restricted low-iron diet to produce the white meat. Rosé veal differs hugely. The meat is the product of calves between six and eight months old, reared to the highest welfare standards. The conditions

Earlier this year Ear To The Ground met the Madigan family, award-winning producers of high welfare rosé veal.

Valerie Jordan checks back in with the Madigans to find out what’s new at their farm in Windgap, Co Kilkenny.

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ROSÉ VEAL

in which the calves are reared produce the light pink colour and taste characteristic of the meat.

“Rearing the calves for beef or rosé veal at home in Ireland makes a lot more sense than exporting them out of the country,” says Jack. “Especially now with the milk quotas being abolished there’s going to be more and more calves coming on-stream.

I was recently on a ferry and I saw trucks of calves for the export market. It was quite distressing to see three-week-old calves being put on a truck to travel the whole way across Europe. I could hear them roaring. You’d have to wonder what state he’d be in by the time he gets to Holland.”

The perception of cruelty around veal in Ireland persists, but Jack thinks that it’s beginning to shift. “People, especially people in the trade like the butchers and restaurants, are starting to realise that rosé veal is a higher-welfare product. We supply to Rinuccini restaurant in Kilkenny and they’ve told us that rosé veal has become the best seller on the menu, which is really encouraging.

“The reality is actually the opposite of what people think: by buying Kilkenny Rosé Veal you’re supporting the only farmer in Ireland with an award for Compassion in World Farming and you’re keeping calves in Ireland in a higher welfare system.”

Jack is studying agriculture and business at Mountbellew Agricultural College and he’s clearly focused on innovating for the future of the farm. “I want to grow the farm into a sustainable agricultural business. My dad needs the farm to support the rest of our family, so if I want to come home to farm it needs to sustain me as well. It’s a major issue at the moment in Ireland because the margins in farming are so tight.

Compassion in World Farming’s Five Principles of Animal Welfare: 1 Freedom from hunger and thirst 2 Freedom from discomfort 3 Freedom from pain, injury or disease 4 Freedom to express normal behaviour 5 Freedom from fear and distress www.ciwf.org.uk

“The rosé veal works well because really all you need is a shed – there’s no land bank required. There’s no end to the calves we could put through with the feeding systems – we could have thousands of calves going through.”

Jack believes that the standards could be maintained with expansion, and that it could even improve the quality of the product. Increased productivity would justify and afford investment in better systems and technology to ensure the health and wellbeing of the calves.

“Our motto is: the calf comes first,” he states. “Everyone else works from the factory price backward, but we said ‘to hell with that’: the calf needs a straw bed and he needs the best milk. Then we came up with our price. If people want to buy it at that they’re getting a good quality product from a good source.”

The short supply chain from farm to fork ensures consistency and traceability of the veal. The calves are mostly sourced from Hennessy Calf Farm in Urlingford, Co Kilkenny. Tynan’s abattoir finishes the product and provides feedback on quality.

“It’s a very short chain: ourselves, Tynan’s and Hennessy’s. We’re all in communication and talk to each other on a weekly basis. If anything goes wrong we can find out what happened.”

Kilkenny Rosé Veal is available in Rinuccini and Campagne restaurants and Grogan & Brown artisan butchers, Co Kilkenny; Basilico restaurant in Galway; and Lawlor’s and Fenelon’s butchers in Dublin. The Madigans are also in discussion about supplying veal to the Irish Food Co-op and are looking for an agent to supply hotels and restaurants in Cork.

If you want to give rosé veal a whirl at home Jack recommends a Sunday roast.

“I’m not a chef,” he laughs, “but we often do a veal roast on a Sunday and it’s very, very good.”

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RISING TO THE TOP TAKES THE RIGHT ENERGY. We understand how important it is for dairy producers to deliver the highest quality milk. To do exactly that, instant hot water for washdown and sterilisation plays a significant part.

Our team of energy advisors can work together with you.

We’ll visit your operation and use our expertise to design energy solutions that exactly meet your needs.

Like all successful working partnerships, it takes the right energy.

SWITCH TODAY Call 1850 812 450 or visit calorgas.ie

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wish to congratulate the IFA on its 60th Anniversary Liffey Ballyjamesduff: Liffey Hacketstown: Liffey Ballinasloe:

Cattle Procurement Robert Cole 049 8545300/086 638 7735 Darren Hobson 049 8545300/087 379 2079 Sean O’Beirne 049 8545300/086 770 3723 www.liffeymeats.ie

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We are a family run fruit farm growing a large variety of soft fruit which is available fresh to our customers from June to October. Our Farm Shop is situated alongside our fruit crops giving visitors an opportunity to view the different stages of plant growth during the year. In our farm kitchen we make 21 jams using our own fruit, along with 12 chutneys, 6 marmalades and a selection of seasonal jellies which are all made in small batches from traditional recipes. This ensures that our great fruit flavours are tasted in every pot.

We also stock a large range of artisan food & and gift products in our farm shop.

Customers who visit our farm can see our fruit growing and leave with an authentic irish artisan product.

Malone Fruit Farm & Farm Shop, Closh, Ballon, Co Carlow Contact 059 915 9477 or 086 847 2765 Email: malonefruitfarm@eircom.net Also follow Malone Fruit Farm and Farm Shop on Facebook 231647_2L_MALONE FRUIT_SN_ETTG.indd 1

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

MUNSTERGROUP INSUR ANCE:

the Farmer’s Broker

Munstergroup Insurance is an established insurance brokerage with a national footprint and over 30 years’ experience in the agricultural sector. Specialising in farm insurance, we pride ourselves on our unique understanding of farmers’ needs and our ability to offer tailored advice.

AT MUNSTERGROUP WE recognise how important it is for farmers to have quality farm insurance and to be able to obtain sound insurance advice from an independent insurance broker. To deliver this, we set up a dedicated Farm Department.

This specialised team is headed up by our Director, Michael Farrell, and staffed by handpicked agri specialists who are themselves actively involved in farming and fully up to speed with the requirements and challenges of the modern day farmer.

As independent farm insurance brokers, our team assesses each farmer’s individual requirements and advises on the products most suited to them. Munstergroup Insurance ensures that the farmer is made aware of the best policies available and that they get them at the right price. The support team is specifically trained in farm insurance and will check the market pricing at each renewal, as well as assisting with mid-term amendments, claims and any enquiries raised.

At Munstergroup farm safety has always been a top priority. Michael Farrell says that “day-to-day practical farming knowledge combined with the insurance experience of our team has greatly helped our clients to appreciate the importance of good working practices and health and safety compliance.

“There are many factors that must be taken into account when assessing risk on a farm and farm safety is a key element when considering insurance cover. Sadly, we are all only too well aware of the recent increase in farm-related accidents and fatalities, which have given every responsible individual a clear focus on the need for good work practices. As farming remains a labour-intensive occupation, compliance with the Safety, Health and Welfare

at Work Act 2005 or the Farm Health and Safety Code is compulsory.”

WORKING WITH FARMERS At Munstergroup we work with both farmers and insurers to assist with risk assessment and improvements. We believe that farm safety, assessment and improvement should be encouraged and rewarded.

Good working practice, good claims experience and health and safety compliance can reduce a premium.

Munstergroup has shown its commitment to the agri sector by investing in a stand-alone Farm Department. As brokers, we are not tied to any particular insurer so our customers can be sure of independent and impartial advice on the product best suited to individual requirements.

Munstergroup’s flexible farm insurance cover includes the farmhouse and its contents, outbuildings and slatted units, livestock (including straying), transit disease and mortality, employer’s liability, public and products liability, bulk tank and contents, personal accident and vehicles (including cars, tractors, loaders, machinery, quads and trailers).

There are a variety of quality discounts available on farm policies for good work practices, farm organisation membership and complying with health and safety regulations. ●

Michael Farrell.

For good independent professional advice from a team with expertise in the sector, call Munstergroup Insurance on 065 6841766, email us at info@ munstergroup.com or visit our website: www. munstergroup.com

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WOOD TURNING

Emmet’s journey Woodturner Emmet Kane is fascinated by the extraordinary characteristics of wood, each piece uniquely flawed. His work simultaneously celebrates the natural qualities of wood, transforms the material and elevates craft to artistry. A Journey, an exhibition celebrating his evolution as an artist, allows Kane the opportunity to reflect on 27 years of woodturning. Interview: Valerie Jordan.

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WOOD TURNING

OPPOSITE: Tulip.

Ebonised oak with gold leaf. ABOVE: Emmet Kane turning wood.

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WOOD TURNING

“Wood has its own natural characteristics and it has soul. It has blemishes, holes and knots that almost represent life itself.

Every piece of wood is different.”

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WOOD TURNING

OPPOSITE: Crock of Gold. Ebonised burr oak with gold leaf.

ABOVE: Faith and Hope.

Ebonised burr oak with gold leaf.

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WOOD TURNING

“I’m a maker. To be an artist you have to have the skill of making.”

ABOVE: Recession Proof.

Burr elm with gold leaf and yellow peaks. LEFT: P.S. 2014.

Bleached burr oak with gold leaf. This is in homage to the late artist Patrick Scott, whose gold paintings had a profound influence on Kane’s work.

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WOOD TURNING

LEFT: A Journey of Hope.

