Macra na Feirme’s biggest annual community initiative – the Macra na Feirme Know Your Neighbour campaign – is underway for 2017. This is the 12th year of the initiative where the organisation aims to bring neighbourhoods together by encouraging clubs to host Know Your Neighbour events in their regions.

Whether you live in a sparsely populated region or a city or town, it’s important to have a friendship with those living around you. No WhatsApp conversation or telephone call can replace physically meeting someone for a chat over a cup of tea. The goal of Know Your Neighbour is to tackle this issue and provide communities with an outlet for neighbours to get to know each other and establish a strong support network. You can organise an event any day of the week and it can be as simple as a coffee morning. Events that have been organised in past years include barbecues, country walks, charity runs, sports days and local area clean-ups.

Speaking about the campaign, Macra na Feirme president James Healy said: ‘‘Know Your Neighbour has become one of the cornerstones of what Macra na Feirme stands for. We want stronger Irish communities and it is through community initiatives such as this that we will achieve that goal. I would encourage all our clubs to organise an event big or small over the coming weeks.’’

Register your event on knowyourneighbour.ie and tell us how you got on. We’ll publish photos from your evening here on the Macra Irish Farmers Journal page – just send them to jcoffey@macra.ie

Upcoming events include:

  • Taste of Cavan: There will be a Know Your Neighbour meet-up at 2pm on 11 August at the Cavan Equestrian Centre.
  • Virginia Show: A Know Your Neighbour event will take place at the show from 10am on 23 August.
  • Ballinasloe: A Know Your Neighbour barbecue is taking place in the final week of August in the Cloonmweelaun, Menlough region of Galway. Email mariegooney4@gmail.com for more information.