CountryWide

Countrywide Full Episode 15/08/2026

We’ll begin on the hills and it’s about commonage - land own between farmers. Roughly 400,000 hectares of farmland is held under commonage, and it can become some of the richest habitat in the country. Managing it well means getting all the shareholders to agree, which can be easier said than done. So what’s the future for our uplands?

Every rural parish had homes where the latch was never down. They were called rambling houses, and they were a deeply held tradition in rural Ireland, helping bond communities. It’s a tradition that’s being celebrated by Birr Men Together working with artist Hazel Greene to collect the stories and songs that made those nights what they were.

It’s unfortunately become part of the summer in Ireland - reports of algal blooms on our lakes, some toxic, with county councils across the country warning us to not bathe in the water and keep dogs away. Frances Lucy is a freshwater scientist at ATU who’s spent her career studying Irish freshwater.

The city's food festival, Cork on a Fork, has two more days to run. Some of the best of it isn't happening in restaurants at all. Up on the northside, in Knocknaheeny and Hollyhill, there's a community garden that neighbours have built between them, run by the NICHE Community Health Project.

Countrywide Full Episode 08/08/26

In 2018, a summer drought hit Ireland hard, and farmers were counting the cost of it for months afterwards. This year, it's happening all over again. July was the driest on record, so what does this mean for dairy farmers? Ella visits Malcolm Kidd, a young dairy farmer outside Bagenalstown to see how he's dealing with the drought.

It's not only Malcolm's farm affected, it's playing out on other farms, mainly in the south and southeast. So what does this actually mean for farmers, and how do you make a farm more resilient to to extremes - droughts in summers, and deluges of rain in winter? Cathal Somers from Teagasc, and Conor Murphy of NUI Maynooth discuss further.

Five new wind farms are waiting on planning approval in the Irish Sea and it appears the sites line up with some of the best fishing grounds on the east coast. It's no great surprise that fishermen are worried, both about losing space to work, and about what all those structures under the water might do to the marine environment they depend on.

The season is nearly at an end for Ireland's smallest and rarest seabirds, Little Terns, and they'll soon be off on their journey south back to Africa. As they nest on the ground, they're extremely vulnerable to disturbance from all of us. Della Kilroy went to Kilcoole beach to meet the conservationists working to protect the seabird species.

It's been one hundred years since Irish Army officers first jumped for their country, and now we are looking at how they’re marking the centenary at this week's Dublin Horse Show in the RDS. Suzanne Campbell reports.

Today's show is a River Shannon special.  We hear the sound of the Curlew on Lough Ree, Colin Stafford Johnson, nature and wildlife cinematographer, on why he keeps coming back to the river, the mystery of where the River Shannon begins with Professor John Gunn and generational suckler farmer, Frank Whitney, in Leitrim, whose farm hugs the river.

We continue our River Shannon special. Ardnacrusha devastated salmon numbers; Castleconnell River Association works to bring them back. DCU's Fiona Regan calls for entire Shannon survey; Regan Hutchins chats to Donal Boland about boat life; the estuary's Bottlenose dolphins; Irish-Yorkshire collaboration brings hope for the Curlew population here.

In 1964, Wicklow farmer Charlie Keegan won the world ploughing championships, driving a Deutz D40L tractor. More than sixty years on, Charlie's grandson Michael will drive it the length of the country, in aid of the suicide prevention. If you've been affected by anything we've discussed, please go to rte.ie/helplines for helplines and services.

Louise McHugh is a professor of psychology and the deputy head in the school of psychology at UCD, and she’s been involved in researching mental health and suicide in the farming community in Ireland. If you've been affected by anything we've discussed, please go to rte.ie/helplines for helplines and services.

Tomorrow is Reek Sunday - when thousands of people will make their way up Croagh Patrick. Over ten years ago, Martin Keating decided to do something about the increasing number of feet taking its toll on the mountain. He started ringing around - farmers, landowners and conversations grew the Croagh Patrick Stakeholders Group, which he chairs today.

ECO-UNESCO, Ireland's environmental education and youth organisation has built a whole programme around the idea that time outdoors is good for us. It's called ECO-Choices, and it uses nature-based activities and outdoor learning to help young people. Della Kilroy joined one group on one of their weekly summer outings.

The loy is a long, narrow spade that broke hard ground for generations. A new exhibition at The Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon, The Green Loy is curated to make a quiet case that the everyday things of rural life - tools, dressers, haycocks, quilts are works of art in their own right, and a link between people and the land they worked.

Countrywide Full Episode 25/07/2026

Charles Hughes, sheep farmer in Co Mayo tells Philip all about the process of shearing sheep in the current hot climate we're experiencing. However, imagine being the farmer who has to pay for this knowing that in the current market the wool is to all intents and purposes worth nothing.

Today at Athenry Mart, President Connolly will be at the 6th national harvest of wool. It’s a meitheal organised by the Galway Wool Co-op. There will be shearing and spinning demonstrations and examples of soft wool garments made from wool of Galway Sheep. Suzanne Campbell traveled to the farm of Blathnaid Gallagher, Co founder to find out more.

It costs farmers more to shear sheep than they get for wool, as we haven’t scaled up uses for wool in Ireland. Now, in order to re-wet bogs and block drains, farmers have been making water repellent Irish sheep wool into logs and burying them in the drains. Sinead Grimes of the Dulra Project explains more.

On Hawthorn Hill Farm in North Roscommon, Keith Brennan has been shearing his sheep.