Crib dam pine ebonised with colour, glass and spikes.

BELOW: Emmet Kane in his studio.

How did you come to woodturning? I come from five generations of craftspeople: building contractors, carpenters, furniture makers, cabinetmakers, blacksmiths and stonemasons. Making is in my DNA. I was always fascinated by making, and I’d been on a building site since about five years of age. How I started woodturning was my father gave me a present of a lathe, back in 1988. He showed me how to do one or two things and that’s how it all started.

How has your home in the Kildare countryside influenced you?

It has a huge influence on my design. I’m from Castledermot, Co Kildare, which is way down south on the border between Kildare, Carlow, Wicklow and Laois. There’s about seven or eight national monuments all around me: Celtic crosses, high crosses, arched doorways, round towers and a Viking hogback grave. All that archaeology and beauty around me is in my psyche. I’m looking at it all the time and the archaeology and the history feeds into my work, even if I haven’t actually thought about it.

How would you describe yourself – woodturner or artist? I don’t know. I’m a maker. To be an artist you have to have the skill of making; a good painter has to have the skill of making. People think wood is wood and it goes in the fire, but I’m giving wood another use and it doesn’t have to be a functional use, it’s an aesthetic use.

I’m self-taught, and not having a formal art education has left me quite open. There are no boundaries. A lot of the influences of my woodturning are the turners from the ‘50s and ‘60s in America who started pushing it into a more sculptural form: Ed Moulthrop, David Ellsworth and others.

now and to see what’s possible. I’m thinking ahead all of the time.

I’m also rough turning a lot of wet timber to let it dry. Sometimes there’s a lot of turning, sometimes there’s a lot of texturing and embellishing and gilding.

How has your technique evolved over the years? I use a lot of textures, I ebonise the wood, and I use gold leaf and colour: that has evolved. Actually I recently saw a piece I made in 1992 that had a gold line and texture in it but since then I’ve really pushed it on. At the moment I’m working a lot with lacquer and that’s the influence of Eileen Gray’s work: in the 1920s she was doing woodturning and using lacquer on the pieces. I experiment all the time and try to push it and push it forward.

A Journey is looking back on your 27 years spent woodturning.

How does it feel to reflect on that? Sometimes I look at it and I think ‘did I really make all this stuff?’ But a lot of my work is very different because it’s evolving all the time. It was interesting for me to see the stuff again and how it’s changed over time. As a creative person you strive to push it and make it better – well I do anyway – and there are nearly 70 pieces in the exhibition, from 1988 till now, and you can see that progression.

What is your preferred type of wood to turn? It probably was elm, but now that’s all died out with Dutch elm disease. Oak is next – 90 per cent of my work is done in oak. Oak is hard to work, but it has characteristics like burls and it has very interesting chemical reactions. It’s an extraordinary timber to work. I couldn’t work with a material other than wood. I’ll turn a piece that someone else would throw out. Wood has its own natural characteristics and it has soul. It has layers. It has blemishes, holes and knots that almost represent life itself. Every piece of wood is different.

What are you working on now? At the moment I’m doing a large piece – nearly eight and a half foot tall. I got a present of a big lathe that was built in the 1940s, which will turn up to about 16 foot in length. The wood I got was blown down in the storms of February last year. A lady called me to say a tree at her house had come down so I got some big lumps of oak. I’ll be looking to do bigger pieces

A Journey, an exhibition exploring Emmet Kane’s remarkable career in woodturning, is currently showing at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin. It runs until 31 July.

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29/06/2015 13:59

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Untitled-2 1

29/06/2015 11:21

JOHN CARLOS

Full colour THE WORK OF JOHN C ARLOS

After an award-winning career with the Connacht Tribune, The Sunday Tribune under Vincent Browne, and The Sunday Times, photographer John Carlos has released an evocative study of island life, Ireland’s Western Islands. In early 2003 he returned from Dublin to his native Galway, and lives and works in Connemara. He tells Ruraidh Conlon O’Reilly about his work.

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JOHN CARLOS

RIGHT: Kitty Concannon, Low Road, Inishbofin Kitty’s a lovely kid. I photographed her in Margaret Day’s house; Margaret is a great friend of mine, now going into her 95th year I think.

I placed Kitty and Margaret in the same sequence, dealing with youth and maturity. If you look at Kitty’s eyes she has all that kind of wonderment and brightness and quest for discovery that happy children have of her age. For pictures like this I would always chat away. She was doing a bit of drawing or something, and I asked her did she like school and she said “nooo.” I said why not, and she said “because it’s booo-riiing!” So I said I know the feeling.

ABOVE: Transporting sheep to Damhoileán Island,

Inishbofin Most of the photographs I liked to do in a spontaneous or impromptu way if I could. I get too nervous when I have to set up portraits. Some of the portraits are set up, yes, but the camera is at eye level, not looking up at them or down at them, so to convey that their community is a serious community in society as well as, say, a Dublin community or a Cork or Galway community.

BELOW: Funeral, Cill Éinne, Inis Mór For me, this

photograph portrays loss – not just of a person of that generation, but of a way of life. And I suppose all we can hope for at times like these is that some of the values that have been handed down will keep our traditions and culture alive.

PREVIOUS PAGE: The remains of Pete Burke

being airlifted by helicopter to Inishbofin during rough seas For a funeral, there’s only so long they can really wait on the mainland so sometimes they order a helicopter. Pete Burke was the island’s carpenter and his family were offered helicopter transport by Bobby Molloy, who was Minister for Defence at the time. I got a call from Bobby Molloy telling me that they were going to do this. I did it for The Irish Times and the Connacht Tribune. I flew out with the two pilots and the coffin, and they left myself and the coffin off at the old pier on Inishbofin. Then they returned to take the family out, so I was able to cover it adequately like that. It depicts the danger and the precarious existence and the isolation of island living, really.

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JOHN CARLOS LEFT: Teresa Abeyta with Sailor and Genie, Inishbofin This is Teresa Abeyta. Her father is originally American Indian and he married an Inishbofin woman. Teresa loved riding out on her horse Sailor. This is an impromptu picture which I set up on the spur of the moment. Just as I took one picture I said “just keep looking towards the camera now, Teresa, I think there’s something nice going to happen here”. The one thing I always emphasised was to give each person and each thing and animal a name; this is important as it identifies islanders as a serious community in society.

BELOW: John Greene on the Dún Aengus ferry, Inishbofin John’s people were from Cavan and I think his father might have been in the RIC and they were shipped around from station to station. John worked for years on the Dún Aonghus ferry. He is one exceptional gentleman; he is a very erudite man.

He knows a lot about nature and the environment.

In fact, he has that smile that for me expresses his respect for life and the sea and the environment.

That is John.

ABOVE: Bridget Dirrane, aged 106: former Cumann na mBan hunger striker, nurse, American immigrant, JFK campaigner and Inis Mór returnee. Amazing, wasn’t she? I read a book about her life. It’s an amazing story, written by Jack Mahon, a Galway teacher. A journalist, Margaret Ward, approached me and asked if I’d ever heard of her. I said of course I have, I’ve read the book. So we worked together on that for The Sunday Times to do a feature story on her life. I photographed her in Galway.

Now, when I saw the photographs I certainly wasn’t pleased because the light was absolutely atrocious. It was a really bad day. The rain was incessent. The picture I got was one of maybe two rolls of film. It was crucial to me in the book as I regarded her as a fulcrum on which the whole story hangs in terms of loss of tradition.

That’s what the book is about: loss of tradition and culture and questioning the advent of too much modernity and over-consumerism. It’s a very important picture for me, even though it’s a very simple snapshot.

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29/06/2015 14:03

JOHN CARLOS LEFT: I wanted to convey the comparison between the limestone landscape and the constant struggle for farmers to find fresh grazing for their animals. it’s very moonscape-ish and it can be very difficult to find grazing for the animals. I also wanted to bring in the proximity of one of the other islands, Inis Mór as far as I remember. I saw them approaching from afar and I presumed they were going to come down this pathway and I waited at the corner, because if you have patience and time to consider your composition, your photograph is complete once movement enters the frame.

How did you become interested in photography? I suppose it was a little by accident really. I finished school in 1969 and I didn’t go to college; I didn’t have the qualifications anyway and I always had very poor concentration with regard to studying and all things academic. But my mother spotted a job advertisement for a junior photographer in the Connacht Tribune and I applied for it and got the job. I suppose from our time on Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands, something triggered in her memory about lending me the camera to do photographs that I took an interest in.

photography, for instance. Where newspaper photographs and photoessays are descriptive, the sequences in the book work in a kind of story, almost on a poetic or narrative level. I had ceased being a press photographer or a recorder of events and attempted to become a kind of narrator for the people in the photographs. In other words, I would place the camera within the community in an effort to recount their own stories, whereas in press photography the camera acts as a kind of recorder of events.

That is a crucial distinction for me.

What was your attitude towards the medium? It certainly wasn’t technical anyway, because I always wanted to, as it were, say something with my photographs. When possible, I gravitated towards feature photography. This I felt had a more biographical element than in the countless social pictures that are expected in the provincial press, even to this day. They’re still done, but I found that aspect of photography quite banal – but there was a lot of stuff that seemed to sell papers.

