CountryWide

Countrywide Full Episode 10/10/26

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:36:48 +0000

How the seas and ocean around Ireland shape our lives and could change our future.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Silicon Valley of the Sea

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:31:19 +0000

Prof John Bell flips Ireland's idea of itself on its head. The country is not a peripheral island on the edge of Europe. It is a large maritime nation that could become a bio-economic super power.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Archiving Coastal Communities

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:28:51 +0000

The Creative Ireland visual arts project "Dunmore Through a Lens" has captured the Waterford fishing village's people and their memories.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blue Wellbeing

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:27:09 +0000

Surfer and Academic Dr Easkey Britton believes that both we and the ocean will benefit by adjusting our relationship with the marine world.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Farming Seaweed

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 08:25:38 +0000

Gareth Murphy's company Oir Na Farraige has found a low impact way of harvesting seaweed for a range of uses that might actually protect marine ecosystems.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EU Female Organic Farmer of The Year

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:36:49 +0000

Following her victory in the EU's most prestigious organic award we visit Kay O'Sullivan at home on Glynn Organic Farm in North Cork.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Food Security: Bread

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 08:36:49 +0000

Only the tiniest fraction of the flour needed to bake the 50kg of bread we eat a year is grown and milled in Ireland, and the cost of what we import is sky rocketing. We take a look at what needs to be done to keep the price of bread down by making it here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nest Protection Officer Training Programme

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 09:46:40 +0000

Ireland's first certified Nest Protection Officer Training Programme was recently launched by Ministers Martin Heydon and Christopher O'Sullivan. It was developed by Owen Murphy and Donal Beagan of the publicly funded Breeding Waders EIP, with the training body Lantra, and supported by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Department of Agriculture. Donal Beagan spoke about how this new qualification sets a professional standard for the first time.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Agriland/ICMSA Farmer Survey: Panel

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 09:03:34 +0000

The survey was commissioned by Agriland and the ICMSA, and it shows it isn't only older farmers who want out. One in five farmers in their late forties and early fifties, which is young in this business, say they're likely to leave. Half of those planning to exit have no successor lined up. Yet the same survey says access to land is one of the biggest barriers for people trying to get into farming. So why aren't those leaving and those wanting in finding each other?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Agriland/ICMSA Farmer Survey

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 08:17:14 +0000

During the week, a major new survey was published which suggests there will be an exodus of farmers in the next few years. In a comprehensive survey of Irish farmers - with 2,300 people responding across every sector and county - one in three farmers say they will leave farming within the next five years. Della Kilroy reports.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

School Cycle Bus

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 08:17:12 +0000

Approx 5% of Irish children cycle to school every day. One idea trying to change that is the school cycle bus. It's a group of primary school children led by adult volunteers along a set route. Regan Hutchins joined the Skibbereen Cycle Bus in County Cork, to show it's a fun way to start the day.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Natural Horsemanship

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 08:17:11 +0000

Paul Walker is well known in the business for breeding, training and trialling sheepdogs. Now the Chilean-English trainer has turned his hand to horses at the home he shares with his partner Leah Henry in Mayo. Lorna Siggins reports.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seeds of Inspiration

Sat, 26 Sep 2026 08:17:09 +0000

For a quarter of a century, John McKeon has been collecting seeds from the trees and hedgerows around his home near Castleblayney in Monaghan. The 75-year-old retired agricultural adviser has used them to grow more than twenty species of native tree, among them oak, holly, hazel and more. John's work is at the heart of 'Seeds of Inspiration', a project from the Irish Wildlife Trust and the Monaghan Biodiversity Office.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apple Season

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:39:29 +0000

If any of you have an apple tree in a park near you, on your farm or garden, you’ll notice how early the apples have appeared - very early. Con Traas's parents, Willem and Ali, came from Holland in 1967 looking for land to grow fruit. They found a farm with an old orchard in Tipperary, and the family has been growing apples there ever since.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Ploughing Championships - Angus calves

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:36:00 +0000

This week, five secondary schools, from Donegal to Cork, were presented with an Aberdeen Angus calf to bring home and rear. It's all part of the Certified Irish Angus schools' competition, which asks students to do a research project on farming. 180 schools entered this year, and the finalists collected their calves at the Ploughing.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Ploughing Championships - Lamb Shearing

