When I was in third class, I had a teacher called Mrs Murphy. She was a tough woman from Leitrim. But she had a soft spot for me because of my Cavan blood and liked to hear about me heading off as often as possible to visit my grandmother on the farm.

Mrs Murphy was a country woman of farming stock with a love of nature and she’d often have us out in the garden in school teaching us about all the different trees, plants and birds.

We may not have appreciated it at the time but I remember how important an extracurricular subject like this was for us nine- and 10-year-olds to learn about nature.

She was always asking me to tell the class about my latest trip to the farm where I would regale them with stories about suck calves, lambs and silage making. She had an appreciation for all the positives the countryside and farming life had.

And it was on the farm that I learned most about the natural world. Picking berries, catching butterflies, frogs and ladybirds and pulling vegetables were all part of being on the farm.

Farming has changed and is much different to those more innocent times

Gathering the eggs laid by hens, observing the bees buzzing in my granny’s pride and joy – her floral garden – and spotting pheasants, foxes, hares and rabbits racing through the meadows are memories which most people who grew up and grow up on farms or in the countryside will understand.

Innocent times

Farming has changed and is much different to those more innocent times. Farms are bigger and more intensive. And as a result, there is plenty of evidence to show how intensification of food production has adversely affected wildlife habitats and the broader environment. But it isn’t just farming.

I would have thought that urbanisation among other things have played a much bigger part. If anything, it is tens of thousands of small- to medium-sized farms that are actually most proactive in protecting the environment, be it out of conscience or as a result of incentives.

But you would be forgiven for thinking that it was careless farmers and them alone that are setting out to purposely destroy their very own workplace, their land, the soil and surrounding habitats.

Yes, sadly a huge divide has emerged between farmers and environmentalists and it is now getting very unseemly. The online debate plays the man rather than the ball more prominent on the anti-farmer side it must be said. Farmers who overuse pesticides, scorch ground or destroy hedgerows might deserve it.

If they were to get off Twitter for a while, Irish farming and environmentalism would actually find a lot of common ground and similar goals

But at the end of the day isn’t it plain to be seen that we are at a stage now where environmentalists and farmers need to grow up and begin to work together rather than hurl cheap ideological abuse at each other?

If they were to get off Twitter for a while, Irish farming and environmentalism would actually find a lot of common ground and similar goals. What use is a non-functioning ecosystem to any farm? They may seem unlikely bedfellows but what is to lose by environmentalists and farmers working with each other rather than throwing brickbats at each other.

It is in all our interests that they do and fast.

On a (Tiger) roll

Hats off to Davy Russell. Last Saturday’s Grand National was as much a classic race as it was historic, Russell piloting the magnificent Tiger Roll to back to back Aintree wins.

It was a true mark of the man that in the immediate aftermath he dedicated the win to his fellow Corkman and sportsman Kieran O’Connor. I backed Rachel Blackmore without knowing what horse she was riding, that’s how much I think of her as a class jockey.