Was there a sense of satisfaction when it was published? It was a great relief for me because there were times I did shelve it, but I said I would come back to it because I found it very difficult at times: I thought that I might have taken on more than I could chew, as it were. I was just delighted by the time it was finished because I worked very, very hard. In fact, the Aran element, that included the three Aran Islands, wasn’t going to be part of the Inishbofin book at all. But the publisher, Con Collins, agreed to merge the two into the one book

Where did the idea for the book come from? I think most photographers, when they go into photography, in a short space of time would love to do either an exhibition or a book. I did have those little pretensions in the beginning and I’m glad I didn’t have the resources to realise the book then, because it wouldn’t have made sense until I had a large degree of experience behind me. I discovered the work of [American photographer] Paul Strand.

Around about that time, which would have been coming up to my time in Dublin, after 1983, I always thought seriously about doing a book and I wondered how I would get the time. When I then decided, coming up to the late ‘80s, I took a year off journalistic work and went on a motorcycle trip across Europe, where I stayed on a Greek island for almost three months. It was there that I decided I would tackle the book when I returned home to Ireland.

How did you approach things? I wanted to create a kind of a story. The photographs in the book break the conventions of press

How was it received? The response seems to have been quite phenomenal. I had three launches: one in Galway, one in Inismór and one on Inishbofin. But the Galway launch was done in Charlie Byrne’s bookshop and the manager there, a namesake of my Sunday Tribune editor, Vincent Browne, told me that the book sold out three times that day. Apparently, it was the most successful launch in 25 years.

The book sold out three times that day and they had to borrow them from one of the competitors. Also, the press response was quite enlightening. I had my own doubts, obviously, while I was doing it. Some of the photographs went back 40 years. I hope that people will accept the book as a work of imagination. It’s also very interpretave even though I’ve used captions under the photographs. People can interpret the flow or the sequences in many different ways. It’s not just what my portrayal of the story is.

Ireland’s Western Islands is published by the Collins Press.

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JOHN CARLOS LEFT: I wanted to convey the comparison between the limestone landscape and the constant struggle for farmers to find fresh grazing for their animals.

It’s very moonscape-ish and it can be very difficult to find grazing for the animals. I also wanted to bring in the proximity of one of the other islands, Inis Mór as far as I remember. I saw them approaching from afar and I presumed they were going to come down this pathway and I waited at the corner, because if you have patience and time to consider your composition, your photograph is complete once movement enters the frame.

How did you become interested in photography? I suppose it was a little by accident really. I finished school in 1969 and I didn’t go to college; I didn’t have the qualifications anyway and I always had very poor concentration with regard to studying and all things academic. But my mother spotted a job advertisement for a junior photographer in the Connacht Tribune and I applied for it and got the job. I suppose from our time on Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands, something triggered in her memory about lending me the camera to do photographs that I took an interest in.

photography, for instance. Where newspaper photographs and photoessays are descriptive, the sequences in the book work in a kind of story, almost on a poetic or narrative level. I had ceased being a press photographer or a recorder of events and attempted to become a kind of narrator for the people in the photographs. In other words, I would place the camera within the community in an effort to recount their own stories, whereas in press photography the camera acts as a kind of recorder of events.

That is a crucial distinction for me.

What was your attitude towards the medium? It certainly wasn’t technical anyway, because I always wanted to, as it were, say something with my photographs. When possible, I gravitated towards feature photography. This I felt had a more biographical element than in the countless social pictures that are expected in the provincial press, even to this day. They’re still done, but I found that aspect of photography quite banal – but there was a lot of stuff that seemed to sell papers.

Was there a sense of satisfaction when it was published? It was a great relief for me because there were times I did shelve it, but I said I would come back to it because I found it very difficult at times: I thought that I might have taken on more than I could chew, as it were. I was just delighted by the time it was finished because I worked very, very hard. In fact, the Aran element, that included the three Aran Islands, wasn’t going to be part of the Inishbofin book at all. But the publisher, Con Collins, agreed to merge the two into the one book

Where did the idea for the book come from? I think most photographers, when they go into photography, in a short space of time would love to do either an exhibition or a book. I did have those little pretensions in the beginning and I’m glad I didn’t have the resources to realise the book then, because it wouldn’t have made sense until I had a large degree of experience behind me. I discovered the work of [American photographer] Paul Strand.

Around about that time, which would have been coming up to my time in Dublin, after 1983, I always thought seriously about doing a book and I wondered how I would get the time. When I then decided, coming up to the late ‘80s, I took a year off journalistic work and went on a motorcycle trip across Europe, where I stayed on a Greek island for almost three months. It was there that I decided I would tackle the book when I returned home to Ireland.

How did you approach things? I wanted to create a kind of a story. The photographs in the book break the conventions of press

How was it received? The response seems to have been quite phenomenal. I had three launches: one in Galway, one in Inis Mór and one on Inishbofin. But the Galway launch was done in Charlie Byrne’s bookshop and the manager there, a namesake of my Sunday Tribune editor, Vincent Browne, told me that the book sold out three times that day. Apparently, it was the most successful launch in 25 years.

The book sold out three times that day and they had to borrow them from one of the competitors. Also, the press response was quite enlightening. I had my own doubts, obviously, while I was doing it. Some of the photographs went back 40 years. I hope that people will accept the book as a work of imagination. It’s also very interpretave even though I’ve used captions under the photographs. People can interpret the flow or the sequences in many different ways. It’s not just what my portrayal of the story is. ● Ireland’s Western Islands is published by the Collins Press.

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30/06/2015 16:41

ETG advert_Layout 1 28/04/2015 11:49 Page 1

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Untitled-2 1

04/03/2015 16:13

23/06/2015 12:50

ADVERTISING FEATURE

MINISTER HAYES OUTLINES DETAILS OF NEW

Forestry Programme 2014-2020

By Tom Hayes TD, Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Forestry.

THE NEW FORESTRY PROGRAMME 2014-2020, which I recently launched, offers an ambitious, and I believe attractive, set of forestry measures aimed at increasing timber production while at the same time improving the quality of our natural environment. The new programme also aims to provide greater opportunities for people to enjoy the recreational benefits of forests through its innovative NeighbourWood scheme.

The achievement of these objectives involves the commitment of 482 million to underpin the Forestry Programme.

This level of investment will facilitate an increase in forest cover by almost 44,000 hectares and will provide funding to build 700km of new forest roads. Under the redesigned Afforestation Scheme, both farmers and non farmers will be eligible for the same premium rate which is worth up to 257/acre, paid each year for 15 years. Furthermore, the full cost of establishing new forests is also covered by grants which have increased by 5 per cent in comparison to the level of

support provided under the most recent programme.

Following the comprehensive review of forestry schemes, completed in 2014, new planting categories have been introduced to provide additional options to landowners who may not otherwise have been interested in planting their land.

The new Agro Forestry and Forestry for Fibre measures are targeted specifically at farmers, providing them with options for grazing livestock alongside forestry and, in the case of Forestry for Fibre, the option to harvest timber after 10-15 years rather than 35-40 years as is the case with other types of forestry. These are significant developments as the measures present real options for farmers for alternative income sources.

While the main focus of the new forestry programme is production and mobilisation of timber, there is significant potential for forestry to contribute to economic activity in the area of tourism.

Given that the number of forest visits per person in Ireland is less than the EU

Tom Hayes TD.

average, this sector of the economy is expected to grow over the coming years as our forests attract more visitors. It is a basic requirement of the forest roads scheme that any infrastructure funded should be open to the public for recreational use without charge.

Afforestation Premium rates (same rates for farmers and non-farmers) Grant and Premium Category (GPC)

New Rate/Ha

New Rate/Acre

Duration (years)

1. Unenclosed

€185

€75

15

2. Sitka spruce/LP

€440

€178

15

3. 10% diverse

€510

€206

15

4. Diverse

€560

€227

15

5. Broadleaf

€575

€233

15

6. Oak/beech

€615

€249

15

7. Beech

€615

€249

15

8. Alder

€575

€233

15

9. Native woodland establishment (scenarios 1-3)*

€635

€257

15

10. Native woodland establishment (scenario 4)*

€635

€257

15

11. Agro-forestry*

€260

€105

5

12. Forestry for fibre*

€180

€73

10

* New GPCs

152 EAR TO THE GROUND

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

Grant rates (5% increase on fixed rate grant) GPC

1st Grant €/ha

2nd Grant €/ha

Total €/ha

Additional Fencing Allocation €/ha IS436

Alternative Fencing Allocation €/ha Non-IS436

Total Available Funding €/ha

1. Unenclosed

1,575

525

2,100

500

350

2,600

2. Sitka spruce/LP

2,310

735

3,045

500

350

3,545

3. 10% diverse conifer

2,360

790

3,150

500

350

3,650

4. Diverse conifer

2,625

840

3,465

500

350

3,965

5. Broadleaf

3,780

1,155

4,935

500

450

5,435

6. Oak/beech

3,990

1,260

5,250

500

450

5,750

7. Beech

3,990

1,260

5,250

500

450

5,750

8. Alder

2,520

840

3,360

500

450

3,860

9. Native woodland establishment (scenarios 1-4)

3,990

1,260

5,250

500

450

5,750

10. Native woodland establishment (scenario 4)

3,780

1,155

4,935

500

450

5,435

11. Agro-forestry

2,960

990

3,950

500

450

4,450

12a. Forestry for Fibre

1,460

490

1,950

500

450

2,450

12b. Forestry for Fibre (Aspen, 1400)

1,245

420

1,665

500

450

2,165

The mobilisation of timber from the private sector has been identified as vital for the further development of our forest industry. To this end, the Forestry Programme has provided for almost 28m of funding towards the building of roads over the six-year programme period.

