Three Hail Marys were said – one for Matt Talbot, one for Fr Willie Doyle and one for the conversion of Russia,” PJ laughs as he recalls how all that praying on their knees in the hinterland of Offaly led to the collapse of communism in Russia. It’s fond memories like these, of life growing up on a small farm in Clara, Co Offaly, that led to his new book Around The Farm Gate, a unique collection of 50 stories written by different authors detailing their experience of the rural Ireland in which they grew up. The collection is a collaboration between Countrywide (RTÉ Radio 1), the Irish Farmers Journal and Ballpoint Press Ltd.

“It’s a rapidly disappearing Ireland that is being written about here,” say PJ, an established journalist by profession, now living in Bray with his wife and five children.

“Growing up in rural Ireland – that will stay with you until the day you die: the rows over money and land; the importance of God and the rosary; the neighbours; and the problems with drink. My own granddad would go to the fair, and it could be three weeks before he’d come home again, so I come from that background.

“My mother prayed in threes – for the itinerants, for anyone travelling on the roads, and for the sailors of the seas – and we in landlocked Offaly,” he laughs.

It was when PJ read some of his own stories aloud on RTÉ’s Countrywide that he realised the need for a book like this to keep these stories alive.

“People were ringing me up from all over Ireland with stories of their own, and they weren’t being documented. That’s when I asked RTÉ and the Irish Farmers Journal if they would come on board, to get the word out there,” he says.

The response was phenomenal, with over 500 stories sent in from people all over Ireland. Fifty stories were chosen in the end, but PJ isn’t ruling out a second volume.

“It’s an anthology of modern Ireland from the 1950s to the turn of the century. All human life is accounted for, and some will make you laugh, and some will make you cry. It’s full of wonderful life moments, of friendships that go beyond the grave, and some are very touching, very personal, and deep,” he says.

Around The Farm Gate was launched at the National Ploughing Championships this September. There has been a huge demand for the book ever since, which is now available in most book shops around the country.

“We’re selling a lot in the run-up to Christmas. It’s perfect for anyone in their 50s, 60s or 70s who grew up in rural Ireland and can really relate the stories,” he says.

The book is receiving much international interest too.

“So many people left Ireland when they were young and never came back, and the thoughts they have when their head hits the pillow at night are of the little farm they grew up on back home. I’m just off the phone from a guy from America looking to get it over there, and there’s great interest from London too,” he says.

The stories are varied, from selling the old cow that was in the yard for 14 years, to death, to the donkey that was a right old bully and ran the house. PJ tells the story of one woman who went looking for “the cure” for her daughter, but needed a cure for herself in the end.

“The daughter got the mumps just before her Leaving Cert, so off the mother went looking for the cure. She was told that her daughter should go to a pig’s sty, put a pair of ass’s winkers on her head, and walk around it.

“So they did that anyway, and the daughter came out and told the mother she felt perfect. The mother was warned to stay in the car though, or it would interfere with the transferral of the mumps over to the pigs, and she’d catch them herself. Sure didn’t she have to get out to have a peak.”

Around the Farm Gate is available through Ballpoint Press. Visit www.ballpointpress.ie for more.