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It’s Tuesday morning and I’m after driving the 240km from Shanagolden to the Farm Centre in Dublin.
It rained every inch of the way. It wasn’t just showers but real heavy rain. The gloom was compounded by a thick mist that smothered the tree tops, leaving no identifiable horizon.
There wasn’t even one clink of light, of clear blue in the gloomy grey sky.
What I’d give for a bright blue sky and a couple of weeks of dry weather. At home in Shanagolden, the land is almost moving it’s so wet.
We are getting the occasional dry-ish day but any gain made is immediately wiped out by a night’s heavy rain, not to mention harsh temperatures that keep ground conditions very cold for this time of year.
We have a big sycamore tree right beside the house and it’s always in partial leaf for St Patrick’s Day.
But this year there’s hardly a bud broken on it and we are into the first week of April.
I dread to think how people are managing with most livestock still indoors. Even where there is grass down our way, leaving the cows out in most cases would only plough the fields to pieces. Sadly, it’s going to make for one expensive winter.
Coping with adversity is something farmers are used to and I was reminded of this after reading the feature on Irene Woods (page 11) in this week’s Irish Country Living.
Now a successful artist, Irene brings us back to 2001 when foot-and-mouth disease hit the country.
After 38 years of hard work building up a flock of 800 sheep with her husband Liam, the Wood’s lost it all when their flock was culled due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Co Louth.
Irene says that painting was her therapy and it allowed her to focus on something other than what was happening on the farm.
It was the same when the children were little and there was so much going on at the farm and in the home. She kept at the painting and it helped her retain something of herself.
Another woman we feature this week is Verona Murphy, president of the Irish Road Haulage Association (pages 4-5).
I met Verona a few months ago at a breakfast briefing organised by Charleville Chamber of Commerce regarding the proposed M20 motorway. I was mightily impressed by her down-to-earth attitude and ability to hold the attention of the room.
For those who are worrying over Leaving Cert points, Verona’s story shows how points and exams really only matter when you are sure about what it is you want to do.
Verona left school after the Junior Cert and following a short stint in the UK returned home and completed a transport management course by night at Carlow Institute of Technology.
She went on to establish her own haulage business and is now in her second term as president of the Irish Road Hauliers Association. She also found time to become a beautician and electrologist.
At the age of 35, she went back to school and completed her Leaving Cert.
She put that to good use when, after four years of night college, she completed a BA in Law. Sitting the Bar exams is her next challenge. Now that’s some woman for one woman.
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