Increased provision for building forest roads will provide for greater mobilisation of timber to market by encouraging forest holders to carry out first thinnings. The proper management of forests will lead to more productive forests as well as environmental benefits as light breaks through the canopy stimulating growth on the forest floor.

Financial support for forest roads is being provided at a rate of 40/metre at a density of 20m/ha; this represents a 14 per cent increase over the previous programme. A special construction works grant for forest roads worth up to 5,000 is also being introduced under the new programme. This additional support is aimed at minimising any adverse effects of harvesting on sensitive sites i.e. sedimentation of local watercourses.

The Forestry Programme has been designed to assist in the development of forestry, to offer schemes that will be attractive to landowners and to deliver economic, social and environmental

benefits. I have outlined the main features of the afforestation scheme and the forest roads scheme. Schemes will be rolled out over time; further information on the Forestry Programme, and the schemes currently open, is available on the forestry page of my department’s website.

Finally, I would like to thank all those stakeholders in the forestry sector who inputted into the Forestry Programme.

I believe that landowners and society in general are set to benefit hugely from the new Forestry Programme and I encourage landowners to examine forestry as a viable land use option. ● EAR TO THE GROUND 153

ETTG_Summer 2015_Dept of Agri_V2.indd 153

29/06/2015 11:26

WILDLIFE

HERE COMES

trouble!

Ireland’s most controversial bird, the hen harrier, is unwittingly caught in a standoff between farmers, conservationists and the government over designated land.

Megan Cummins reports.

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WILDLIFE

O

nce a constant presence on the Irish skyline, as commonplace as the clouds or the sun, the hen harrier is now a rarity more like rainbows or shooting stars. In the last decade, these pale-grey and brown medium-sized birds, which are commonly mistaken for hawks or owls, have fallen victim to habitat damage and as a result were declared a depleted or endangered species on the Irish Red Data Book and placed on Annex 1 of the European Union Birds Directive.

While the directive requires that measures be taken to secure the continuity of hen harriers and the allocation and preservation of appropriate habitats for the species, changes enacted by the government, including land designation laws, have been unsuccessful: the species’ breeding rates are on a steady decline, with fewer than 100 breeding couples active today. As a ground-nesting bird, the hen harrier relies on open moorland and wetland for its shelter and breeding ground, but in the last few decades mass forestry expansion has made these areas scarce.

Hen harriers have been fighting for survival since the 19th century, but avoided extinction by dispersing themselves throughout Ireland by adapting and using newly planted

forestry farms and the suitable habitat supplied by young trees. According to BirdWatch Ireland’s Raptor Conservation Officer John Lusby, “hen harriers are largely dependent on traditional, nonintensive farming practices… it’s when a forest matures and the forest canopy closes that a habitat becomes unsuitable for nesting,” he wrote in online journal eWings.

Unfortunately, the Special Protection Areas (SPAs) don’t differentiate between non-intensive and intensive farming, meaning that all farmers – even those classified as “non-intensive” – are prohibited from cultivating their land.

Not only is this economically detrimental for the farmers, who have been robbed of a sustainable income, but it has left rural areas and land across Ireland exposed, transforming formerly productive countryside into wilderness.

In these cases land’s monetary value has also declined to become nearly worthless, its inability to be cultivated hindering potential buyers and therefore denying farmers of another source of revenue. According to Irish Farmers with Designated Land (IFDL), a coalition of farmers and landowners who aim to reclaim the value of designated land and to ensure a reasonable income from such lands, 169,000 hectares of land mainly owned by 4,400 families in six designated areas have been devalued by 980m.

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PHOTOS: MIKE BROWN

WILDLIFE

OUTRAGES As a result, hostilities towards the hen harrier in some SPAs have taken place.

In winter, a female hen harrier in Kerry was shot dead. This triggered both condemnation from the IFDL, which has continually emphasised that the bird is not the problem, but rather the land designation, as well as outrage from conservationists.

“Acknowledging the value of maintaining sustainable farming in these areas through the provision of adequate support mechanisms, which would deliver not only for hen harriers but other high priority species, habitats and wider ecosystem services, is vital,” Lusby wrote. “Many farmers agree that hen harrier conservation can and should be compatible with sustaining livelihoods through effective agri-environment policy.

Changing attitudes and getting others to recognise that the bird is not the cause of these problems is obviously important; however, this would come naturally with the provision of effective agri-environment schemes which work for the farmer and biodiversity.”

In 2007 when land was set aside for the six SPAs, farmers were promised a compensation of 350 per hectare every year from the Department of Agriculture.

However, the vast majority never received these payments. According to conservation body An Taisce, the protection plan’s fund was withdrawn only three years following its installation, but while the compensation funds disappeared, the designated land and their restrictions did not. “In 2013 the Department of Agriculture cut the budget for designated sites by more than 80 per cent, from 528 million to 95 million, and reallocated the money elsewhere.

These farmers have been sold out and the hen harrier is being used as a scapegoat,” it has said.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is working on a Threat Response Plan, supposed to have been released by this June. It should provide information and a three-year plan concerning the distribution and habitat of the species, in addition to pinpointing threats and identifying the measures necessary to alleviate the threats. Additionally, Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Minister Heather Humphreys has convened an inter-departmental group tasked with creating an overall plan to improve prospects for the hen harrier.

However, the IFDL believes that a longterm, viable scheme that involves both the hen harriers and the farming community is the only solution for the species’ survival.

“If farmers can’t survive in these areas, hen harriers will not either,” IFDL chairman Jason Fitzgerald has said. ●

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30/06/2015 16:41

232525_1C_MURRAY_CMD_ETTG.indd 1 Untitled-2 1

18/7/14 10:20:38 23/06/2015 12:28

WILDLIFE

Mystery Mammal ON THE TRAIL OF THE IRISH BAT The bat has been a mammal of mystery and intrigue for centuries.

These elusive creatures are often admired or slightly feared – but a closer look debunks myths and highlights just how important these transient mammals are in Irish natural history as a new book, Irish Bats in the 21st Century, sets out to demonstrate the imprint Irish bats have on our landscape.

Jane Quinn reports.

F

or many years now, enthusiasts have been carefully studying the Irish bat across the country.

Despite having been protected under Irish legislation since 1976, real action has been a much later development – but in recent years, the bat has become one of the most respected mammals on the island.

Ireland hosts nine different species of bat, from the woodland-residing pipistrelles and Natterer’s bat to the waterway-frequenting Daubenton’s bat.

For most of the 20th century, bat conservation was far from the forefront of Irish environmentalism, with the recording of bat sightings occurring more infrequently than steadily. It was not until the 1980s that bats began to take precedence in Irish natural research. Bat groups began to pop up across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, and an interest in the species began to grow.

BAT GROUPS UNITE Fast-forward to 2004 when Bat Conservation Ireland was formed. A means of uniting bat groups across the Republic, the group aimed to further the study of the furry flying creature.

As a result of this consolidation, new monitoring schemes were designed and put into place by the group and funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Importantly, an online database was formed to publish their findings, now the Republic of Ireland’s central bat recording system.

Now another milestone has been released with the publication of the comprehensive book Irish Bats in the 21st Century, a platform of recognition for the years of recording that the group undertook. It gives the general public, as well as bat volunteers and lovers alike, a summary of records and a greater understanding of the Irish bat as it is today.

Niamh Roche, co-author of Irish Bats in the 21st Century (along with Tina

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LEFT: A Daubenton’s bat at a tree roost.

BELOW: A lesser horseshoe bat hibernating.

WILDLIFE

Photos: Paul van Hoof.

Aughney, Mathiu Lundy and Ferdia Marnell), recalls how national awareness of the bat species, and the subsequent formation of Bat Conservation Ireland, began to come about. “Ireland was found not to be sufficiently protecting its bats back in the early Noughties, and so the monitoring schemes became up and running around that time... we set up the database to record bats, because in Ireland there was no central system for recording any biological data in the 1990s or early 2000s.”

The online database was set up to record the results of the many newly designed monitoring schemes that were deciphering where the different bats and their particular habitats were, nationwide.

“We felt, well, if we want to know what’s going on with bats, we need to know where they are, and when people are recording them they need to have somewhere to be able to submit those records. So we constructed the database, and it allows those people to enter data

online and is the central recording system for bats in the Republic of Ireland.”

MONITORING THE MAMMALS The new monitoring schemes aimed to decipher specific species-related details for each of the nine different types of bats within these shores. BATLAS 2010 was Ireland’s first systematic bat-recording scheme that followed a standardised method. Devised in 2007

by Bat Conservation Ireland, and later funded by NPWS and the Heritage Council, the scheme focused on the distribution of four particular species: the common pipistrelle, soprano pipistrelle, the Daubenton’s bat and Leisler’s bat.