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:32:54 +0000

The All-Ireland Lamb Shearing Championships took place at the Ploughing this week when Ireland’s fastest and most skilled sheep shearers - ranging from juniors upwards - were put to the test.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

National Ploughing Championships - Young Innovators

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:29:19 +0000

At the National Ploughing Championships, young agri start-ups had a chance to pitch for Enterprise Ireland awards, and Suzanne Campbell met three of these companies as they tried to catch the judges' attention, each trying to win one of the overall prizes.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Minister Christopher O'Sullivan

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 07:25:16 +0000

Ireland sends its plan for restoring nature to Brussels, so how much public money will be allocated to it, and what will it ask? Minister for Nature, Heritage and Biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan joined us to discuss.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sheepshead Walk

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:15:53 +0000

A lot of this vision of a more "open access" Ireland might seem unachievable. But there is an example of farmers opening up access to the public and everybody getting along. The Sheepshead Way was created 30 years ago this year – securing agreement from 265 different landowners to open up all the old mass paths, holy well paths, to school through the fields paths and connect them all together into a six day hike.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

South Kerry Greenway

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:15:52 +0000

This morning we took a a closer look at the kind of access to the countryside that the state is actually investing in; Greenways. 350 km of Greenway has been built in the last 5 years, and there are plans to build out a network of paved cycling paths that will be ten times that long. But, along the South Kerry Greenway, compulsory Purchase of land from farmers who say they were open to granting access to cross their farms without being forced to sell has generated conflict. Cleona O'Shea, chairperson of the National Greenway Action Association discusses.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

'The Pathless Land: Finding A Way Across Ireland'

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:15:51 +0000

Tim Hannigan is a Cornish born Travel Writer so as somebody who grew up with a right to roam the countryside, the thing about living in Ireland that he can’t get his head around is the comparatively limited access to the countryside that we settle for here. So he set himself the challenge of walking through Ireland’s heartlands - from one side of the island to the other - without trespassing to see how much of the journey could be completed off road.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump touches down in Ireland

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:15:50 +0000

Ahead of President Trump's arrival to Ireland, RTÉ News Correspondents Brian O'Connell, Colman O'Sullivan and Elizabeth Hearst brought us the latest updates live from this morning.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can organic farming provide buffer against weather extremes?

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 08:47:08 +0000

Amanda Galvin is running an organic sheep and tillage enterprise not too far from Tullamore. She hasn’t dipped in to any of her winter fodder, her fields are notably greener than her neighbours and her ewes actually need to lose a bit of the weight they’ve put on over the summer before she puts them to the ram.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do we need more drought-resistant pasture to adapt to hot and dry weather?

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 08:36:56 +0000

The creamery Tirlan surveyed 800 of its farmers last week – and over 80% of them said that they had already fed several week’s worth of what they should be feeding in December and January. And 90% said that there was barely any grass in their animal’s diet now. Head of Dairy Knowledge at the farming research agency Teagasc, Joe Patton joined the programme to share findings of a survey that gauged how deep the shortage of winter fodder is going to run this year.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"If this summer happens again we'll gear up and maybe spend another half a million euro on another irrigation machinery."

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 08:33:49 +0000

This week, Countrywide reporter Della Kilroy visited Hickeys farm to meet father and son Martin and Gerard Hickey and find out how this summer’s weather has affected their crops, and what it means for the future of Irish vegetable growing.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"There are some things we won't be able to change, so it is about adapting now for the future."

