Community Matters 6aug2024

The Community Matters program is sponsored by Cunnamara Credit Union Ltd. The host, Ronan Tierney and Tommy Rowe, discuss various topics including the American election, a Better Farm Sheep event, a tractor trek for Gaza, and changes to the community and voluntary sector for older people. They also encourage listeners to provide feedback and suggest topics for discussion. They then interview Deputy Eamonn O'Keefe about his retirement from frontline politics and his involvement in community development and politics in the Kurnoomuna area. Eamonn reflects on his career and the challenges faced by rural areas. Community Matters is kindly sponsored by Cunnamara Credit Union Ltd, incorporating Clifton, Tullicrosse and Carnar branches. Cunnamara Credit Union is here to serve the people of the Cunnamara area. Main office, Clifton and Tullicrosse branch, 195-211-01. Good evening and you're very welcome to Community Matters. It's me, Ronan Tierney and Tommy Rowe here on the sound desk in Leatherfrack. I hope you're doing well out there this evening and survived the terrible weather over the weekend. Well, it wasn't just dreadful, wasn't it just dreadful? A little bit brighter today, so that's good and I hope visitors to the area and the local community alike can get out and enjoy a little bit of the dry weather because it certainly was an August bank holiday weekend to remember. A busy program tonight. Later we'll be speaking with Jackie Lydon who has connections to Rynfael and is our roving correspondent for the American election and we'll hear from Jackie all the way from the States in relation to the campaign trail and how things are going there. We'll also speak with Tomás O'Toole from Moyard who is the Better Farm Sheep event on his farm on Thursday the 8th. So we'll hear a little bit about that program and about what people can expect if they'd like to visit Tomás' farm on Thursday. We'll hear from Pat Murphy who's organising a tractor trek for Gaza along the Wild Atlantic Way. He took off I think from Mallinhead there on Thursday and is making his way down to Mizzenhead. And yeah, it'll be great to hear from Pat and his trip on his vintage, his 62-year-old vintage tractor. And we'll also hear from Mark Mellott who's chairperson of Sage Advocacy who has called for a rethink on the community and voluntary sector and NGO sector structure for older people and some changes he'd like to see there. So we're a very, very busy program. You can always contact us here in the studio. You can contact us by phone on 09541616. You can contact us via our Facebook page or you can email info at connemarafm.com. We always love to get some feedback on the items we cover here on Community Matters and we'd love to hear our audience, what they're interested in, what live issues you'd like us to talk about. So that's coming up later in the program. But I'm delighted to welcome our first guest to tonight's program, Deputy Eamonn O'Keefe, TD, who is no stranger to our listeners and who has recently announced his retirement from, his pending retirement from Frontline Politics. And we're delighted to maybe have a quick chat with Eamonn to look back on that career and his reflections on it. And it does span quite a period. Eamonn, you're very welcome to the program. Thank you very much. So it's a big week or a big couple of weeks for you now announcing your retirement from Frontline Politics. And I was thinking on the car over, Eamonn, one of my earliest memories of you is actually calling out the bingo numbers in the Shanskell in Cornamuna when I was there going to bingo, I think on a Monday night with my mum. And I suppose at that stage you were just dipping your toe, I think, into it. I think you were standing in for Tommy Sonny. And I suppose it was all part of the early days of your community involvement, your community, you know, as manager of CDS Cho before you dipped your toe in local politics. Oh, that's absolutely true. I actually came to the Dries Country on New Year's Eve 1973. So I'd be, you know, I am 50 years and a half in the Dries Country. And I came down as manager of the Co-op. Now at that stage the Co-op existed in terms of having a committee, three and a half thousand pounds, and bank as shareholding, and a newly appointed, very innocent, 23-year-old manager. And as your, God rest him, your parents would have known because your father had a truck at the time and he did a lot of work for the Co-op and was a stalwart and a very, very fair man. Lots of people made sure that the Co-op, despite all the odds, was a success. And of course the site that the Co-op bought initially back in 1974 is the site now of ECC Toronto, as well as CDS and as well as that, of course, you have Crown Lamona there. So it's now a major industrial hub, probably the biggest industrial hub in Connemara, away from the city. And, you know, acres of small beginnings. And of course, parallel to that, it was about the same time that Connemara West had got control of the old monastery or the old industrial school in Letterfrack. And from the very beginning there was a close connection between the Co-op and Letterfrack because we were asked to start, to set up a store there. So there was this very interesting connection, and I was involved in community development, but of course there were people like Michael O'Neill, Joe Toole, and a whole lot of other trailblazers in the Connemara West operation, who, the kind of Tony Cross, Paddy kind of Tony Cross, there were a whole lot of them there. There was an Acton man, and they did so much work in their community. And there was this network of community development, on a scale that's hard to imagine now because all of the communities were voluntary, and even though we did get some subsidy for management costs, all because of Co-op State, you were still working with very very little capital, because three and a half thousand pounds. But the kind of vision we had, was very little money to start off with, in trying to get ventures going. And Eamonn, you mentioned arriving in Kurnemune in 73, or New Year's Eve 73, was it? And it was another 14 years before you stood in the first general election in 87. Was being active in politics, you know, something that was always on your mind, you know, from throughout the 70s, or was it something that just evolved? I mean, obviously you have the political lineage there in relation to your grandfather, you know, you come from a very active political, you know, extended family. Was it always there, or was it always part of your