Other monitoring schemes were designed to target certain species, such as the Car Based Monitoring Scheme which, with the use of bat detectors, determines the roadside population of the pipistrelle species; the All Ireland Daubenton’s Bat Waterways Scheme, surveying the presence of the Daubenton’s bat along

canals and rivers; and the Brown Long Eared Bat Roost Monitoring Scheme and Lesser Horseshoe Bat Roost Scheme for species that inhabit woodlands.

So how have these schemes helped to gain a better and more precise insight into the bats that inhabit our island – and more importantly, how have they helped with their conservation? According to Niamh, understanding the species acts as a basis for their conservation.

“In order to prioritise conservation it is important to know how a species is doing to start off with. You need to know where it is, how its population is doing, and then tell if that population is increasing or decreasing or staying stable, so population trends would be a baseline piece of data before you come up with any conservation strategies. The standardised schemes that we now run, with the help of hundreds of volunteers around the country, give us that baseline data, and at the moment the species that we monitor seem to be doing reasonably well.”

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CONSERVATION Nathusius’ pipistrelle.

Photo: Paul van Hoof.

Lesser horseshoe bat summer roost in Co Clare.

Photo: David Lyons.

Natterer’s bat in flight.

Photo: Paul van Hoof.

Believe it or not, a soprano pipistrelle maternity roost of over 600 bats is located in this modern house.

The future of these schemes is important for bat conservation, as Niamh’s co-author Tina Aughney emphasises. “One of the reasons why we need continuous monitoring is, unfortunately, because they are such a slow-reproducing mammal. Five years’ data is no good; you need a couple of decades of information. So, while the first decade has been founded, we have to keep building.”

DIGGING THROUGH THE DATABASE With such a substantial amount of data collected by Bat Conservation Ireland, it seemed only fitting that a book presenting information and statistics about Irish bats and their habitats would be undertaken.

“It was just building up to a phenomenal database, and at the end of 2009 we had over 21,000 records on the database. [....] We thought, well, here’s a chance to present the data as an atlas,” Tina recalls. “We hoped to present it in a manner that would be easy to dip in for people who had an interest in bats, that they could actually go in and see the maps and just have a bit of information on the ecology of bats and so forth, but at the same time provide much more detailed information for anybody who was doing research. So we did hope to cater for a broad readership between the general interest, the members of the public and our volunteers.”

However, despite dedicated conservation efforts, these vulnerable creatures still face environmental threats

on a daily basis. Lack of awareness of bats and their environmental needs can result in dangers from the human population, and they face roost upsets, flight interruption and, in some cases, death.

“The fact that they rely on our buildings, particularly in the maternity season, is one of the big potential impacts with humans,” says Tina. “Some of the species are quite happy to use attic spaces of everyday dwellings. Most people think old abandoned houses, but the likes of the pipistrelle are very happy with a modern-day bungalow, so as a result they can come into conflict with people.”

Although bats can choose to roost in modern attics, if found in a home they are of no harm, nor will they cause any upheaval, as Niamh Roche notes. “I think the first point would be to reassure people that they’re not going to behave like mice or birds. They will just hang up, and they don’t chew on things and they don’t bring in nesting materials and they won’t make a hole to get into an attic.

They will only use a crevice or a crack that’s there already.”

Other threats include the presence of artificial lighting and the destruction of hedgerows. “We’ve actually found that there is an 11 per cent less likely chance of Daubenton’s bats being present on a river if there is street lighting or artificial lighting on the bridge, so it’s a big factor,” says Tina. The preservation of hedgerows is crucial for a bat’s welfare, acting as a means of linking up habitats, and if these are lost, declines in the species will follow.

“They need to follow their highways and their commuting routes, and the removal of these linear landscape features can interrupt the bats’ flight and as result reduce their feeding or reduce their actual productivity overall over the space of the season.”

THE REAL DARK KNIGHTS? Despite the threats these mammals face, they are quietly contributing to our environment every single night without us knowing. As insectivorous animals, Irish bats feed primarily on insects, sometimes consuming up to 3,000 insects a night.

“Even the small pipistrelle bats are really tiny, but they would eat up to 3,000 midge-size insects in one night. So you’d be talking about tonnes of insects every year that are eaten by bat populations,” Niamh Roche says. In the US, bat research shows that the mammal population has reduced annual expenditure on pesticides by billions. Bats also prevent insects from destroying plants and vegetables, and so are a friend of the farmer.

So what can we do to keep our furry friends content, and limit human threats to their environments? According to Niamh, planting trees, preserving hedgerows and keeping night lighting to a minimum are all things we can be doing to ensure bat conservation’s progress and stability.

And of the future of bat conservation in Ireland? “There’s definitely a need out there for constant communication and publicity and explanation of what bats are going to be doing if they’re around you,” says Niamh.

“They’re not actually going to be getting caught in your hair or they’re not going to suck your blood, so there is a constant need to keep people updated and inform people because the running thread on bats in northwestern Europe is that they are not a good thing. Our cultural background is negative toward bats, so we are trying to constantly counter that and say ‘well, actually they are doing us good, and no they won’t get caught in your hair’, so we are trying to put the message out there that bats are worthwhile and certainly deserve conservation from our point of view.”

Bat Conservation Ireland encourages the general public to come along and participate in their ongoing and evergrowing research.

“When it comes to bats people are fascinated by them or they have this fear about them, but bringing people out and just watching and listening to their calls really increases people’s absolute love for this nighttime creature,” says Tina. “So we encourage people to just join us, even just participate in one of our monitoring schemes, and it opens a completely new world to people.”

Irish Bats in the 21st Century by Niamh Roche, Tina Aughney, Ferdia Marnell and Mathieu Lundy is published by Bat Conservation Ireland. For information on joining the monitoring schemes visit www.batconservationireland.org

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FOOD

SPIDERWOMAN! HOW EDIBLE INSECTS ARE ON TARA’S MENU

Researcher Tara Elliott has a peculiar field of interest: edible insects. The Belfast-born, Dublin-reared French-trained chef has started a business to produce insect-based foodstuffs such as mealworm flour, cricket flour and protein bars, and begun PhD research in the field. She tells Ear To The Ground about her unusual career path – and whether she thinks Irish people are ready to eat bugs.

Where did your interest in insects begin? When I was given a book by my parents called Nicky the Nature Detective

by Ulf Svedberg; the illustrator was Lena Anderson. I loved that book and it got me out into the garden and made me stick my nose into puddles just to get a closer look at what lay beneath.

I always had an interest in science and nature. One Christmas I wrote a letter to Santa Claus when I was 10 asking for a microscope, and I got one. I still have the microscope and it still works.

What led you to the idea of edible insects? I was researching topics that interested me for my thesis, and I just came upon edible insects. It caught my attention and then my imagination and then I was hooked. Once I had delved into a few scientific research papers and beyond the media coverage, I realised there existed a huge and yet untapped potential to develop another source of excellent nutrition as food for humans and feed for animals that is also sustainable. As I was already prepossessed with a belief in the importance of eco-gastronomy, edible insects became my focus.

The food industry has become too commercialised and driven by profit, with too little concern for our health and environment. As a result we all suffer both long and short-term consequences.

Sustainable farming must be given more attention and since edible insects are highly nutritious and tasty, they tick all of the boxes that I consider to be important.

Do you think Irish people are open to the idea? Yes – once they have understood how and why insects should be considered as a food and feed source then they understand. Also, more Irish people have the opportunity to travel to countries where insects are already widely consumed so they have also been preexposed to the experience. I conducted a survey as part of my thesis on the Irish population, and the majority would be ready to consume insects. The majority (66 per cent) also believe that the Irish government should provide funding to research the potential that edible insects have as an industry in Ireland.

What has the reaction been like since you went public? There has been a great amount of interest. It helped me to realise that there were plenty of Irish people who also saw and believed in the potential opportunities that edible insects could provide, be they business or economic benefits, health and fitness food products, the environment and education or simply as a fun dining experience with friends!

high-pressure processing on the nutritional, microbiological and shelf life of raw and cooked insects and insect food products in order to determine the most viable combinations.

What are your plans to develop the business? The PhD candidacy is a recent development which I was delighted to receive. Therefore I will be redirecting the business both to accommodate and complement my research, which is a commitment of four years. I will be focusing on insect food product development as well as educational programmes, corporate team-building events and cookery demonstrations. I will also establish a consultancy and public speaking aspect to the services provided.

I would like to retain the insect farm in order to show people how it can be done and what the basic requirements are.

I just need to find the right location – which is no easy task!

Tell us about your academic research and forthcoming PhD. It will investigate the potential for developing food products using edible insects in different forms. For example, insect flours, protein extractions, lipid and omega oil isolates as well as chitin. I will also be further researching the effects of EAR TO THE GROUND 163

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HEALTHY EATING

FREE FROM

diets

Gluten-free, dairy-free and other elimination diets were once for people with serious allergies – but today, free-from diets are on the rise. We’ve taken a look at some of the most common diets, their potential benefits and pitfalls.

Everyone is different consult a nutrition expert to best find the right diet for you.