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 08:14:15 +0000

The number of farmers that have found themselves without water, or running low, or sitting on a sluggish well means that Harry and John Ellis – father and son team from Hacketstown Co Carlow are out the door with enquiries for drilling new wells. Dr Claire Bergin from the ICARUS Climate Centre in Maynooth University explained how the future of farming relies on how well farmers adapt to extremes of drought and floods.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Irish Horticulture Charter

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 09:04:11 +0000

Six of the country's biggest retailers - Aldi, Dunnes, Lidl, Marks and Spencer, SuperValu and Centra, and Tesco - have signed up to the principles of a new Horticulture Grower-Retail Charter. It arrives at a hard moment. Irish horticulture was worth €652 million at the farm gate last year. But the growers are disappearing. So how is the charter landing with the people who actually grow the food?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hannah Page Fox

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 09:04:11 +0000

Grangecon is in the west of Wicklow, under the hills. Hannah Page Fox lives on a sheep and Christmas tree farm in Grangecon. A year ago, with nothing much to warn her, Hannah was told she had lobular breast cancer, and that it had already spread. The year since for Hannah has been medical. Ella met with Hannah during the week to hear how the farm has helped her get through.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stephen Coen

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 09:04:11 +0000

On 26th of July, 75 years of waiting ended in Croke Park, and Sam Maguire is in Mayo at last. Stephen Coen has been chasing that day since he was seventeen, but he was named to start last month's final, and before throw-in, injury took him out of the squad on the day, but no one was more central to Mayo’s successful run than Coen. When he's not playing, Stephen farms cattle and sheep with his father Liam and his brother David outside the village of Hollymount.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Coffee Prices

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 09:04:11 +0000

Kate O'Sullivan is the new owner of café Pónaire in Newport, County Tipperary - a café at the front, and behind it a roastery that roasts every bean the business sells. Prices in Brazil for beans peaked early last year at nearly four and a half dollars a pound. It's eased since. But the warehouses are emptier than they've been in years, nobody in the trade will tell you where it goes next, and the cup you buy on the way to work has not got any cheaper.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Annacotty Weir in Limerick to be removed to restore natural river channel

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:24:42 +0000

Under the EU Nature restoration plan, Ireland must draw up an inventory of artificial barriers on its rivers and decide which of them will come out to restore at least 25,000 kilometers of free flowing rivers by 2030. One of these barriers is Annacotty weir in Limerick on the river Mulkear. Head of Inland Fisheries Ireland Hazel King joined us to tell us more. And some locals told Ella McSweeney their concerns.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How impactful are nature-based solutions to flooding?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:24:42 +0000

Dr Mary Burke, geographer at Trinity College Dublin talked about her research SloWaters project that encourages farmers to slow the flow of water off their lands during heavy rains to reduce the risk of flooding downstream.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How has hot and dry weather impacted potato farming?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:24:42 +0000

Journalist Hannah Quinn Mulligan met with potato farmer Donald Tracy in Kildare whose harvest has been reduced to half due to the hot and dry weather this year.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Waterford's farmhouse cheesemaker gets a new neighbour: Mark Zuckerberg

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:16:18 +0000

Black water valley has a new resident, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Ella McSweeney spoke with a cheesemaker who lives a stone's throw away from his new residence.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cork Community Garden

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 09:20:15 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Algal Bloom

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 09:18:45 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rambling House

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 09:16:59 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Uplands and Commonage

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 09:15:47 +0000

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?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Countrywide Full Episode 08/08/26

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Countrywide Full Episode 08/08/26

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Water Shortages (continued)

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Offshore Wind Farms

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Five new wind farms are waiting on planning approval in the Irish Sea and it appears that the sites line up with some of the best fishing grounds on the east coast. So 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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Water Shortages

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Little Terns

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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 to meet the conservationists working to protect the seabird species.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dublin Horse Show 2026

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The River Shannon: Part 2

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

We continue our River Shannon special, and Regan Hutchins also chats to Donal Boland about life living on the Shannon, on a boat in Co Offaly.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The River Shannon: Part 1

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Today's programme is a River Shannon special as we hear about the life along the river.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Farming and mental health in Ireland

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ECO-UNESCO'S Eco-Choices

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Green Loy

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

The loy is a long, narrow spade that broke hard ground for generations. A new exhibition at The Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon takes the loy as its starting point. 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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Croke Patrick Stakeholders

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Countrywide Full Episode 18/07/2026

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

Countrywide Full Episode 18/07/2026

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Sheep Show Podcast

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Galway Sheep

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wool Logs

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keith Brennan

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wool Shearing

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 08:00:00 +0000

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.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Countrywide Full Episode 11/07/26