plan maybe to be a public representative, or did it just evolve from the issues you were dealing with in your role as the manager of the Co-op? Well, I put it the other way around. The influences at home were hugely towards community development, towards, you know, doing things in communities. I was very active in college, running cadies and running various things, and therefore activism was very much part of our upbringing. We were told to be active and to give rather than to be always with the hand out, and I think that was a great thing. We had a lot of opportunities in life maybe that other people at the same time didn't get, and, you know, it was with that spirit that I came down here. It also happened that I met in Dublin a very nice lady from Carcharagan. Now, she was in Dublin at the time I came down, but the following year all of you followed me down and we're together since. So, you know, there was also that interest in the Irish language in the West and so on, but I never regret coming down. The days in the Co-op were very, very hard, and certainly it did whet my interest in politics. Now, how I got involved in politics, like most things in my life, after the one really conscious decision was to go West. Why I wound up in the first country was quite simple. It was the first job I was offered in the West, and I took it. And if somebody else had offered me a job and I applied for many, I'd probably have taken them as well. I remember applying to Baxter in Casabar for a job. I applied to Woodroth and Belfast for a job, but I was unsuccessful. So, I don't know whether you'd say it was the right country's luck, but I think that was the job I managed to land. They took a huge risk on me taking a Dubliner who knew nothing about farming, but that was the beginning of a long journey. Now, it was around, I think, 1976-77. I was staying in Lodgings at the time, just before I got married. I got married in 76, so it must have been 76. There was a meeting of the Fianna Fáil Common in Cornwall, and the vanity and the ankle bit go along. Shortly after that I was at another meeting, it happened to be an AGM, and I was elected Chairman of the Common. A few years later I was elected Secretary of the Court of Cancer. As an older generation, Paddy O'Malley from MAM was very involved in the party at the time. The family would be familiar to a lot of the listeners on Connemara Radio. So, they stood back and let a younger generation come forward. We were very ambitious in what we wanted to see in terms of change. We believed that there was a radical need for change in rural policies if rural areas were going to survive and thrive. We felt, and I certainly felt, as did the other members of the committee, we felt that policies were holding us back. Now, there were some good policies. Brenda Gossett did good work, Udraas, but the general policy did not favour rural development. And probably, and it's still an issue, but some progress has been made, probably the biggest challenge we faced was lack of infrastructure. As everybody knows, I'm on about the Western Rail Corridor, I'm on about the bypass of Galway, I'm on about the N59, I'm always on about infrastructure. And the reason that that got so much in my mind is I saw that for business to thrive, we needed infrastructure. And if you don't have business and enterprise in an area, you won't sustain the population. People want to stay in areas with sustainable jobs. And, Eamonn, when you stood then, I think 87 was the first general election, wasn't it, that you stood, and subsequently the 89 general election, and then you were elected in 92 in every subsequent election since then. And most of them, I think, you've probably topped the poll. I think of the four out of the six elections, you've topped the poll. So, one of the things that's interesting, I think, is building that political base from Kurnoomuna, from the Joyce country, Galway West, obviously, I mean, it's changed over the years, obviously, in terms of the boundaries, but obviously a huge urban, you were quite a distance from the main population centre. So that was a challenge initially, I suppose, in terms of building that base. Yeah, it was. It certainly was a challenge. And, in fact, I had run in the local election, I think it was 1986, and I failed to get elected in the local election. Now, I have to admit, in hindsight, I didn't put any work into it, I was too busy with the co-op. But it taught me a sharp lesson, and in 87 I was much better prepared, and I eventually was eliminated with 4,800 votes. Now, Connemara candidates, typically, at that time, because Mardigand Quinn was very strong, and Bob Molloy was in Connemara very strong, they tended to get about 1,500, 2,000 votes, maybe a little bit over 2,000, but not much more. And this was a major breakthrough. But I fell flat on my face in that I didn't get elected. I ran again in 89, and I was really near at that time. I was, I think, 127 votes when I was eventually eliminated off getting a seat. I was just behind Mardigand Quinn, and obviously whichever one of us went out was going to put the other one in. And that's just the way it turned out. But I did get elected to the Senate. I then, in 91, got elected to the County Council, and I did very well in that election and had a good surplus. So I was building on the ground. Now, one thing I'm happy about, because I certainly made it difficult for myself in picking the most depopulated area in terms of being up against the Mayo border, up against the lake, to the east is also Mayo, that's all in County Mayo. It was only in recent years that temporarily got loaned to Galway West. So I had a very small electorate. And to a certain extent, I'm happy about that, even though it did make it very challenging in the beginning and has meant a lot more trouble in the long term. But I'm happy that nobody could say that I walked in on my name, on my family's image, that I made it the hard way, that I had failed and failed again, and I kept coming. And when I got elected, I sustained the vote, which I believe was done through hard work, right through the 2011 period. But I was still the first elected in Galway West, something I'm very proud of, that I sustained a very steady vote all along. Now, I put that down to two things. I put that down to the huge, unbelievable support in DeJoy's country, which meant that we probably had the greatest nucleus of an electoral team that then found out across the constituency, linked up with all of the Commons, and managed to canvass whatever part of it we decided