EDITOR – Into the alphabet soup of Irish farming organisations plops the Farmers’ Alliance (FA).
In media briefings FA spokespersons have said the organisation will focus on repairing the image of farmers eking out a living from the soil. It may come as a revelation to farming organisations, urban dwellers, and the media, but rural Ireland is not a homogeneous farming neighbourhood.
Many non-farming people live and work in the countryside, commute from the countryside to work or have retired to a rural lifestyle. Like farmers, they face issues that affect the quality of their lives and their participation in society. Ranging from poor road infrastructure, nonexistent digital connection, a dearth of social services, local planning decisions that defy proper rural development, a light-touch policing presence, and so on.
On a daily basis they see the effects of industrial farming on the countryside as farmers shred basic neighborly tenets and use the countryside and its roads network as their factory floor without a thought for the views or eyes/ears of those who share the rural space.
The Irish farming community is a sliver of the Irish population. Entitled to be heard, but not entitled to be above scrutiny.
If the FA are donning the jacket of victimhood to say that farmers are being pilloried once again for rural Ireland failings, then that is not a good omen. Failing into an echo chamber like other farming organisations, the FA is castigating those calling out farming practices. Over time their political tractor will drop the tow hitch to provide a support base for issues like live animal exports, hunting, commercial turf cutting, and unfettered rural house building. Irish society is debating these third-rail issues as Ireland begins to adopt a long-horizon view of its development as a modern nation embracing a climate emergency.
Like its defunct American farming organization namesake, the proposed Farmers’ Alliance could be a movement culture for change in the Irish countryside. But if the FA does not bring every rural dweller onside by adopting a modern future-proof thinking to rural issues, it has, in sporting parlance, lost the farmyard.
John Tierney,
Chairperson,
Waterford Animal Concern,
Waterford.
Walk in my shoes to see the life of a farmer
EDITOR – In reply to the reader from Rathfarnham, who wrote into your newspaper proposing an end to the Irish cattle industry – it is obvious that you have never spent a week on an Irish family farm. I have spent 66 years on an Irish farm.
On an Irish farm, you feed your cattle first, then you have your breakfast. As a young farmer, you have your hopes and dreams of improving your enterprise. Over the years I have invested hundreds of thousands of euro in my firm and farmyard. We do not very much like someone from the ‘Dublin Pale’ to suggest that our way of life should be done away with in order that city dwellers may have a more pleasant cycle or walk in the countryside. To understand me, walk in my shoes for one month.
Michael Hallissey,
Mayfield,
Bandon.
Mandatory sentences for attacks on gardaí
EDITOR – Today we hear how a young garda was attacked in Dublin. It is another example of thugs willing to use violence against the public frontline workers and tourists. The government has agreed to up the sentence from seven to twelve years. However, a mandatory sentence is what we need. People need to be able to walk our streets without fear of these kind of attacks. We must send a clear message that frontline workers have all the support of the public in bringing these thugs to court ... and longer jail terms.
Noel Harrington,
Kinsale.
Ryan treated badly
EDITOR – I am not a fan of Ryan Tubridy. I have never watched him on TV, The Late Late Show or otherwise. I have never listened to Ryan’s radio show. However, I do feel that every person has the right to be treated in a reasonable manner. From the beginning I have felt that Ryan Tubridy has been treated ‘unfairly’ and has been made the ‘face’ of a problem created by RTE management. Now I feel he is being ‘victimised’ for the management policies of others. It reflects not only on RTE but on the Irish government.
Michael A Moriarty,
Rochestown.
