Something Worth Saving: John and Sinead on farming, climate and the future of Ireland's peatlands

In this episode we talk with John O'Sullivan, a farmer from the west of Ireland who needed to find new ways to keep his family farm viable. For John, paludiculture isn't an abstract idea — it's a practical response to the real pressures facing small, independent family farms, and a potential income stream that works with the land rather than against it.Joining the conversation is Sinead Grimes of Forum Connemara, who sees paludiculture as something bigger than any single farm — a way to restore degraded peatlands, give farmers a less intensive and more sustainable way of working, and tackle the growing problem of land abandonment in rural Ireland.Together they explore the farming challenges, the climate dimension, and the policy landscape around paludiculture in Ireland — and make the case that rewetting the land could be good not just for the environment, but for the future of farming itself.This conversation is part of Palus Demos: Paludiculture in Practice, a podcast from the Palus Demos project, funded by Horizon Europe, the European Union's research and innovation programme.Find out more on PalusDemos.org andvisit our YouTube channel: YouTube.com/@PalusDemos