to canvass. Now, sometimes in later years, to help my running mates, I used to canvass the city, which was a bit of a risk, but I think we covered that fairly well. And I might have gone two days east of the city, in the belief that we could try to get back, for example, in more recent years, to two seats. In earlier years, of course, we were aiming for three seats. So, yes, I think it was to do with hard work. And if I might say so, the institution of doing the clinics regularly, and even on Saturday last, even though I normally don't do clinics in Mount Cross, anybody who rang the office, I went back to Mount Cross and I saw them, because it's very hard to leave people who've got issues and not attend to them when you're in the area. And obviously, Eamonn, you went on, once you were elected to hold junior ministerial posts, obviously you were minister, senior ministerial role for a significant period of time, over a decade, or close to a decade, with the Department of Community, Rural and Gaelic Affairs, and also in terms of other departments there as well. Can I ask you, is there any kind of standout moments for yourself, in terms of achievements, both from a constituency perspective, but then also from a national perspective, that you're most proud of? No, because, you know, if I look at my language remit, Integral to Languages Act, was there when, and was minister when we managed to get official status for the Irish language in the European Union, there were a whole lot of successes in relation to language. When I look at the islands, all I, I put it down in simple terms, within that ten years, I revolutionised a lot of the infrastructure of the islands, and if you visit East Baffin, you'll see a lot of work that was done during that period. A hundred million was spent, now to put that in context, in the last ten years it's about ten million, if you ignore the overhang from the two peers that have been started construction during my time as minister. So, a huge infrastructural programme was followed. You had the, for example, the whole issue of ferry services to the islands, and again, it's hard for people to remember, that there was no sub-size ferry service to any island, outside the Wealth of the Islands. In other words, none of the Wealth of the Islands had the benefits that the Wealth of the Islands had. That was all levelled up in my time as minister. A lot of other things were done, they got the social welfare allowance and so on. So there was a lot done on islands. Then on the rural side, which was another part of my responsibility, we started the whole rural recreation, the whole issue of walkways and paying people to maintain walkways through their land. We started the greenways in its earliest form. So, a lot of development there. The rural social scheme, which I think a lot of farm families have been eternally grateful for. The rural social scheme was started by me. There was a bit of luck involved in some of these things of politics. The rural social scheme I managed to get from Charlie McCready, I think in 2003, in the budget of 2003. There was a bit of a row going on in government, and I put a suggestion to resolve it to Charlie McCready, and three days later I had this in the budget. And still going strong, and still going strong. And then there was all these smaller things, things like that the income that the morality would earn from keeping the bakery would be tax-free. A very significant part if you're keeping the students in the summer, particularly from the point that you wouldn't have to be counting all the slices of bread and how much was for the family and how much was for the business. It would have been a nightmare scenario, but that had been mooted by revenue. So, there were a lot of different things. A lot of different things. And, Eamon, can I ask? It's our program. It's our program which did a lot of things, particularly practical things like LIS roads, water schemes, and so on, which was again dealing with this infrastructure deficiency. I remember another scheme I had, and that was to bring three-phase electricity to any business that was dependent on single-phase. That came from my experience of trying to get three-phase electricity. Now, it's amazing. To my knowledge, the mill in Cornermota would be using more than a major town. But in those days, to get the three-phase, the first three-phase, was a major challenge. It was a major challenge, yes. Can I ask Eamon about, and I'll need to wrap up now in a couple of minutes, but I just wanted to ask you about some aspects of the work that maybe our listeners mightn't be as familiar with. They might have heard maybe some references to this in the media, but your work with Republican prisoners, and I know that you have quite a lot of engagement in the North with Republicans, with Republican prisoners. Do you want to just give us a flavour of the work you've done there? Because I think it's probably not as visible as a lot of the other work that you've just referenced. Well, yes, it's perfectly not visible because a lot of the work, by its very, very nature, is very diplomatic, it's behind the scenes, depends on goodwill from the prisoner organizations, representatives from the prison authorities, and so on. First of all, I got involved in the 1995 to 1997 period, and I believe that that work had a significant role to play in the Good Friday Agreement, in that it was well known that if the prisoners were on board for a peace process, that it was much more likely to happen. And if there was a dividend for the prisoners out of the peace process, that it would happen. And of course, the Good Friday Agreement said that after two years, everybody would be let out. So, I believe that that was crucial to getting everybody to sign up for the Good Friday Agreement. I didn't do anything about prisoners, I was quite involved in the North, because I treated the North-South parties directly under my remit, the Government of Ireland, the Ulster Scots body, and the Irish language body. But 2011, I started back at the whole issue of the prisoners, more by chance than by design again, like a lot of things in my life. And I've been at it since. It's very, very challenging still in the North. The atmosphere there, the challenges between the Republicans and the authorities are quite difficult. On the other hand, just to give you an example, there were 30 Republican prisoners in Partleyshire, in the E-Wing, back in 2020. There were a lot more previous to that and so on. But I can always remember that figure, because I remember