Tara Fourie landed on Irish shores in July 2012, from “buzzing” Johannesburg where “there’s always something on” to Killeigh, Co Offaly, where “you look out the back window and there’s a field out there and you walk down the road and you have to be careful of tractors more than anything”.

But what brought Tara to Killeigh in the first place? “It was coming up to New Year’s 2012 and I wanted to go travelling, but I didn’t want to go anywhere without having a job lined up.”

Given her mother is from a farm in Greenrath, just outside Tipperary town (and moved to South Africa in the ’80s where she met Tara’s Dad), Ireland was an obvious choice. Tara found an advertisement for an au pair job to mind two little girls and on Friday 13 July she boarded a plane, Killeigh-bound. Killeigh may have been quiet, but Macra soon changed that.

“There are good people in Macra. It was just great – like an automatic group of friends just waiting for you. That made settling in a lot easier. Instead of going up to the pub and waiting for people to talk to me, I kind of threw myself into anything and everything that was on offer in the club.”

The fact that she was from a city of almost one million people and yet found herself organising competitions in stockjudging didn’t put her off.

“Farming is a big part of Macra and rightly so. I think it’s very interesting and anything you can learn can’t be bad for you.”

Tara was chairperson of the Tullamore branch nine months later and the club has now been shortlisted for Club of the Year.

In December 2013, she finished her job as an au pair. Although she hadn’t intended staying in Ireland longer than 10 months, the pull for her to stay was the craic she was having in Macra. She did a course is pastry and bread-making in Athlone IT and got a job in a restaurant in Ferbane.

“Ireland was like a piece in a puzzle, it just worked for me.”

Tara feels she may have been made extra welcome because she was a foreigner and she notes that there are other foreign members in clubs across the country.

“Macra has completely changed my life, it’s changed who I am. It’s a group of people that are accepting, warm and welcoming. It allows me to develop my skills as a leader. I never played sport in my life but now I play soccer on a Wednesday. What hasn’t it done for me? I’m one of its biggest fans to be honest.”

So will Tara be holding the reins of Tullamore and perhaps even Offaly Macra for years to come?

“I haven’t any plans to go anywhere else. South Africa is a wonderful country, but my life there is finished and my life here is starting. I’m happy here.”

Macra members

Killian Power

Killian Power has Macra to thank for meeting his wife Rosemarie, even though he originally joined to play pool.

“She lived three miles away but I didn’t know her even though I went to school with her brother. When she walked into the room, my exact words were: “She will be mine.” She told me many years later that she thought I was obnoxious. I gave the impression I was confident, but it was a front.”

Fast forward 20 years and the Powers have three children – Louis (12), Roseanne (nine) and Peter (six) (pictured right).

Killian and Rosmarie became very good friends through Macra drama.

“I loved drama. I was bitten by the bug. I got a buzz out of it. You do like to get a bounce off the audience.”

Although Killian claims Rosemarie was a better actor than he, collecting many best actress awards, he didn’t do too badly himself.

“Such was the high standard of sketches and comedy in Macra, it was easier to do well in the RTÉ Comedy Awards,” he contends.

After performing at those awards in Vicar St, Killian was asked to do his sketch on The Late Late Show.

Killian is more interested in drama than comedy now and has done several plays in the last few years and is taking to the stage for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in the next few weeks.

“There’s no way I’d ever have gotten up on stage without Macra,” concludes Killian. “I would never hold a microphone in my hand. You’re pushed into it and it’s hard going, but it’s worth it.”

I have friends from all over Ireland

Sarah Hayes

Sarah Hayes’ Macra friends tell her she should have been a farmer’s daughter – that she must have been separated at birth and given to the wrong parents.

This is because, although a “townie down to the ground”, she has a love of the countryside and animals “in her” and has a flair for all things rural. Sarah came first in the U23 dairy stockjudging this year and went straight to Leitrim for the final. But how does somebody who’s not even from a farm do so well in a dairy stockjudging competition?

“I don’t know,” she shrieks with laughter. “I had studied for it. People were saying I was a gas ticket.”

Sarah joined Macra last September because she had heard her farming friends raving about it. She says it has had a “very positive” impact on her life. With 40 members in Kilmeen Macra, it has increased her circle of friends (“you could really call us a family, we’re very close”), but she has also met people from all over the country.

“I have friends from all over Ireland. I’d be a very outgoing person anyway. I’m always up for going out at the weekends and doing something different.”

Sarah’s Macra experience so far has included club exchanges, community work, a club member winning Queen of the Land and her club winning Club of the Year in the Carbery region.

“There’s a lot going on in our group. The best thing is just the general craic – no matter where you go, there’ll always be craic and banter.”

Sarah notes that while she used to be very quiet, she now has no problem sitting down beside a stranger and striking up a conversation. She is counting down the days to the rally, describing last year’s as “the best two nights of my life. It was brilliant meeting loads of new people”.

She has words of wisdom for those considering joining Macra: “Go away and take the plunge and join it, you won’t regret it. Put your name down and don’t even think about it. It’s a brilliant organisation. For anyone who is quiet or isolated, it will bring them out of their shells. They’ll see a huge change in themselves.”