I smile and, as gently as I can, remind the enquirer that I\u2019m not actually retired from the practise and the livelihood of farming – just that we don\u2019t milk cows here in Garryantaggart anymore.<\/p>\n
The general laugh then comes: \u201cSure, yerra, you never milked \u2019em much with the last 50 years anyhow\u201d -a reference to the part my good wife has played since she \u2018transferred\u2019 from her home in Desert – the other side of this parish – four score and five years ago.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll not deny the fact that she kept the home fires burning and without her by my side I couldn\u2019t have taken on the \u2018public\u2019 role thrust on me many years ago.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve often told people that I was never destined to be a farmer but fate, combined with worse than middling Leaving Cert results in 1974, combined to shape my future.<\/p>\n
Just this week, the 1926 Census returns have been made available \u2018on-line\u2019, and in the first few days there have been 20 million \u2018hits\u2019 on the National Archives site.<\/p>\n
In Kilcor South, Castlelyons parish, the name Mary Bridget Twomey is listed as being just 11 months old. Mam was born at home in May of 1925 – a century ago last year.<\/p>\n
My grandparents met initially, apparently, by pure chance. John Twomey was helping the Leahys who were threshing at McCarthys of Ballinaskeha, Leamlara. Whilst in the haggard, my grandfather spotted Nora McCarthy and, according to family lore, he declared that very night: \u201cToday I saw the girl I\u2019m going to marry!\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1924, he did just that, and the following year Mam was born. Five more children were born to the couple – my treasured uncles and aunts.<\/p>\n
In 1926, my grandfather recorded himself on the first ever Irish Free State Census as a \u2018farmer\u2019, 36 years and 11 months of age – he was also an employee of the Department of Agriculture – up until his death in 1943.<\/p>\n
Mam and Dada also had a slightly \u2018unorthodox\u2019 introduction. In early 1950, an aunt of my father\u2019s was dying and he was asked to \u2018stay up\u2019 by her bedside one night.A relative of my grand-aunt was herself a first cousin of my Twomey grandmother. So she \u2018suggested\u2019 that Mam should do \u2018her duty\u2019 by the bedside on the same night my father was there. Love blossomed and they were married two years later.<\/p>\n
Mam ran the farm on her own after Dada\u2019s death in 1961.<\/p>\n
\n To be honest, in 1974 farming wasn\u2019t high on my list of occupations. Did I want to be a writer, a politician, a historian \u2013 or even a World Book Encyclopaedia salesman? Not sure really, but with just one Leaving Cert. Honour (in Irish) and unable to add, subtract, multiply or divide, my future options were limited enough!\n <\/p>\n
Mam suggested that I \u2018stay at home (farming) \u2019til Christmas, and sure we\u2019ll see after that\u2019 – well, Christmas never came!<\/p>\n
The song says \u2018Regrets, I\u2019ve had a few but then too few to mention\u2019, and in reality I was more of a Doris Day fan, \u2018Que sera, sera – whatever will be, will be, que sera, sera\u2019 – and God knows that philosophy has stood me in good stead for over half a century.<\/p>\n
Yes, occasionally I do ponder and wonder what might have happened if bank interest rates hadn\u2019t reached over 20% in the early 1980s. We had great plans for expansion then but borrowed money had to be repaid one way or another, and what\u2019s that they say about \u2018the best laid plans of mice and men\u2019?<\/p>\n
No point in crying over spilt milk!<\/p>\n
Talking of milk, that\u2019s one of life\u2019s pleasures I really do miss since the cows went. From now on, when the cows were in full milk each morning, I used to enjoy a pure pleasure that cannot be enjoyed anywhere else.<\/p>\n
\n When the first eight cows were milking, I\u2019d pop down to the kitchen and return to the milking parlour with a half-full mug of steaming black coffee. Then I\u2019d squirt the fresh hot creamy milk straight from the cow into the mug.\n <\/p>\n
Leave me alone about your cappuccinos or lattes or frappuccinos -this was a treat beyond description, pure indulgence!<\/p>\n
Of course, I miss the monthly creamery cheque too, but then again the old age pension comes every week – hail, rain or shine!<\/p>\n
This time of year is when we would normally be leaving the young calves out in the field for the first time. Since birth, for the first eight to ten weeks, the calves drank milk, and ate hay and calf ration. Now they would enjoy the great, glorious outdoors for the first time, and after smelling and licking it, they\u2019d eventually come to realise grass is nice to eat!<\/p>\n
They\u2019d run and play and frolic, galloping over and back across the field, enjoying this great freedom.<\/p>\n
Another thing I know I\u2019ll miss is walking through the herd of cows at dusk on summer\u2019s evenings.<\/p>\n
I hate it when people refer to cows and other stock as \u2018dumb animals\u2019. True, they can\u2019t talk, but they have their own special way of expressing their emotions. Hungry, cold and sick cows show those sadnesses in their eyes. Similarly, on a grand warm summer\u2019s evening in May or June, when the cows are out a few hours after milking, the satisfaction and contentment they are experiencing is so obvious.<\/p>\n
\n I often walked through them – many lying down – you\u2019d think they were holding their breath, then a kind of inner belch, and off they\u2019d go again, chewing the cud.\n <\/p>\n
I always believed that well-treated cows were happy cows, and such cows were so docile and content and loved supplying their white liquid gold.<\/p>\n
I notice that since the cows went, I go to the local creamery in Castlelyons less often. Founded in 1917 – my grandfather John Twomey played a major role in the early days – with cows and calves, there would be no week pass without a few trips to the creamery for this and that – maybe a water connection, a dose, a bag of ration or new bucket.<\/p>\n
The local creamery was always a great gathering place for \u2018news\u2019 and meeting neighbours.<\/p>\n
Dave Ryan brought our churns of milk here daily until his sudden death in the spring of 1973. We then had a \u2018plastic tank\u2019 for a few years until the refrigerated bulk tank came in.<\/p>\n
Ah yes, lots of changes in the past 50 years or so.<\/p>\n
Am I happy or sad not to be milking cows now?<\/p>\n
A hard question to answer, but no point in looking over my shoulder at the \u2018might have beens\u2019.<\/p>\n
We still have cattle here on the farm and look forward to growing more and more grass – hay and silage are always wanted.<\/p>\n
I must say the greatest positive I have found is the freedom to come and go and not be tied by two milking times each day.<\/p>\n
We loved farming, especially farming with nature, and hopefully that won\u2019t change.<\/p>\n
Yes, its quieter now with no lowing herd winding slowly o\u2019er the lea, but we have so much more time for family and friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Mass of a Sunday, and at meetings and matches with the last two months, I\u2019m being asked:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,56073],"class_list":["post-450684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-john-arnold"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116456718915049336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}