talking to Michael Martin about it, and projecting that we would be down to four in 2004, if nobody knew. If nobody knew came in, we are down to four now, with one on remand. And that has taken a lot of hard work, a lot of, if I might say so, quiet work. And I'm quietly proud about it, but it's not something I speak often about in public. I can't go into the details. It takes a lot of time, but there's one guarantee I give. Until we persuade everybody on this island that they will be listened to, that they will get a hearing, that you don't have to believe in the Good Friday Agreement, as long as any opposition to any policy is by peaceful means, that's all legitimate. Very good, Eamon. We'll have to leave it there for now. And I know you're obviously continuing as a TD until the end of this dull term, which probably more than likely will be sooner rather than later, even though the official position is that it will be a bit longer. Eamon, and I'm sure we'll have you on the programme again, but again, best wishes now in your retirement after a long and distinguished career as a frontline politician, as a major local and national figure. So, Eamon, all the best with the period ahead. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah, and that was Deputy Eamon O'Keefe there. We're going to take an ad break and we'll be back shortly with Mark Millar from Sage Advocacy. If you'd like to know more about drugs, you can reach out to your passionate friends and other people on my website. Don't miss out on any information about drugs or how you can get involved. Visit rsa.ie. It's the perfect way to keep the kids entertained this summer. Book your spot today at killaryadventure.com or call 095-434-11. Adventure awaits right in your backyard with Killary Adventure Company. Good night. Enquiries can be made to 087-344-3807. That's the Session, celebrating 50 years of Session in Rhynvale in 2024. Bounce Back Recycling can collect old mattresses and furniture direct from your address. Recycled materials are recovered and diverted from landfill for a more environmentally friendly option. So go green and get in touch today. 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Contact the Clifton Supply Centre on 095-214-76. When I got up this morning, the house was really freezing. I checked the oil tank, it was empty, that must be the reason. So I called up Sweeney Oil, a truly local company. And took my order for some oil and delivered it straight to me. Sweeney Oil are at your service, friendly, helpful and they care. There are many easy ways to pay, now that's what I call fair. They deliver oil to homes all over Galway and surrounds. And Sweeney Oil's prices are the very best around. For the best value home heating oil in Galway, call Sweeney Oil today on 1-800-555-999 or visit SweeneyOil.ie. Sweeney Oil, the warmer way to heat your home. And you're welcome back to Community Matters. Now my next guest this evening is Mark Millett, who is Chairperson of SAGE Advocacy. Mark, you're very welcome to the programme. Ronan, delighted to be with you. Great. Mark, tell us a little bit first of all about SAGE Advocacy, who you are and what you do. Well SAGE is the National Independent Advocacy for older people and elderly people in certain circumstances where they would be vulnerable. And really what we do is we try and fill that space between people who need assistance in terms of decision making. Whether it be at a home or whether it be in a care centre, whether it be in a hospital. In fact in any circumstance where they may need support in making decisions. And what we try and do is we collaborate where possible but we challenge where necessary. And are you a government body or a non-government body? No, we're independent although we're funded by the HSE in the main. We're also funded by the Department of Education because we're also doing advocacy for the survivors of institutional abuse. And we carry out that role without fear or favour. So it's really about nothing about you without you. And increasingly as people and we're in a community and a society where the general age of our population is increasing. So sometimes there can be challenging circumstances where somebody needs support with regards to decisions. And they need that independent advocate to help them in those decisions. In circumstances sometimes where maybe family might have a different view, the individual needs somebody who will actually give them an advice without fear or without favour. That actually is in their best interest. And we recently had the Assistant Decision Making Capacity Act institutionalized in the state. And now makes it a requirement that the individuals are entitled to an advocate in circumstances where they feel they need help or support in making decisions. Prior to that often the case was that we were dependent on an act going back to the late 1800s which was the Lunacy Act. And people made war to court and their human rights were absolutely trampled. So SAGE is very much in the space of trying to help those older people in particular. But sometimes one of the people in certain circumstances who needs support. Okay. So SAGE is really a non-governmental organization and they're along with others who work with older people. And Mark, one of the things that you call for or SAGE has called for is it's time for a rethink in the NGO sector for older people. You've called for a stronger more effective sector that work with older people. So what needs to change and why? Well, if we look at the 2017 All-Party Committee on Slaughter Care, it has implications for the voluntary sector. And rather than us sitting and waiting for top-down policy, I suppose SAGE's view is we should be trying to create that mehel at the NGO sector and also the community sector. When I step back for a moment and look at care for older people in this country, increasingly it's apparent to me a lot of it is in the private sector. And increasingly it's in pretty large congregated settings. So you have the government on one hand creating a policy. You have then I suppose enterprise filling in response to that policy. But there's almost a kind of a silence in a lot of the community sector, the civil society sector, where I feel a lot more could be done. So SAGE is trying to fill that space in terms of trying to stimulate greater discussion in the community sector. And that's about looking at the continuum for care, from care at home right through to age-friendly, to sheltered housing, and ultimately community settings where care is provided. And