In recent years the number of people who believe they have a food intolerance has risen exponentially. But certain diets have also become popular due to associated health benefits and many are opting to eliminate certain foods as a lifestyle choice. It’s sparked a revolution in the food industry too: when once a gluten- or dairy-free diet was restrictive and unappealing there are now endless alternatives, widely available.

Polenta in beef stew.

Bean Burgers.

Coconut milk-soaked oats with fresh raspberries.

GOING GLUTEN FREE

LIVING WITHOUT MEAT

DAIRYFREE DIETS

Coeliacs are allergic to gluten and can be seriously ill from eating it. Many people are intolerant of gluten, but a lot of people report feeling fitter and healthier on a gluten-free diet as gluten can weigh down the digestive system. EAT: All EU-packaged food is covered by allergen labelling, so you can tell if a product is suitable for a gluten-free diet.

Gluten-free pasta, breads, crackers and cereals are widely available. Grains such as rice, quinoa, amaranth, polenta, buckwheat, corn, millet and tapioca are naturally gluten-free and should be included in the diet. TIPS: Experiment with vegetables as substitutes for foods usually made with gluten or wheat: try making cauliflower cous cous and pizza bases, courgetti, or spaghetti squash. POTENTIAL DEFICIENCIES: Some people on a gluten-free diet may not eat enough iron, calcium, B vitamins or fibre. Try to reduce your reliance on processed gluten-free products and eat more whole foods, such as fruit, veg, nuts, legumes, meat, fish, eggs and dairy products.

Vegetarian or plant-based diets are becoming more popular, with people eating less meat for ethical, environmental or health reasons. Typically, these diets are healthy with less saturated fat, more fibre, folate and antioxidants, but deciding what you replace animal products with is important. EAT: Watch protein intake by eating nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, peas, tofu and, if you wish, eggs and dairy products.

Get a variety to make up the full spectrum of amino acids. Vegetarian sources of good fats include dairy, coconut, rapeseed and olive oils, avocados and nuts. TIPS: Don’t forget to consider whether desserts are meat-free.

Some contain animal products like gelatine and suet. Check the labels on cheeses too as some, such as Parmesan, contain animal rennet. POTENTIAL DEFICIENCIES: Some vegetarians run the risk of being iron deficient. Suitable iron-rich foods include cereals, seeds, wholemeal bread and green leafy veg.

Dairy-free diets are becoming common as many people are allergic to cows’ milk and many others lactose intolerant. The only treatment for cows’ milk allergy is elimination. Intolerances are less severe but dairy can cause skin and digestive problems. EAT: There are several milk alternatives, such as soy, rice, oak, hemp, almond and coconut milk. Some of these are sweetened, so opt for the unsweetened. A number of people with dairy intolerances can tolerate goats’ or buffalo milk and milk products. TIPS: If you have a sweet tooth try coconut milk and cream in desserts and baking.

POTENTIAL DEFICIENCIES: It is important to get enough calcium: choose milk alternatives fortified with calcium and vitamin D and include tinned fish, green leafy veg, nuts, seeds, pulses and grains in your diet.

TOP TIP

Don’t think about what’s not on your plate – think about what is on it. Whether you’re eliminating meat, dairy or gluten from your diet the same rules and techniques apply for cooking and preparing tasty, healthy food. Make use of fresh, local, seasonal produce.

Herbs and spices add flavour, and eating a variety of whole foods is the best way to achieve a balanced diet.

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RECIPES

Summer Sizzlers

The aroma of smoke and sweet, gently charred meat roasting on a barbecue evoke the spirit of casual summer dining. When the sun shines it’s time to kick back with a beer, fire up the barbecue and enjoy long, leisurely lunches in the garden.

Fuzzy Logic Wheat Beer [Troubles Brewing] Wheat and barley malt, cloudy straw colour, soft with a hint of clove.

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RECIPES

BARBECUE LEG OF LAMB Serves 4-6 3kg leg of lamb 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp sea salt 1 tsp cracked black pepper 1 tsp chilli powder

Porterhouse Oyster Stout [Porterhouse Brewing] Smooth and round with a sweetness derived from fresh oysters.

Grind the garlic to a paste with the salt, add to the olive oil with the rosemary, pepper and chilli powder. Massage the paste into the leg of lamb and leave to marinate for a few hours or overnight if possible. To barbecue, light the charcoal and allow to burn for 15 minutes until the flames have died down and the embers are red hot. Remove the lamb from the fridge an hour before you cook it. Place the leg of lamb on the barbecue and cover with the lid. Cook for 15 minutes then top up the charcoal and turn the meat. Continue the process until the meat registers 65˚C at the thickest part of the joint. This can take between 1½ hours to 2 hours depending on the heat of your barbecue and the thickness of the meat. When done, remove from the heat and rest, covered for about 20 minutes. Carve and serve with a selection of salads and baked potatoes or toasted pitta breads.

BARBECUE STEAK WITH GREEN BEAN AND TOMATO SALAD VEGETARIAN ALTERNATIVE: Roast whole peppers on the barbecue until the skin blisters black. Allow to cool slightly, peel off the skin and remove the stalk and seeds. Grill slices of halloumi cheese, wrap in the grilled pepper with some fresh herbs and serve.

Metalman Pale Ale [Metalman Brewing] Dark gold American-style with grapefruit and mandarin citrus notes and a dry finish.

Serves 4 4 striploin or ribeye steaks 300g green beans, cooked and cooled 300g cherry tomatoes 100g black olives 1 tbsp capers, drained or rinsed 6 anchovy fillets (optional) 3 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar Salt Black pepper

Light your barbecue. While the flames are subsiding brush the steaks with 1 tbsp of olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Slice the green beans and tomatoes, chop two of the anchovies (if using) and combine with the olives and capers. Mix the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil with the vinegar and set aside. Place the steaks on the grill and cook for about 2 minutes each side for rare, 3 minutes each side for medium and 4 minutes per side for well done – striploin cook faster than ribeye. Turn every minute to ensure even cooking and prevent too much charring. Remove steaks and rest, covered for 10 minutes. Dress the green bean salad with the oil and vinegar, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve the steaks with the salad and garnish with the remaining anchovies and a drizzle of olive oil.

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RECIPES

PORK KEBABS WITH PEA, BROADBEAN & MINT SALAD Serves 6

Pork Kebabs 500g fresh pork cubed 3 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp honey Sunflower or olive oil Metal skewers (or wooden skewers soaked) Pea, Broadbean & Mint Salad 200g peas, fresh or frozen 100g broadbeans, shelled Iceberg lettuce, shredded 2 sprigs of mint, leaves chopped 2 tbsp white wine vinegar 1 green chilli, chopped 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp salt Sunflower or olive oil Pork Kebabs: Fire up the barbecue and wait until flames subside and the embers are glowing. Mix the honey and soy and set aside.

Place 3-4 cubes of pork onto each skewer, brush with oil and place on the grill. Cook for a minute on each side then baste each one with the honey and soy. Continue turning and basting every minute for 6 minutes until cooked through and glazed on the outside.

Serve with the salad.

Deception Golden Ale [Trouble Brewing] Full-bodied ale with hop bitterness, subtle fruit and crisp, lingering finish.

HOT DOGS WITH CARAMELISED ONION CHUTNEY

Serves 4-6

Hot Dogs 6 large sausages 6 hot dog buns Vegetable oil Chutney (makes 3 jars) 1kg red onions, peeled, halved and sliced finely 1 small red chilli, sliced 2-3 bay leaves 12 cracked black peppercorns 25ml olive oil 200g brown sugar 2 tsp brown mustard seeds 150ml balsamic vinegar 150ml red wine vinegar

Hot Dogs: Fire up the barbecue and wait until flames subside and the embers are glowing. Prick the sausages all over and brush with oil. Place on the grill and cook, uncovered, turning every minute for six minutes. Check if they are cooked; if not then cook for a further minute or two. Split the buns and toast cut-side down. Place the buns on a plate, top with the chutney and sausages.

Chutney: Heat the olive oil over a moderate heat in a large non-reactive saucepan. Add the onions and chili and cook, stirring frequently for five minutes until they begin to soften. Add the bay leaves and continue to cook for a further 15-20 minutes until the onions are a dark caramel shade and sticky. Add the remaining ingredients and stir well to combine. Once the mixture begins to bubble, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. When finished, allow to

Pea, Broadbean & Mint Salad: Combine the chopped mint, chilli, vinegar and sugar in a bowl and set aside. Boil some water in a saucepan and add the peas, broadbeans and salt, cook for 3 minutes, drain and allow to cool. Place the iceberg lettuce in a large bowl and dress with one or two teaspoons of oil, add the vegetables and combine gently. Just before serving, drizzle over the mint dressing.

cool before pouring into sterilised jars. The chutney can be eaten right away; or it will keep for up to six months. The flavours will continue to develop and improve. This chutney is great with barbecued meats, cold meats and cheese.

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RECIPES

Prawn Brochettes

PRAWN BROCHETTES

Serves 6

1kg fresh prawns, peeled and deveined 3 sprigs of mint, chopped 1 chilli, chopped 1 lime, juice and zest 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar Olive oil Lemons or limes to serve Metal skewers (or wooden skewers soaked)

Prepare the barbecue as before. Combine the chopped mint, chilli, lime juice, zest and balsamic vinegar. Peel and devein the prawns but leave the tail on. Pour the mixture over the prawns and allow to marinate for 30 minutes. Thread the prawns onto skewers, 4 or 5 on each depending on size. Reserve the marinade.

