Community Development meets farming
to make for a safer,
more connected, inclusive,
and enjoyable farming life.
The Farmer’s Haggart
The much changed Irish Family Farm is by far the most dangerous workplace in the country and for many Irish Farmers, the loneliest.
The Farmer’s Haggart programme suggests that the best of Change, brings the best of the Past along for the ride. Irish Farming in recent years as a way of life as much as an industry has become much less social. The time where neighbouring farmers pulled together, did the odd job together, for practical, safety and social reasons has in many communities disappeared. Farmers no longer welcome their neighbours and friends into their Haggart or Farmyard for a chat or cup of tea as much as they used to. The time of the ‘Great Neighbour’ is not quite what it once was.
‘Hay in the Haggard’ – The Haggard was the small field where wheat, oats and barley were stacked and where the threshing took place. The Haggard was the centre of farm life activity in the autumn.
This photo shows two men working in a haggard in the Ardcath area with a horse and cart and with hay ricks in the background (courtesy of Frances Lee Gargan from ‘The Parish of Ardcath Clonalvy: A History’, 2012, original photo from James McGrath)
sce: Meath Field Names
Modern Farmer Isolation
Images of farm life, evoke a nostalgia throwback to hay fields and grazing livestock. Due to its lonely nature, however, many farmers often grapple with feelings of isolation, depression and stress. Factors that affect a farm’s viability such as uncertain market conditions, weather and rigid regulations can wreak havoc with mental wellness of the farmer and those close to them. Many farmers feel a disconnect from non-farming communities, a feeling that is exasperated when anti farming rhetoric can dominate media headlines and social media.
Mechanisation in recent decades, while doing much to reduce the drudgery of farm work by boosting efficiency, has contributed significantly to worker isolation, as has much-reduced farm family sizes.
Activities such as threshing, hay gathering, shearing, sowing and harvesting, which involved neighbours working together side by side in mutual help have largely disappeared, and with it a vital day-to-day social connection. By revisiting the past, The Farmers Haggart looks to inspire a modest return to the ‘Great neighbour’ concept of friendship, help and assistance in local farming communities.
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed…………….
Job Types
While the Farmer’s Haggart Programme is firstly about famer support and socialisation, there are numerous smaller farm tasks from fencing to dosing, to thousands of DIY tasks where lending a hand, having a ‘great neighbour’ makes farming much safer, easier as well as more sociable.
It’s not just a case of focusing on jobs where having four or eight hands would be useful!
Think of the jobs that have been put on the long finger, the monotonous jobs! the dry-stone wall to be raised, the tree to be safely turned to firewood, the lane to be gravelled.
This programme is unashamedly inspired by movements or organisations you’ll be familiar with and that may well be already operating in your community.
| Existing Movement/Organisation | The Farmer’s Haggart |
| The Men’s Shed | A Men’s Shed for Farmers to socialise shoulder to shoulder while working on a task on the farm |
| Social Farming | Maximising the Social Benefits of working on the farm together |
| Age Action ‘Care and Repair’ | Developing a structure for helping out older farmers where needed |
| Macra Na Feirme | Encourage young people to make rural Ireland attractive to live and work in. |
Next Steps
Setting up a Farmer’s Haggart group in your parish is very straightforward and starts with a local meeting.
Irish Rural Links National Network of Community Farm Safety Champions are here to help make setting up a group a simple, successful process.
If you’d like to see a Farmer’s Haggart Group in your Parish please contact Brendan Mulry in Irish Rural Link at 087 2194243 or [email protected]