one of the key points, I think, and it's in the TILDA, which is the longitudinal study from Trinity, which says that the key determinant of well-being for older people is social connections with family, with friends, with neighbours. And that's about being community-centric. And yet we look and we see more and more, I suppose, community care is to some degree being franchised into larger settings. So there are some very good examples, I think, in terms of my own county in Mayo, Gerard Cowley, who has driven a great, I suppose, institution in Mulroney, where he has actually endeavoured to try and bridge that gap in as much as possible to try and front-load care to people at home. And that's really the essence of it, is to try and increase the supports for people who are at home and, where possible, trying to mitigate the risk of people having to move beyond from the home into a setting. So, inevitably, it will happen. But, once again, let's try and have it as a community setting in terms of community congregations care setting rather than a larger institutional setting that may find and may not be able to give that intimacy and social contact that is so essential for well-being. So do you feel that there's a need for the community sector for NGOs to work in that space a lot more, to move away from this kind of for-profit model of care for older people to more of a social enterprise type model, where it's running to reinvest, providing a service, but to reinvest the money back into the community? Ronan, you're absolutely right. I mean, we did a Red Sea poll a number, about six months ago, and the number of the points that were key for us were four out of five people believe home care and nursing home care is now overly concentrated in the hands of private providers. They think that the government should look at an innovation fund to promote small-scale household models of congregated care as an alternative to larger nursing homes, and they support an idea which SAGE Advocacy has been, I suppose, proposing, and this is the idea of a non-profit, not-for-profit organization to be called the GAA for Care to help meet the challenges of an aging society. So if I look at the GAA, a remarkable institution, it's just such a wonderful institution. I imagine that same mindset being, I suppose, focused as a force multiplier for the care of older people in the community. But we would need financial support, so this brings me back to what a GAA for Care could look like, and that is trying to create a model that would be a trust, perhaps supported with funding from government, but also perhaps philanthropic funding to actually try and stimulate and encourage communities to be enabled to look after people in their setting, in their community. And there are some good examples, but I think what we need to do is to, I suppose, make this a national program to start with demonstrators and then move on from there. Very good, Mark. It's interesting and very stimulating ideas there in relation to make us think about how we care for older people or the nature of care at the moment, and we can sometimes just kind of accept the models that are there as sort of a given, and that there is always scope to innovate and to change the way that those types of services are provided and actually, you know, reflect then the type of model that people are saying they'd like, you know, in the community. Well, that's exactly it, and it's that third leg of a stool. We, you know, of course the market and enterprise is an opportunity, of course government has policy, but civil society and the citizens should have a say. Very good. I'm out here in a lovely island in Inishbuffin at the moment, and thanks to Marie's Hotel for giving me a quiet room to make this call, and listen, thanks for giving me the opportunity to set up. Absolutely, no, you're on our territory here now in Inishbuffin, and we're here in Letterfrack, so it's good to talk to you. I drove through there, coming down from Castlebar, thank you very much. Lovely. All the best, Mark, thanks for joining us. Bye-bye. That was Mark Millett there, all the way from Inishbuffin, where he's on holiday at the moment. But Mark is Chair of SAGE Advocacy, and certainly calling for a rethink, I suppose, in relation to how we, services and housing in particular, and care is provided for older people, and to move away from large congregated, for-profit settings into maybe more community-based provision of care, and a call really to the community and voluntary sector to actually look at that. So it's something, I think, that will be interesting to see how it evolves, and whether it can be supported into the future. Now, that was Mark, and now our next guest on the programme tonight, I'm delighted to welcome Pat Murphy. And Pat, you're very welcome to the programme, and Pat is leading a tractor trek for Gaza along the Wild Atlantic Way. Pat, I believe you're on a 62-year-old tractor, and making your way down along the West Coast, is that right? Good evening, Ronan, and thank you for having me on your programme, and yes, I'm driving a 62-year-old tractor, a restored David Brown tractor, from Mallinhead to Mizzenhead, down along the Wild Atlantic Way, to raise some funds for Gaza, and for CONCERN, the Irish humanitarian organisation. Excellent, and we'll talk to you about the trip in a moment, but just to reflect on why you're doing this, tell us a little bit about your motivation around it. Well, first of all, I'm sure like everybody else around the country, we're all really concerned by the pictures and stories that we're hearing from Gaza, and who wouldn't be moved by what's happening there. So if we can help them in any way at all, well, that's what I'm trying to do. I have volunteered for CONCERN about 30 years ago. We worked, myself and my wife, in Africa, in Rwanda, and we were there from 1995 to 1996, just after the Rwandan genocide. So I've kind of, a good number of years, fundraising for CONCERN, and of course, anything I can do for the people of Gaza. Well, when the tractor was fully restored, I said, well, why not put this to good use? Let's do something positive, and let's try the Wild Atlantic Way. Excellent, and you started a few days ago, is that right? Started on Thursday, Ronan, from Malan, at about 3 o'clock. Excellent, and I understand the tractor goes about 24 km per hour, is that right? That's right, yeah. Look, on average, it would probably do about 20, but its max speed is 24. And depending on the road and the conditions and the weather, you know, there's a lot of variables, and it requires about 8 to 10 hours a day of driving. Wow, and how far, like for day one, for example, how far did you get from Malan? The first day, we got down from Malan, we got into Letterkenny, and then we went north to Ramallison there. That was about 85, 90 km. Excellent, and you're now, so are you still in County Donegal, or have you moved out? No, no, we made our way down through Donegal on Sunday, we went through Leitrim and Sligo and into Mayo, and this evening we've just arrived here in Linan, just on the Galway-Mayo border. Oh, fantastic, so you're only off the road from us. