Each finalist for the National Leadership Awards went through a challenging interview process and will now proceed to the final interview stage. The national final will take place on Tuesday 7 February at the at the Castleknock Hotel in Dublin.

The awards are organised as part of Macra’s leadership training programme. The aim is to provide opportunities for members to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes necessary for leadership positions either in Macra or in other voluntary roles or future occupations. Below, we have profiled three of the finalists. The final three will be profiled on this page next week.

Deirdre Kennedy

Deirdre Kennedy is originally from Skreen, Co Sligo, and joined Sligo Town Macra in 2008. Deirdre works as the rural recreation officer for Sligo, developing all types of recreational trails and working with local tourism businesses to develop and showcase her beautiful home county of Sligo as an adventure tourism destination.

Since joining Macra, Deirdre has been very busy. She has held all positions at club level and numerous positions at county level including secretary, competitions chair, public relations officer and travel officer.

She has represented County Sligo Macra on the northwest committee and the Rural Peace Project where Sligo Macra engaged with the Young Farmers of Ulster to explore opportunities for farm diversification. Deirdre is currently county chair and club PRO.

She actively participates in Macra competitions and activities including organising Know Your Neighbour events, fundraisers, membership drives and PR initiatives. Deirdre has previously represented Sligo in the Queen of the Land competition.

Deirdre’s voluntary work extends outside of Macra to include working with the local Tidy Towns group and community council, recently championing an application for funding for fibre broadband for her local area.

Deirdre was awarded a silver leadership award in 2012 before going on to win a gold leadership award in 2016.

James Barber

James Barber, a 33-year-old dairy farmer from Rathdowney Co Laois, has been a member of Rathdowney Macra na Feirme since 2005 and has held the positions of public relations officer, secretary and chair within the club.

He was awarded the Stephen Cullinan scholarship in 2009, which included a nine-month work placement on a 690-cow dairy farm in Canterbury, New Zealand. He is the current national council representative for Laois Macra and has established two young farmer knowledge transfer groups – one for dairy and one for beef. He was also involved in setting up Clough Macra and has worked with the development chair to increase the membership of the county to over 300 members today.

He is currently the national agricultural affairs chair, where he has been working with vice-chair Thomas Duffy and the committee on increasing the activity of young farmer development groups around the country and developing agricultural policy for young farmers. Outside of Macra, he is involved in the Project Hope Appeal and is chair of Rathdowney IFA and secretary of South Laois ICMSA.

Patrick McCarthy

Patrick McCarthy is a dairy farmer from Ballydehob in west Cork. He graduated from Darrara Agricultural College in 2005 and spent part of his time in college on placement in New Zealand.

He is a member of Caheragh Macra in Carbery since 2006. He has been club chair, public relations officer, secretary and treasurer in this time. He was also elected secretary of Carbery in 2009.

In 2014, he was elected as Carbery’s national council representative and served two years in that position. He also served on Macra na Feirme’s agriculture affairs committee including a year as vice-chair of the committee. As a dairy farmer, he found the committee very beneficial and has seen firsthand the work it does for young farmers.