Place the skewers on the grill and cook for 4 minutes turning every minute and basting with the remaining marinade. Serve with the pea and broadbean salad (opposite) and some crusty bread.

Carrig Irish Lager [Carrig Brewing] Czech-style beer with Saaz hops and soft Leitrim water.

Crisp pilsner style.

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BOOK REVIEWS

THE WAY THAT WE CLIMBED A History of Irish Hillwalking, Climbing and Mountaineering

by Paddy O’Leary. €19.99.

Paddy O’Leary sets out to celebrate a long-standing and ever-growing Irish fascination with mountaineering: from the activity’s earliest beginnings, he chronicles its growth as a sport. O’Leary begins his historical recap in the late 19th century and introduces us to one of Irish mountaineering’s very first devotees, Henry Christopher Hart. Alongside his fellow mountaineers, Hart began to pave the way for Irish hillwalking and made room for further exploration. The book highlights how knowledge of the activity grew and travelled, as we learn of other alpinists who began to see Irish hills as having great expedition potential.

One such 20th century alpinist, Geoffrey Winthrop Young, took an interest in exploring Irish ascents and would later persuade his cousin, Page Dickinson, to take up climbing – the latter would become associated with the United Arts Club, a social group containing many climbers. As the years went on, what began as an activity reserved for the middle class began to grow and reach out to all social classes. 1948 saw the formation of the Irish Mountaineering Club, which provided a step forward for Irish mountaineering through the planning and discussion of new routes and enthusiasm from a younger generation. The decade saw climbers push the boundaries of the sport even further by setting up new climbing routes in the Black Valley and the Gap of Dunloe. Women were welcomed into the clubs, illustrating the backdrop of gender inequality that prevailed in the fifties. Ireland’s growing self-assurance in the sixties led to better standards, and a greater ownership of cars led to more distant expeditions and a wider awareness.

Paddy O’Leary discusses in detail the metaphorical climb that mountaineering and hill walking took over the years, envisaging its future in Ireland with the help of many climbers along the way. Throughout the decades we learn of the mountaineers, hillwalkers and climbers whose input formed and structured what we have come to know as the activity it is today.

SUMMER BOOKSHELF ENOUGH IS PLENTY The Year on the Dingle Peninsula

by Felicity Hayes-McCoy. €14.99.

Felicity Hayes-McCoy captures the cycle of the seasons in a warm and vivid way. Her book celebrates the old Celtic ways and traditions of the four seasons – Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lughnasa – and depicts the seasonal rhythms that belong to each through a personal account of the traditional activities and celebrations that take place in the modern town of Corca Dhuibhne, Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula.

Sprinkled with accounts of her own childhood memories, seasonal recipes and traditions passed down by her mother, the reader cannot help but be drawn into the seasons she depicts through her personal experience. As she writes from her stone house in the Dingle Peninsula, you can almost hear the fire crackling and the birds chirping as the seasons in her book melt into one another through her peaceful and transitional depictions. Each season comes alive, and along with the photos that visualise her words, the book acts somewhat as a portal for the reader to life on the Dingle Peninsula.

With her advice on gardening, personal recipes and descriptions of how the community marks the four seasons, Hayes-McCoy paints a picture of a 21st century community reflecting on ancient rhythms of their Celtic past.

A book that brings light to “ordinary things and small, bright pleasures that can go easily unnoticed”, she succeeds in lighting a torch for the small rituals and traditions that are still very much respected in the Dingle community. A lively 21st century town with a strong connection to its Celtic past, the history of the Celts can be felt along the Atlantic seaboard, where the changing of the seasons is still linked to the rhythms of the Celtic calendar. The book encapsulates a real sense of tradition; a celebration of modern life nodding to the Celtic past.

Yeats for your Diary

We went to press as the calendar marked 150 years since the birth of Sligo’s Nobel prizewinning son, but a full programme of celebrations continues. See www.yeats2015.com and www.yeatssociety.com for more.

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FASHION

COUNTRY LIVING Anderson quilted jacket, €246; Annabelle jeans, €78; Annie cotton tee, €42, Aquascutum

STYLISH BUYS FROM THE TRENDIEST BRANDS FOR SUMMER IN THE COUNTRYSIDE. Compiled by Rachel Murray & Jane Quinn

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FASHION Passigatti blue mix printed scarf, €19.95, Fabucci

LEFT: Oasis delicate emb lace blouse, €34, House of Fraser BELOW: Derocky, €95, Dune

ABOVE: Combined knit padded vest, €49.95, Zara BELOW: Canvas lace-ups, €37, Next

Oversized blue casual shirt, €33, Next

Hers

Venice denim shorts, €99, Tommy Hilfiger

ABOVE: Tortoiseshell oversized retro sunglasses, €13.50, Marks & Spencer BELOW: Camel chinos, €59.95, Zara

Geishas, €79, Dune

Inge blazer, €199, Tommy Hilfiger

LEFT: Short parka with detachable lining, €79.95, Zara

LEFT: A-line sweater, €162, Aquascutum BELOW: Khaki denim leggings, €33, Next

Women’s original tall wellington boots, €120, Hunter

Indigo collection pure wool fedora hat, €35, Marks & Spencer RIGHT: Oversized white casual shirt, €30, Next

Weekend Max Mara Audrey chino pants, €165, Brown Thomas

RIGHT: Faux snakeskin belt, €20, Marks & Spencer BELOW: Cathryne, €85, Dune

Kerry cotton knit, €90, Aquascutum

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FASHION RIGHT: Khaki check tailored fit jacket, €140, Next BELOW: Dark blue coated slim jean, €44.84, Burton London

Blue harbour tortoiseshell half-rimmed rectangular frame sunglasses, €35, Marks & Spencer

LEFT: Jeff Banks brown chronograph watch, €127.50, Debenhams BELOW: Suede moccasin loafers, €53.24, Burton London

ABOVE: Howard crepe polo, €84, Aquascutum LEFT: Polo Ralph Lauren sand brushed twill shorts, €143, Harvey Nichols BELOW: RedHerring brown leather boat shoes, €54, Debenhams

LEFT: Tissot mechanical skeleton pocket watch, €865, Campbell Jewellers RIGHT Selected one-button blazer, €99.95, Brown Thomas

His

NN.07 Marco sand brushed cotton chinos, €136, Harvey Nichols

Yeats, €278, Dubarry

ABOVE: Crushable safari, €63, Christys’ London RIGHT: Johnston, €110, Dubarry

ABOVE: Yellow gold polka dot tie, €16, River Island BELOW: Galway boot, €350, Dubarry

Hallam cashmere roll neck, €345, Aquascutum

Brown leather panelled lace-up formal shoes, €65, River Island

Chinos with belt, €39.95, Zara

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MOTORING

Offroad AT LAST Conor Forrest examines the latest addition to Land Rover’s stable – the impressive Discovery Sport.

F

or many years, the differences between Land Rover and Range Rover models could be boiled down to the following: the former belongs in a field, the latter in the driveway of a fancy house, wellprepared for an off-roading life it will never experience. When you think of a Land Rover it’s quite often the rugged Defender that springs to mind, a beast forged from pig iron that will tackle anything short of a journey to Australia under the ocean. When you think of a Range Rover, you think of the baby Evoque SUV that had a special edition designed by Victoria Beckham. They don’t appear to inhabit similar worlds.

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MOTORING There has, however, in recent years been a blending of these utilitarian and premium styles. The Land Rover Discovery is now more of an upmarket beast, for example, as is the brand new Discovery Sport. Even the Defender itself, which will cease production in December of this year, has seen the creeping in of some creature comforts, like a radio, or heating.

NEW ENTRY The new Discovery Sport arrives along the same lines. The baby brother to the Discovery 4, it replaces the outgoing compact SUV Freelander models and shares its basis with the Beckham-designed Evoque. It’s definitely better looking than the regular Discovery, what with its aggressive stance and sculpted lines.

Though it might be based somewhat on the more upmarket Evoque, the Discovery Sport is actually cheaper, clocking in at 37,100 for the entry level model (the former starts off at 41,935). Style-wise you’ve got four choices – beginning with the Discovery Sport S, followed by SE and HSE, with HSE Luxury sitting on top of the pile. The S model isn’t ill-equipped, however, with features like stop/start, terrain response, hill descent control, dynamic and roll stability control and emergency brake assist all included.

On the road it’s a pleasant drive, soaking up the bumps on our nation’s pockmarked roads. Despite being an SUV it doesn’t feel overly tall when you take the corners and if you’re on the motorway you’ll find it both comfortable and refined on the long journeys. But it’s also an offroading animal, with muck and gravel firmly entrenched in its DNA. In older off-road vehicles, or perhaps more sparse editions, off-roading without finding yourself upside down in a ditch is much more of a challenge than most 4x4 editions these days. The Discovery Sport’s Terrain Response system, for example, turns a hairy exercise into a much more manageable affair through enhanced traction, a reduction in torque produced by the engine alongside optimisation of the accelerator and brakes. And it works, as it seems like the Sport will be able to haul itself out of and over any obstacle you point its nose at.

