CountryWide

Countrywide Full Episode 18/01/2024

With Pat O’Toole, political editor of the Irish Farmers Journal and Dr Cara Augustenborg, a member of the Climate Change Advisory Council.

Spring is coming to the fertile lands of the Jordan Valley. Ollie Moore, a member of Talamh Beo, has just returned from visiting Palestinian farmers there.

Sailing clubs are supporting a unique project to restore native oysters in Dublin Bay, which is spearheaded by coffee distributor David Lawlor of the not-for-profit Green Ocean Foundation.

We are in the middle of January and often the long dark winter nights can be challenging. Brenda Donohue wants to hear from people around the country with interesting ideas to have fun at this time of year.

With only half of farms having a succession plan in place, and a cohort of young men and women dying for the chance to get farming but with no access to land, we explore farming partnerships in Westmeath.

Countrywide Full Show 11/01/2024

Down on her family farm near Banteer, Janet Heeran was snow-bound this week, the children were off school and her husband busy around the yard, as she recounts in her postcard from North Cork.

We hear from three entrepreneurs who wanted to work and live in rural Ireland and have developed businesses that allow them to do that. Next weekend, they will be attending Showcase, an annual trade fair held at the RDS.

With so many without power or water this week, one of our most valuable services is the Meals on Wheels network under the umbrella of Irish Rural Link, delivering 15,000 meals a week. Brenda Donohue visited Sona Sasta, Meals on Wheels in Summerhill in County Meath where she joined John and Carmel Swan knocking on doors with dinners in hand.

We hear advice from a couple who “out-winter” their cattle in a part of Scotland where temperatures can drop as low as -15C.

Our regular reporter Diarmuid McIntyre lives near the Ballyhoura Mountains in Limerick. He bumped into John Hughes and Michael Nolan of Activo, working on behalf of the ESB, getting power back to some of his neighbours under very difficult conditions.

Hill sheep farmer Mary-Catherine Murphy lives in the hills above the highest village in Ireland, Roundwood in Co Wicklow. We find out how she fared during the cold snap.

Countrywide Full Episode 04/01/2025

Dairy farmer Thomas Duffy; Maura Walsh CEO of IRD Duhallow; Professor Yvonne Buckley, who manages the co-centre for Climate and Biodiversity; Jack Kennedy, editor of the Irish Farmers Journal

Patrick O’Neill milks 120 cows on 150 acres just outside Edgeworthstown, Co Longford. Last year he won Teagasc’s Grassland Sustainability Award.

Seamus O’Rourke in Leitrim pays tribute to his mother.

Some of our favourite stories from 2024: selling up and shipping out at Carnew Mart in Co. Wicklow, learning to look at Roscommon in a whole new way, and a lifetime of training leads to a win after retirement age in Cork.

On this week's Countrywide, we meet storytellers, wren enthusiasts and convivial shop keepers, all wrapped up with music from Lyric FM's Choirs for Christmas. For copyright reasons, some of the music has been shortened in this podcast version.

Countrywide Full Episode 14/12/2024