Down on the farm in Ireland

June 2, 2012

So many young Irish are leaving Ireland that when Jackson Martin turned up to work on farms in Kerry and Galway, many locals were puzzled why a Kiwi from the land of plenty would want to work there. He writes…

I had been living in Edinburgh for just under two years and my UK work visa was fast running out so I decided to volunteer to work on farms in Ireland for a few months for the craic. Through the WWOOFing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) programme I found a farm in County Kerry and another in County Galway that were willing to host a vagrant Kiwi with Irish heritage and try and teach him a thing or two about farming.

Jackson Martin

Jackson Martin in Scotland before departing for sunny Ireland

I really wasn’t too sure what to expect – would I be hosted by hippies singing ‘Kumbaya’ around a camp fire? Or would they be slave drivers looking for a free pair of hands? Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Pat Martin

Working on a wee farm in the west

March 9, 2012

What happens when a New Zealand couple in their 50s decide to leave jobs and home for six months and head to the west coast of Ireland?  Well, lots actually, writes Peter Gibbs…

Peter Gibbs on a Newport farm, Co Mayo.

For two weeks of our six months’ stay in Ireland, we spent a fortnight on a wee farm near Newport, County Mayo in June 2011.

That year was, they say, the coldest summer Ireland had seen in 47 years but we wouldn’t know about that; all we know is every time we went online to check news from home it was warmer in Wellington’s June than in Ireland. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Pat Martin

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