Peter O’Brien marks his 200th Farm Classics column for The Southern Star by looking back at his how his love for tractors grew from a young age.
BELIEVE it or not I’m not from any sort of farming background. I always had a great interest in tractors from a very young age and couldn’t wait to get into the driver’s seat.
I worked on farms during my early teens and drove tractors during the Celtic Tiger era for a plant hire firm, mainly around Cork city. With the exit of the ‘tiger’, I worked on a very mechanised dairy farm primarily as a tractor driver – my main roles being diet feeding, slurry spreading and silage.
One of Peter’s most memorable pieces was the story of nine-year-old Ryan Dudley’s Iseki TU160 Landhope.
I have always been very interested in the technical information surrounding tractors and have been to shows in both Paris and Germany on a number of occasions.
I cut my teeth driving a David Brown 1412 HydraShift, which was a great tractor to begin with as the main gears were a powershift not requiring the clutch.
I then progressed to Valmet 50 series – which excellent tractors.
From 2003 onwards, I spent a considerable amount of time on various New Holland TM tractors from a TM125 to a TM190.
I’ve always had an interest in taking photos of tractors. When I was not driving tractors, I was looking at tractors! I started avidly taking photos in 2006 – and won a runner-up prize in the Classic Tractor Magazine photography competition.
Subsequently the magazine contacted me to write an article based on some of the photos of older silage harvesters I submitted and the rest is history – I was bitten by the journalism bug. Similarly, submitting photographs to The Southern Star of tractors working led to the weekly column.
The highlight of writing the column has without a doubt been meeting people who are as passionate about tractors as I am.
I really appreciate the details around a tractor and how an operator approaches a job and utilises his/her machine.
I have been very fortunate to meet some great people and big characters. Taking photos of tractors and machinery working is also hugely enjoyable and taken me all over Cork and further afield.
I’m rarely without my camera and have an archive of almost 90,000 photos to date. It’s great to be able to take my oldest son Colm with me on outings taking photos.
It’s also given me the chance to write about some really interesting characters and stories. I am very proud of the recent articles of the West Cork Ford 3600 located in Ukraine, as well as the tribute I wrote about the late Tim Sheehan.
Young Ryan Dudley’s Iseki tractor and the late DJ Courtney’s gold belly Ferguson 20 are also other stand out articles for me.
When I first took on the role with The Southern Star I was not sure if I would achieve 50 articles so I’m looking very proud of the articles published to date.
I would also hope to write a children’s book in the near future exploring tractors and machinery used on Irish farms using photos I have taken.
With the gold painted ‘onion’ topped spire of the main Orthodox church in Dikanka town centre in the background, Eugene O’Sullivan with his Ford 3600 he transported from Bantry to Dikanka.
I post photos and videos periodically on my Instagram page @flashphotoscork.
By searching ‘farm classics’ online it will bring you to wide selection of articles on The Southern Star website. If you have any tractors – (workhorses or showponies) you would like featured in this newspaper please contact me [email protected].
I would like to thank former editor Siobhán Cronin for giving me the opportunity to write the weekly column alongside showcasing my photos, and to Martin Claffey, the editor of the articles for the past two years, as well as the staff in The Southern Star office.
A special thanks to my wife Siobhán for her support and encouragement, especially when writing runs into the small hours of the morning!
