Bad weather is for some an inconvenience – they may get wet while running to the car to drive to work, they may have to use the dryer as it is too wet to hang out washing. It may even put a halt to a Sunday drive to the beach for a walk.

Storm Kathleen was an example of this; it disrupted some people’s lives in a minor way, but for others, it was the final nail in the coffin of what has been an exceptionally difficult time.

I don’t intend to start with the poor mouth – there are enough people who love nothing more than talking about the farmers moaning again. This is not a moan, though we are all entitled to have the odd one.

What the recent weather patterns have brought to the doorsteps of farmers is more misery and hardship.

Irish farmers are no strangers to misery and hardship, but they keep going regardless. They put the heads down and drive on.

However, that is not a model that is sustainable; it is deeply flawed that we are relying on an ageing cohort of men and women to keep food production going regardless.

In recent days, I have heard horrendous stories of some farmers who do not know where to turn, and some are incapable of getting out of their front door to feed the animals (who are still inside).

We are also seeing the best that we have in the examples of neighbours organising people to do the work that the farmers in situ cannot face.

But it is still heartbreaking to see men and women who have come through so much, who have been the backbone of the Irish economy for so long, being worn down and almost cast aside.

As bad as it is for some, it is far worse for others. The last accurate national figures for suicide that I can find are for 2020, when 504 people died from suicide; that year it was the most common cause of death among people aged 15 to 34.

Action

We are beginning to see unilateral action being taken as a result of the increase in deaths on our roads; for example, it looks like we are going to decrease all of our speed limits. If it saves one life, then that is worth it.

Yet, three times more people died in 2020 from suicide than on our roads and we see no real action being taken to tackle this.

Telling farmers that they are the root of all evil when it comes to the environment doesn’t help their mental wellbeing. Sitting idly by while our farming population gets older doesn’t help.

Doing nothing while our friends and our neighbours feel that they have no option and no way out other than suicide is a stain on our nation’s character.

We should be embarrassed by this, we should be ashamed, we should be angry. Some of us, though, are clearly not ashamed or angry enough.