1. How did you get into agri radio journalism?

Purely by accident. My predecessor was retiring and somebody in the station said: “I know someone who can do that.” I was just retiring from active farming. Still doing it after 18 years.

2. Most memorable interview?

A young man, with absolutely no background in agriculture, who emigrated to New Zealand.

His dream going was to be a professional rugby player but his shoulders gave out so he did a licence to become a crop sprayer.

Found out after getting his licence that he wouldn’t get work because he hadn’t the number of hours done. So he went to work on a farm.

That man today has his own farm and is milking in excess of 700 cows and the last time I spoke to him, his ambition was to become a board member of Fonterra.

3. Career highlight?

Being shortlisted for our own awards in 2020 [Guild of Agricultural Journalism Awards – ‘Best Audio Report’]. That’s all any of us ever want, affirmation that we’re doing the right thing.

4. Game-changing moment in time for agricultural journalism?

BSE mad cow disease. I remember being told that there was a case in Ireland and the head of the newsroom saying to me: “Well now Jim, you’re going to have to do a piece on this.”

I turned around and told him: “I’m not doing anything negative about BSE and I’m not doing anything negative about farmers or the industry, I’m going to do something positive.”

So I found the head scientist and he turned that bad story around and made it a good story, if that’s possible, as far as being BSE was concerned. I remember getting phone calls, people saying: “Jim that was one great interview.”

That was the only conversation I had about BSE. I only do good stories. I have proven that people will listen to good stories.

The number one thing in journalism, you state the facts, you tell the truth and then you try to find a positive angle. If you come out as a positive person, giving positivity and a voice to the ordinary person, you are on to a winner.

5. How has radio changed?

Social media has changed it completely because stories are instant. How we present radio has changed [in terms of] professionalism and I say that having come into it as a complete amateur.

We have to be very careful that every single fact is checked and double checked. I’ve only got into trouble once in 18 years.

Only once has any agency I’ve spoken to come back and said, “We want to correct that Jim”.

Another thing that has changed from when I started, I could pick up the phone and call any government minister, whereas now I have to get clearance from their PR.

There is a fear among civil servants and politicians that they will say the wrong thing.

I suppose this has changed because some journalists chase sensationalism the whole time. Looking for the one word that somebody is going to say in an interview and turn it around.

We’ve all suffered losing that direct contact. You remember Mary Coughlan? She was great [to interview] and could use choice language. Helen McEntee’s father too, lovely man.

6. Your three dinner party guests, who and why?

Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. I’m intrigued by how we got here, how big the universe is and I’m intrigued to know how it will all end.

Stephen Hawking would have seen climate change coming but to be honest, I foresaw this happening when I was in school because I was always interested in people and world populations and feeding people. That’s all part of being a farmer.

7. Regrettable changes in agriculture?

Speaking from my own experience, the reliance on producing just one commodity on a farm, whether it’s milk or grass or grain – going away from mixed farming. Income contributed and all the information that we got as young farmers in the ’60s is today all wrong.

Back then the science didn’t tell us the truth but the positive thing is now science is telling us the truth and we should respect what we are being told.

8. The future for agri journalism on radio?

It’s good because we tell the good story. There are thousands of good stories across the island of Ireland.

The story needs to be told in such a way that people understand that food is coming from your locality, your county or your country. Backing our farmers to do the right thing.

9. Should farmers defend the industry on radio?

Our modern farmers, irrespective of what kind of farming they are in, are highly educated and absolutely at the top of their game.

I love talking to young people because they are so intelligent and well able to articulate their point of view. They might need a small bit of help to tell their story in such a way that it’s understandable to people living in our cities and we [agri media] have a role to play in that.

10. Radio anecdote

I nearly got kicked out of boarding school because of radio. I went to the Jesuits in Limerick.

I smuggled a transistor radio into the college and my fellow students found out and we eventually wired the whole dormitory.

We took the headphones out of the science laboratory and a few other places we could get them and gave everybody half a headphone and a wire under their pillow and we were all listening to radio Luxembourg 208. Until we got caught of course!