I was born, bred and reared in Charleville, I remember when Charleville Show was started by Fr O’Driscoll and where it was originally held, in Binchy’s field near the church on the Limerick road. Now it is one of the biggest shows in the country.

New blood is what will keep it going, although it’s very important to keep a happy medium of youth and experience. Bernie [Joe’s wife] went to the show one year and came home as the treasurer. Then she later became vice-chair.

You’re all the time being asked for sponsorship. There is no such thing as a bad cause or charity, although there has to be a limit. Sponsorship for me is one of two things: you get some form of advertising but you’re also supporting something. You’re giving something back to a community from which you’re making your livelihood.

When a community is good to you and supports you, of course you are going to support that community. So while nobody exactly knows what advertising pays back through sponsorship, there is that other sense of paying it forward.

I sponsor the supreme pony championship at Charleville each year. The supreme champion is the pinnacle – it’s the ultimate of that year’s show. I’d hope that any of the supreme champion winners at Charleville will always have fond memories of the day.

ADVICE FOR FARMERS

It will be 40 years next July since I started Joe Carroll Insurance, for general house and farm insurance, plus life assurance. The changes in that time have been huge, especially for a small independent business and also for farming. Farming is one of the industries most affected by theft but it is very difficult to get farm equipment insured.

The most important thing is to keep a register of your equipment and chassis numbers. Farmers are often handy at welding and welding your name into the chassis is one deterrent. Another farmer painted everything he had in distinguishable colours, even the shovel was always painted red. You can add an identification mark to equipment and keep any serial numbers, anything that will help prove it’s your property. And if you’re taking a photograph of any piece of equipment or machinery, get a family member to stand into the photograph.

CHANGE IN RURAL IRELAND

I think farming has been changing so hard and fast over the last 10 to 15 years. One of the big problems now is finding labour because farms have had to become bigger. It’s about producing volume now and the number of people directly involved is getting smaller.

Rural Ireland is changing with the closure of the local shop, the closure of the filling station, the closure of the post office. With the multiples coming into all regional towns, the local shop is unable to compete with them at a competitive price.

People would love to have the convenience of the corner shop, yet they want the corner shop to sell items at the same price as the big multiples and that is completely unsustainable – it’s unrealistic. That’s what is happening and there’s less and less people coming to rural Ireland.

GAP IN THE MARKET

Bernie saw a gap in the market for bringing students to Ireland and has built it into a very successful business [Student Programmes Ireland] with seven people working for us. She works very hard at it and her motto is to give the students the experience of living in a real Irish setting while learning English at the same time.

All the students – from Spain, Germany, France and Italy – are hosted with local families in the Golden Vale. The students’ parents know that English is the international business language and their children need to learn English – one of the big pluses for rural Ireland because it’s real money coming into the country.

Last year we paid over a million euros to local families. We use local buses to bring them from the airport, we use local school suppliers for books and uniforms – everyone gets something out of the pot.

Brexit means there may be more and more students coming to Ireland if Britain is no longer part of the EU.

The links built up between the families is phenomenal. Irish children go out visiting, students come back with their own families and we’ve even had one Irish wedding.

We as a family – Bernie and my son – do a lot of fundraising. Each Christmas, we’ll transform our garden into a winter wonderland, Liam Ruttle supplies the marquee and all the donations go to charity. This year’s charities are the Irish Heart Foundation, Pieta House and St Joseph’s Foundation in Charleville. Life has to be about giving and taking.