I farm: “About 150ac of land, owned and leased, at Lickfinn, Ballynonty with our son Seán. We have three boys and one girl – Liam, Eamon, Jacqueline and Seán.”
Land type: “We have a mix of high ground and low ground. Part of the farm is 1,000 feet above sea level. The low ground is fine in dry weather and the high ground is good when it’s wet. You could say we have the best of both worlds but it doesn’t always work out the way you want.”
Cows: “We have 80 cows, we’re one of the smaller farmers now. We supply Tirlán and we upgraded the parlour put in a new 10-unit Dairymaster parlour last spring during the snow. My time is done now but Seán is talking about 200 cows as a target.”
Breed: “We keep British Friesians, this was always an area for the Friesians. We keep one or two Montbeliarde or Simmental-cross cows too. We run two Hereford stock bulls with the cows and sell all the calves.”
Calves: “A neighbour down the road in Clonoulty buys all the calves every year. The calf trade was exceptional this year. We buy in all replacement heifers as suck calves. We were hit with TB a few years ago so we had to buy in a few cows then too.”
Hurling: “All our children played hurling. The three lads, Liam, Eamon and Seán all played on Tony Forristal (under-14), minor and under-21 teams for Tipperary, then Liam went on to the senior team. Jacqueline played under-age camogie for Tipperary.”
All-Ireland Sunday: “The excitement was unreal, it was very emotional after the win. There were a lot of tears after it. The house was full for the evening.”
John’s ritual: “I watched the match in the kitchen, herself was out the front praying.”
Marie’s ritual: “I was out there with my rosary beads, I can’t watch until it’s all over. I do a lot of praying. Maybe I should be praying for something besides matches but that’s what I do.”
Quotable quote: “We’re only coming down from the clouds now. I don’t even remember milking the cows but they were milked anyway.”





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