The statistics around death on the farm are stark and we’ve heard them many times. In 2014, the worst year for farm deaths in over 20 years, 30 people died on farms in Ireland. This number decreased in 2015 to 18 but rose again last year to 21.

However, too often these numbers can appear as just that – numbers. The human story behind the tragedy gets lost as we report on farm death after farm death.

Over the years, families have been brave enough to open up to us about how fatal accidents on the farm have affected them and we feature some of these below.

Farm deaths

West Cork farmer Denis Keohane lost his nine-year-old son Shannan almost 14 years ago in a farm accident when he got caught in a PTO. Read his story