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we're here in Letterkenny, I'll probably see you on the way home now, I drive through Linan. Well, yes, you will, because we're parked here at the end of the ford, and we will be going your direction tomorrow morning, because that's the direction on the Wild Atlantic. Fantastic, so all our guests this evening, Mark, the previous guest is on holiday out in Inishbofn, and Pat, you're coming through North Connemara as well, so that's fantastic. It's a fantastic initiative, Mark, and how, sorry Pat, how can our listeners contribute to your fundraising? Okay, well, they can go on GoFundMe, and I've got a number here, forward slash 42A1E7E9, that's probably the handiest way to do it. Can you repeat that, do you mind? Okay, so GoFundMe, that's GoFund.me, forward slash 42A1E7E9. Also, they'll find me on Facebook, and on Instagram, and I have a kind of a catchphrase, it's Murph Meander, if they put that in, they'll find me straight away. Murph Meander, excellent. And Pat, how long do you think it'll take now to get you down to Missen, when do you hope to conclude the trip? We're going to, we have planned to be there, Ronan, on Friday week. Friday week, excellent, excellent. Well, it's a fantastic initiative, and very eye-catching, and I think, yeah, and I'm sure, I'm hoping you can wait for us on the way. We've had a wonderful response to it along, on the route, Ronan, and even today now, there were people in Lewisburg who are out on the street waiting for us, and I stopped there, and there was all sorts of people coming up to me, wishing me well, and giving me money, and adding to the GoFundMe page, fantastic. And everybody that's passing by in their vehicles, they're giving us the lights and the beep-beep, so it's very positive. People are interested in the tractor as well, and, you know, the work that went into the restoring of it, and people are also really interested in the fundraising for Gazza. That's fantastic, and listen, well done, Pat, and best of luck and safe trip now on the remaining legs of your trip all the way down to Missen Head. Yeah, thank you very much, Ronan, and thank you for inviting me onto your programme, and maybe you can make more contact with us in a week's time or so. Excellent, yeah, yeah, we'll absolutely keep that in mind here, and we'll come back and see how you get on. Thank you very much, Pat, for joining us. That's Pat Murphy there, who's organiser of the Tractor Trek. He's basically making his way all the way from Mallinhead down to Missen Head on a 62-year-old tractor, restored tractor, raising funds for Gazza, raising funds for Concern, and obviously, as he said there, he's just arrived in Leenand, so he's in the locality. Watch out for him tomorrow. He'll be obviously hitting the road tomorrow morning and heading along the Wild Atlantic Way, making his way down all the way through Rinnevale into Clifton, down to Ballyknealy, Roundstone, around to South Connemara, so it'll be fantastic, and you can find him on Facebook, on Instagram, MurphMeander, or on GoFundMe as well. I think he said it was GoFundMe forward slash 42A1E7E9. Okay, excellent. Now, our next guest on the line is Tomás O'Toole, who's a local farmer here in Moyard. Tomás, you're very welcome to the programme. Yeah, hi Ronan, how are you? Really good, yeah, and great to have you, Tomás, and I know that you're part of the Better Farm programme, and you're having an open evening now coming up on Thursday, I believe. That's right, yeah. So, can you tell us a little bit about your farm, first of all, and then tell us a little bit about the Better Sheep farm walk that's planned? Yeah, so, yeah, Ronan, I have a suckler and sheep farm here in Connemara, I guess, just outside Clifton there, between Keg and Left Crack. I just have a two-flock sheep, a hilly flock and a lowland flock, and it's running suckler cows as well alongside it. So, I've been farming since 2014, took over there from my dad, and I joined up with the Better Farm programme with Chagas there in 2018. It was just that they were looking for some farms in the local area just to promote and improve the sheep industry, sheep enterprise, so I managed to get into that, which was great. And since I joined it, we obviously improved a few things, looked at the way that I was running the system at work, and just trying to improve it and whatnot. Very good, so the programme, the Better Farm programme, it's Chagas-run, they were looking for volunteers, and it's really just to help you improve the performances of the farm and help it. Yeah, they took on board what I was doing at the time, and then we just reassessed it, so I changed a lot of the breeds that I had in the breeds of the sheep that we were using at the time, how I was running them in regards to having the hilly flock, the separate flock, the lowland flock, and just making it a more profitable enterprise as best as we could. Because, as I say, it's a hard industry to make money out of anyway, and I was just looking for any way that I could try and make extra money, I suppose. And how do you feel, have you really felt the benefits? Yeah, definitely, because they're running alongside with you all the time, they're helping you with every aspect of grassland management, you know, nutritional side of things for sheep, the whole sheep enterprise, if I need any expertise in any particular matter that may be going on on the farm, they're there to support me. We do a lot of data recording, so we do a lot of DNA recording, all the sheep will be DNA sampled, the parentage for both the mother and father is recorded, I collect data from seven weeks of age for the lamb right up to 25 weeks, you know, so all that data is recorded, so year on year I'm building a database there of information, which helps me to run the plot more efficiently, not just by, I suppose, by looking at it more on paper or on the computer. Yeah, so it's more data-driven farming, isn't