It’s practical too. Despite the fact that the Sport is only 9cm longer than the outgoing Freelander, you can get a sevenseater version (five regular incarnations plus two more that you can unfold).

They’re not exactly built to cross the Wicklow Mountains while avoiding any roads, but they’ll do for a taxi run into town on a Saturday night. In the back there’s a loadspace of up to 541l, rising to 1,698l when you fold the seats flat.

For technology buffs there’s intelligent

CLOSE UP

DRIVER CONTROL A multi-function heated leather steering wheel comes as standard on the SE models and up. Flappy paddles are also available should you desire a sportier experience.

TARMAC OR GRAVEL? The Discovery Sport’s terrain response system allows you to choose from grass, gravel and snow, mud and ruts, and sand settings providing you with traction and composure on all surfaces.

GEAR SELECTION Automatic models feature a rotary gear selector that rises out of the central console when the engine is turned on, similar to the Land Rover Evoque. Just turn the knob to select from P, R, N, D or S.

ABOVE: The Discovery Sport is a pleasant drive: it’s comfortable on long journeys, yet it has offroading in its DNA.

park assist, an optional surround camera, wade sensing when you enter water, a blind spot monitor, reverse traffic detection that warns of hazards, and autonomous emergency braking that can help avoid collisions and reduce the impact.

For the more environmentally (or economically) conscious, there’s also an optional fuel efficiency feature. There’s an automatic tailgate too, perfect for those who refuse to carry in the shopping in more than one trip.

The only thing you could really complain about is the interior. It’s a little more spartan than one might have imagined, lacking in any real sense of occasion – it doesn’t feel like you’ve forked out on anything really special. Having said that, the entertainment system is a big positive, as is the acres of room.

Overall it’s a comfortable and practi-

CLIMATE CONTROL Dual-zone climate control comes as standard for the front two seats – if you’re in the back you’ll just have to make do with either an open window or a handheld fan.

TOUCHSCREEN The 8-inch colour touchscreen is home to your media centre, and displays optional extras like wade sensing, 360 surround camera and eco efficiency mode details.

THE STATS ENGINE:

Land Rover Discovery Sport 2.2l SD4 SE

0100KM/H:

8.9s

TOP SPEED:

188km/h

BHP:

190

L/100KM:

~6.3 (45mpg)

BOOT SPACE:

541l (seats up)/1,698l (folded)

ANNUAL ROAD TAX: PRICE TAG:

€570

starting from €37,100

cal machine that’s quite enjoyable on the roads and even greater fun when you leave the tarmac, mixing the rugged spirit of the Defender with the more upmarket comfort of the Range Rover. There’s no doubt the Discovery Sport is a more-thancapable successor to the Freelander, perfect for a life off the beaten track.

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ADVERTISING FEATURE

LAST YEAR, the innovative farm partnership of Andrew Purcell at Kiltallaght Farm and Alf McGlew at Rinkinstown Farm in Termonfeckin in Co Louth successfully switched from electricity to Flogas LPG for its dairy operations.

Once the milk quotas were abolished, their planned increase to 25 milking points from the existing 20 and the replacement of the existing 10,000-litre storage tank with a 20,000-litre tank would dramatically increase their need for large amounts of hot water on demand.

Their current system of heating water by electricity was proving costly as the majority had to be done on the electricity day rate. The solution was two 56kw Andrews FASTflo water heaters installed onto an internal or external wall (no additional weather protection required) and then piped to a Flogas LPG tank placed on-site.

The new Flogas heating system provides on-demand hot water, determined by an easy to use temperature controller that allows it to be heated from anywhere between 37°C to 80°C, effectively killing bacteria. The LPG tank is fitted with a telemetry system to monitor usage and alert Flogas to schedule deliveries.

Andrew said: “The new Flogas system is working brilliantly for our business

In Hot

Water

Farm partnership is ahead of the curve for hot water solutions.

6 L-r: Andrew Purcell of Kiltallaght Farm, Termonfeckin and Tom Wall, Flogas sales executive, with

the two Andrews FASTflo water heaters wallmounted in the background, part of the farm’s new dairy hot water system.

and we are delighted with the sheer efficiency of it. The instantaneous hot water is incredible; we now never have to worry about running out, whereas previously we

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MOTORING

THE FABULOUS FABIA

Conor Forrest looks at the new 2015 Skoda Fabia.

THERE’S NO DOUBT that the design of Skoda’s ever-widening stable has come on on leaps and bounds over the years, as has the Czech car manufacturer itself.

The Octavia, for example, has gone from strength to strength, not just in its build quality but also in terms of looks.

The new Fabia is a lot like its elder brothers now, all sharp lines and strong curves, as Skoda seek to attract a more youthful buyer for their popular supermini. That’s also the likely reason behind the introduction of ColourConcept, which allows for some colour customisation of the wheels, side mirrors and the roof. The roof has been lowered by 3cm too, changing its profile from awkward to more sporty, and reducing roll on the road.

Inside, the Fabia is more comfortable and spacious – the passenger compartment is longer and wider, while those in the front will benefit from extra headroom. It has a luggage capacity of 330l, among the largest in its class, rising to 1,150l with the rear seats folded. A number of compartments and pockets add to the feeling of extra space, as does the optional panoramic glass roof. The armrest doubles as an additional small compartment, but if you’re long of arm it can prove to be a bit of an annoyance when working the handbrake.

The only real negative is the MirrorLink system that replicates your phone’s apps on the centre screen, currently only supporting some Android devices, but it should provide for Apple CarPlay later this year.

There are some troubles with the Wi-Fi signal, however, and this is also the only way to get sat nav on the centre console.

Otherwise, the media centre includes an impressive array of radio stations and Bluetooth connectivity – you can play music wirelessly through your phone, although the USB slot was clearly having an off-day and refused to read my phone and MP3 player. Another info screen in the centre of the instrument cluster displays media and vehicle info including driving data, all controlled from the slightly large but comfortable steering wheel. Thankfully, Skoda has opted for dashboard simplicity rather than information overload.

Our model was actually quite fun to drive given that it’s powered by a 90bhp 1.2TSI (petrol) engine, and surprisingly quick particularly when moving up through the lower gears, while the engine gurgles nicely when you put the foot down. Married to a smooth five-speed gearbox and a comfortable suspension that can easily negate regular bumps and potholes, it’s a relatively serene driving experience. It’s also a highly efficient one – I managed a combined 5.8l/100km (49mpg) and did roughly 670km on a full tank without driving too easy.

Prices start from e13,895 for the 1.0 MPI 60bhp Active model, rising to e21,295 for the 1.4 TDI 105bhp version.

I’d suggest going for the Ambition level 1.2 TSI petrol version – in addition to the Active equipment you get a touchscreen radio, front fog lamps, a speed

THE STATS ENGINE:

Skoda Fabia 1.2l TSI Ambition

OUTPUT:

90 bhp

060MPH:

10.9 seconds

L100KM:

~6 (48mpg)

BOOT SPACE:

330l (seats up)/1,150l (folded)

ANNUAL ROAD TAX: €190 COST:

From €16,695 (this model)

limiter, Bluetooth, heated mirrors, rear disc brakes and increased storage space (storage box in the boot, drawers under the front seats and luggage pockets on the backrest). You’ll also get a 110bhp petrol engine with plenty of poke (0-100 in 10.9 seconds), an annual tax bill of e190, and an overall price tag of e17,695.

Sharply styled with more personality and practicality, and good value for money, the new Fabia would appear to be another winner from Skoda.

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2015

LAND MARKET REVIEW AND OUTLOOK

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THE BACK PAGE

COMPUTER

It’s late, and there’s messing afoot.

Like writing ‘Ear To The Ground’ with the combine harvester in someone’s wheat field.

Like seeing how far we get up this slope before the tractor topples. Like knocking over trees in a forest just for the sheer obnoxiousness of it. There are laws against these things, and rightly so. It’s just as well we’re attempting this in a computer game and not real life. This is Farming Simulator 15, and while that sounds like the most boring idea since the Excel spreadsheet, it’s actually good fun. The premise is so simple that it’s barely worth describing: there’s a virtual farm, and you spend your time sowing and harvesting crops, rearing livestock and whatever else, and it keeps score.

But it’s the detail that makes Farming Simulator fascinating and even entertaining, with a bottomless depth of machinery and landscape and scenarios both exotic and familiar. A vast understanding of inputs and outputs makes the scores as true to life as can be. There’s a thriving online community of people who create their own modifications to the game, adding on new machinery. Finally the Irish farmer’s time-honoured dream of his/her personal oilwell can be realised. You can even attach a steering wheel to the Playstation and drive around at 10mph for added realism, though someone has laudably coded a Bugatti Veyron supercar in which to hare around AVAILABLE ON PC, PS4, XBOX ONE, PS3 & XBOX 360. the place. The drawbacks to all this nonsense? It takes up a lot of time, and you don’t get any food or money out of it. And since that might sound like a lot of farming categories right now, there’s an added bonus: in the comfort of your own front room, the rain’s not a factor.

world

We take millions of quid worth of farming machinery and try to wreck everything in sight – but Farming Simulator is no ordinary game.

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