The Sheep Show podcast is a weekly podcast both presenters are sheep farmers, but the twist is they are brother and sister, and the double twist is he - Andrew - is farming in Longford and she – Jill - is farming 150 miles outside Melbourne in Australia. Comparing and contrasting farming here and there each week throws up lots of food for thought.

Countrywide Full Episode 18/07/2026

Ahead of Comhaltas Ceolteori Eireann’s 75th anniversary, we had some of Ireland's best musicians in studio: Robert Harvey on Whistling and flute, Aoife Vaughan on Flute, Cathal O Duibhir Baoil on Concertina, and Daragh O Duibhir Baoil on guitar. The performed ‘Beautiful Fresh Morning’ followed by two jigs (‘Grainne’s Jig’ and ‘Scatter the Mud).

We looked at challenges farmers are facing , dairy farmers in particular as they try to look after animals that were not designed for these temperatures and adapt to climate shifts. Vet Ryan Duffy works with Animal Health Ireland. He is a specialist in Heat Stress in Dairy Cows.

What does being well adapted to occasional blasts of this kind of heat look like? While simultaneously being adapted to increasing blasts of heavy rainfall? Philip spoke to farmer Michael Guinan in Rahan in Offaly to discuss the impact of ever changing weather.

Denis Drennan, president of the ICMSA discusses the impact that the ever changing climate is having on Ireland's agricultural sector.

For generations, the Farrell family has farmed Inis Cloithreann Island on Lough Ree, a tradition that stretches back more than 900 years. Today, Longford farmer and school principal Herbert Farrell carries on that legacy, making the one mile journey by boat several times a week to tend to his cattle on the 143-acre island farm. Della Kilroy reports

The Conroy family have been growing raspberries for 75 years pretty close to the foot of the Sugarloaf, and unlike most soft fruit producers in Ireland, they have been making it work outdoors all that time and not under glass or polytunnel, and the sunny weather has been a welcomed addition.

Countrywide Full Episode 11/07/26

The long-awaited Land Use Review said in clear words that the way we are using land does not safeguard water. And a few weeks ago, 43% of farms inspected for water quality compliance failed the test. Dairy farmers Gail and Bryan Daniels discuss their ways to try find a solution to the problem.

A Dáil Committee heard this week that the things farmers whose land is free draining are being advised to do will catch phosphate but won’t stop nitrate from polluting rivers. Pat Dillon from the agricultural research agency Teagasc is an expert in nitrate leaching spoke to Philip on this morning's show.

The Blackwater River Fish Kill last August was the largest fish kill ever in Ireland, and the person or people were never found. This week, Timmy Dooley, Minister with responsibility for fisheries published a new set of protocols to address which investigative agency should do what from now on when there is a fish kill.

Professor Fiona Regan, Director of of DCU's Water Institute reacts to and discusses the protocols being outlined by Minister Dooley.

The amount of water we are taking out of our underground aquifers and rivers is increasingly an issue, but what happens when a well suddenly runs dry for 6 months, and then reappears? Betty O’Shea has devoted a considerable chunk of her life to tending to Father Moore’s Well, and she tells us more.

Countrywide Full Episode 04/07/2026

David Keohan, is a man on an archaeological quest to discover Ireland’s ancient lifting stones and revive a sport and culture – Stone Lifting – that has almost been erased from the landscape entirely.

Lorna Siggins visits an all woman aerial circus production of the story of Grace O’Malley or Granuaile with the truly spectacular backdrop of the old pirate queen’s stomping ground of Clew Bay.

A complicated problem we are facing in Farming is how to get younger people taking over the reins. Generational Renewal is the short hand. Our reporter Suzanne Campbell went in the company of some Nuffield Scholars to Cork to look at a shared farm.

On Countrywide we feature farmers who are trying to bypass the middlemen and sell their product directly to consumers. The big problem they all have in common is they either find themselves tied to a single farmer’s market stall or strapped into a van doing deliveries. Step forward Cavan farmer Ben Tierney who runs ten egg vending machines.

Countrywide Full Episode 27/06/26

National Parks and Wildlife Service has taken the precaution of appointing a warden to make sure visitors know how to tread softly on the Inishkea Islands. And Ella McSweeney took a rib out to Inishkea south and was joined by the person behind the idea, Irene O’Brien.

This morning we looked at what farming is like in countries affected by war and climate change; Sudan, Lebanon, Ukraine. Given what the agronomists, the supply chain experts, the supermarket buyers are now saying about the global food system being tested to breaking point, Philip asked former President of Ireland Mary Robinson was she concerned.

Keith Brennan, on Hawthorn Hill Farm in Roscommon, reflects on the power of Meitheal, and therefore found putting his back in to a shared job of work on a neighbour’s land helpful.

Countrywide Full Episode 20/06/2026

The European Commission is not happy about what we haven’t done to protect our bogs. They say we have failed to stop large scale commercial peat extraction. So Ireland is getting sued, again. While we have done a bad job protecting our raised bog networks, taking take peat away in the morning would mean we end a large part of Irish horticulture.

Looking at the bogs a bit more closely, where are we at in developing completely peat free alternative composts so that we can stop cutting up bogs to grow food? Teagasc, the agricultural research agency is in the middle of a lot of work in this area. Philip met with Dr Michael Gaffney to discuss further.

Swarming season is in full swing across the country. Queen bees are leaving their nests, allowing developing queens to inherit their thrones. There has been a long running campaign and draft legislation to ensure special protection for the wild Irish honeybee. Lorna Siggins reports.