it? Yeah, that's right. And are these, the type of changes you've implemented on the farm, are they changes that other local farmers can reasonably easily contemplate? Yes, definitely, I think so, I mean, look, it's not everyone's cup of tea, it's not something that, you know, it's going to be extra time a little bit, but I think the benefits are there in some aspects, in other ways maybe it may not be, but for me it's worked out fairly well. Look, I was always tech-savvy anyways and I was always interested in using technology because that's the way it's going, so for me it was a no-go, definitely a no-go for me because I felt that it was just going to improve the farm, you know, so for the simple thing of tagging a lamb at first and then weighing it every seven weeks, you can actually discover if the lamb's actually putting on weight, rather than just waiting for it at the end of the season of the lamb to see if it has actually put on weight. I see, yeah, so it's more monitoring and you can adjust maybe your approach then as you go. Excellent, yeah, and tell us a little bit then about what's happening then on Thursday evening at seven. On Thursday at seven, yeah, we're just having an open evening for anyone to welcome, farming or non-farming, just to come and see what we're doing, what I've been doing, what changes I've put in over the last few years, because I did have one back in 2019 and just, you know, how things have changed since and it's just open for discussion, you know, as I say, it's not everything I may be doing might not work on the next farm or whatnot, but just, you know, I'm always welcome for questions and, you know, have a good discussion about maybe that's not going to work or it's going to work, it's just an open evening, there'll be some of the breeds of sheep I have will be there, there'll be a cup of tea there for anyone that wants to come and, as I say, just have a chat amongst ourselves. Fantastic, yeah, and Thomas, is there any, there's no need for anyone to register, is there? No, no, just come along to the house there, it's H91PXN2, you can park at the graveyard opposite the farm and come on up. Okay, so the air code is H91PX... PX, Papa X-ray, November 2. PXN2, yeah, and that's in my yard in, yeah, only out the road from us here in Letterfrack. So, that sounds great and fair play to you Thomas for sharing the learning with all members of the public around your experience on it and I think it should be of interest to a load of people and a load of local farmers, but even, you know, anyone who's just from a non-farming background is curious as to how it all works and the type of innovations that you're bringing into it, it'd be really good to go along, yeah. Yeah, definitely. Thomas, thanks a million for your time. Thank you very much for having me here. Yeah, and best of luck on Thursday with it all. Thank you. Yeah, that's Thomas O'Toole there, and again, Thursday evening, 7 o'clock at Thomas's farm, the air code is H91PXN2 and if anyone's interested in going, just pop up there. I think we're going to take a piece of music and we'll be back in with our last guest. Is that a surprise? Can you see them? See right through them They have a shield, nothing but fear, fear It doesn't matter what they say No one listens anyway I can see it There's a white wolf That's eating you In our defence It's our defence So just look within Look right through them That's when they disappear And you're welcome back to the programme, and that was a track from a band, a blast from the past, from the 80s, a band called Fun Boy 3, so I actually do remember them on top of the pops in the 80s, but anyway, haven't heard from them for a while, so a good choice here, Tommy, in the studio, to pick Fun Boy 3. Now we're delighted to be welcomed on the line by our final guest this evening, Jackie Lydon, who is our, Jackie, if I can call you our roving correspondent in the USA for the forthcoming US elections, we're delighted to have you, Rinvite Connections, I believe, and a regular visitor to us here in Connemara. Jackie, you're very welcome. Thank you, it is wonderful to be with you, absolutely. Yeah, Jackie, where to start with this US election? I mean, it's absolutely remarkable so far. What a good question, because it has, you know, two weeks and two days ago, when Kamala Harris became the really odds-on favorite to, you know, once President Biden stepped down and endorsed her, it really would have been difficult for anyone else to catch up, and of course, the Democratic Convention is also coming up in just a couple of weeks, so she had just shy of four weeks to choose a vice presidential candidate and make her name even more attractive. But you know, the way that I think about it, and I'm really glad you called me your roving correspondent, because I do vote between Connemara and the US pretty often, and I'm in Wisconsin, which is a really, really important swing state, is that so much energy was built up and pent up and frustration was pent up behind the impasse with President Biden, who so many people thought could not win, no matter what they thought of him, that it's as if Harris, my analogy is you take a bow and arrow and you pull that bowstring back, and as soon as it was released, you know, it just flew into the realm of social media. Yeah, and obviously, with pretty much the disastrous debate, I suppose, that happened, and all the speculation in terms of Joe Biden, and then subsequently the assassination attempt, I mean, obviously, the Trump and the Republican campaign had all the coverage, there was a huge amount of coverage there, and it was really important then for quickly, for a decision to be made by the Democrats as to what was happening, because there was a lot of uncertainty there. And Kamala Harris now has been on a bit of a roll with a lot of donations coming in, obviously announced her VP pick today. Can she sustain the momentum in her campaign? Well, I don't see why not. First of all, she doesn't have to do it for, you know, as long as some other presidential contender might have to. You know, I wouldn't always have what I would call a lot of inside info on a presidential election, but as it happens, my husband, who will be speaking in Clifton at Arts Week on September 25th, about his January 6th pictures, will won the Pulitzer Prize for that. He's been concerned about Biden's frailty. Now we have, for a long time, because you don't even see him at the White House, now we have Tim Walsh of Minnesota, who I think is a phenomenal choice for Harris, announced just