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EAR TO THE GROUND

(48)Ear to the Ground, prog five, Thursday November 29th. Presenter Darragh McCullough and tomato grower Martin Flynn Image Name: (48)Ear to the Ground, prog five, Thursday November 29th. Presenter Darragh McCullough and tomato grower Martin Flynn Description: Ear to The Ground, Darragh McCullough and Martin Flynn
(48)Ear to the Ground,prog five, Thursday November 29th. Presenter Helen Carroll and Angela Hogan(Farm Death story) Image Name: (48)Ear to the Ground,prog five, Thursday November 29th. Presenter Helen Carroll and Angela Hogan(Farm Death story) Description: Helen Carroll and Angela Hogan
Ear to the Ground (new series 26) Presenters Helen Carroll, Ella McSweeney and Darragh McCullough) Image Name: Ear to the Ground (new series 26) Presenters Helen Carroll, Ella McSweeney and Darragh McCullough)
(48)Ear to the Ground programme five November 29th. Presenter Ella McSweeney and Donal Sheehan(BRIDE story) Image Name: (48)Ear to the Ground programme five November 29th. Presenter Ella McSweeney and Donal Sheehan(BRIDE story)

Ear to the Ground, Series 26, Programme 5, Thursday 29th November 2018,  8:30PM, RTÉ One

BRIDE –  BRINGING BACK BIODIVERSITY

When dairy farmer Donal Sheehan took over his father’s beehives, he was keen to increase his honey yield. But he noticed that on his productive dairy farm, he had very few flowers, insects and birds. So he set about “improving” his tidy farm by letting the hedges grow and blossom, by sowing nettle patches in ryegrass paddocks, and planting wild flowers along the edges of his fields. The birds and the bees returned and soon his dairy farm was producing biodiversity as well as milk.

Donal, along with ecologist Tony Nagle, set up the BRIDE (Biodiversity Regeneration In A Dairy Environment) project  with a view to getting neighbouring farmers to improve habitats on their often-intensive farms. It’s a results based scheme which measures species and tracks their increase over 5 years. Farmers along Cork’s Bride River valley have taken up the idea.
Ella McSweeney visits Donal’s dairy farm in Fermoy and meets the farmers who are keen to restore wildlife to this area of the Golden Vale.

FARM DEATH – THE LEGAL AFTERMATH

Two hundred and ten people have lost their lives in farm accidents over the past decade. It’s a staggering statistic and hides traumatic experiences for families and loved ones left behind.

In Co Tipperary, Angela Hogan’s partner Brendan Kelly was killed in a farm machinery accident, and so began six years of legal uncertainty for Angela and her children. Brendan’s assets were tied up in the estate, so Angela had to sue her children to gain control of his farm. Brendan’s family supported her in fighting for her family’s future, but it was a long struggle. All because, like many families, they had not made a will and prepared for the unthinkable.

Helen Carroll travelled to Nenagh to meet Angela, her brother in law Joe Kelly, and Aisling Meehan, solicitor for bereaved families.

TOMATO GROWING

Only 1% of Irish farms grow vegetables, which is the lowest percentage across all EU member states, and Irish production of tomatoes doesn’t even register on an EU-wide scale because it is so low.

However, the Flynn family who have been growing tomatoes since the 1940s, are trying to change that statistic. From April to November the Flynns produce thousands of tomatoes every day from over 70,000 plants spread over 6 acres.

During the summer Darragh McCullough visited Martin Flynn and his father William on their farm in North County Dublin.

(Repeated on Sundays  at 13.10pm)