this morning, U.S. time, because he is a Democrat, a former geography high school teacher from small towns. He's an army vet. He is a gun owner and hunter who supports gun restrictions on things like AR-15. He has the endorsement of David Hogg, a survivor of the shootings in Florida. So he can do this kind of gut level vernacular that should appeal to swing state and rust belt voters, like in my state here in Wisconsin. And, you know, you asked a moment ago about the RNC, the Republican National Convention. Until 20 minutes into the speech that Trump made, it seemed like he understood that he had a chance to somehow, I mean, I don't know, wave a magic wand and make people forget about the past. And then, you know, he's become who he is, this completely undisciplined, narcissistic candidate. So, you know, Republicans are stuck with that choice. And the Democrats have the fresh arguments to make to different generations of voters. Reading just, you know, following just some of the media coverage, mainstream media coverage in recent days, and, you know, there was fear of recession in the U.S., the Dow Jones index was fluctuating, etc. You know, I'm just wondering, regardless of the quality of the candidate in Kamala Harris, with issues around the economy, gender, race, will they ultimately trump her, you know, excuse upon her campaign, you know, in relation to, you know, that is America ready to elect a female president? Well, yeah, you're absolutely right that I think really on both sides of the aisle, the economy tends to be the top issue. And the U.S. has been faced with inflation, even though it has come down. But you can certainly argue on jobs creation that the Democrats have done a far better job than the Republican administration under President Trump did. I would say that the economy remains the top issue. And it's one reason that in our deep, deep polarization, that this race will be close, you know, no matter who wins. Yesterday, the Republicans were, you know, it was a bone to a dog that the market stumbled internationally the way they did. But that's the phrase, the market stumbled internationally. I think that the Harris and Waltz ticket, you asked about the momentum being sustained. We'll talk a lot about what we've done for you lately and try to remind people that we're going to protect abortion rights. We're going to go for expanded child care credits. We're going to forbear tax breaks. We will not be giving tax breaks to corporations, reminding people of the kinds of things that a lot of voters care about. You know, abortion restrictions have not been popular even in red states. And now they've got, you know, J.D. Vance, the vice presidential candidate on the other side, talking about childless cat ladies. In many states, the GOP has restricted IVF in vitro fertilization. Waltz's children, who are named Hope and Gus, are both born through IVF. It's a dramatic election. Obviously, yes, it's very much is a dramatic election, and we've still over two months to go. As I said at the outset, it's been just remarkable for there's so much drama associated with it. I was always going to be, I suppose, with with, you know, Trump going again. And, you know, this sense that that it was so much on the line that if he does get in this time around, he will be very much more autocratic and that it will be, you know, such a step back for American democracy. But it's going to go down to the wire, isn't it? It's going to go down to a handful of states and a handful of voters, really, to determine the outcome. Like mine. I mean, Joe Biden won in 2022 in Wisconsin with 20,000 votes. He won in Georgia with 11,000. I think the margin in Michigan was around 20,000. The margin was stronger in Minnesota. But we're talking, you know, a couple of voters per precinct. It's a bit scary. But I think that when people when we when we call it dramatic, you know, the Biden administration and his advisers, they kept saying you have to vote for the soul of democracy. Believe it or not, that was not really gaining traction. It's when it's when Walt started to talk about these people are weird and extreme, meaning Trump and Vance. And then they played right into that. It's when it's when this whole I mean, it is looking to the voters of color, young people, so many young people not voting. I cannot tell you I've been working on not so much on campaigns, but on a pro-democracy play. I'm a state chair for something called Writers and Fighters, not Riders, Writers for Democratic Action. We've talked to a lot of young people. We did an anti-fascist sort of agitprop play, six of them here in the state, July 19th, right after the RNC concluded. We did 90 of those across the country. A lot of young people were not excited. Harris comes in and these people, you know, now they're thinking they should vote. And she chose Walt, I think, over Shapiro, Pennsylvania, because he did have a lot of opposition from pro-Palestinian demonstrators. And Kelly, I think, you know, he would have been attracted to the astronaut from Arizona. But I think that she really wanted, you know, it's funny, this is called No Drama Obama. And I think with Walt, she kind of got someone like that. And Vance, you know, Vance makes news every day. Yeah. So we'll wait to see. Jackie, it's fantastic to talk to you. And I'm really looking forward to your input and the conversations here on Community Matters with you over the next couple of months as this campaign evolves. And we'll see where it all ends in early November. It'll be certainly across the world. There'll be all eyes on America to see what the outcome of this election is going to be. Jackie, thank you so much for joining us. Maybe we can do one of those Arts Week. I'll be back for Arts Week. You'll be back for Arts Week. We'll have you. It'll be great. Hopefully, I'll have you in studio then and we can see where it's at then. And that's not only six weeks away. So it's only around the corner. Jackie, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. That's Jackie Lydon there all the way from Wisconsin this evening. But she will be here in Connemara for Clifton Arts Week, the Arts Festival, towards the end of September. And we'll catch up, hopefully, with Jackie and talk to her then in relation to the forthcoming election. So that's pretty much it from tonight's programme. I want to thank Bridger Manning, who produced. I want to thank Tommy here on sound desk. That's all from Community Matters this week. Next up is Casual News with Bernard Lee. And from me, Roland Tierney, good evening.