For our final week we ended up back in Tipperary for a couple days. Aoife the O’Neill’s cousin drove us to meet the Mooneys and found us a hurling game in the area as we mentioned it would be nice to catch one. The following day we toured the farm and then got dropped off at the hurling match. It was good fun even if we weren’t exactly sure of what was going on but it was quite impressive how far they could hit the ball.
Throughout the game you could see little kids with their little hurl’s and sliotar’s (ball and stick used for the game) and at half time they all ran to the field to play. It was a good match with Upperchurch coming out on top with a 1-23 win over Silvermines who had 1-15. I’d almost describe the sport as a cross between lacrosse, field hockey and handball but I could be completely wrong on that, basically my mind just kept circling back on how much it would hurt to accidentally be hit in the hand with a hurl when trying to catch the sliotar. After the game we hung out in town for a bit before walking back to our host house where we enjoyed snacks and dinner on the patio. It was a nice relaxing night with an absolutely wonderful view.
Sunday was when we said goodbye to the Mooney’s. We got a ride to the Tullamore show with one of Macras alumni who was also judging the Farm skills competition. First thing we did when arriving was find the Macra tent where we found a lot of the members from Meath and some we had met at the queen of the castle. We looked around the show for a bit but we were more looking forward to cheering on Monalty (from meath) for the competition. The farm skills are split into 3 separate tasks, the first being a written test, the second being an obstacle course and the third being fence building. The obstacle course consisted of driving a tractor with a roller through poles going both forward and backwards and then picking up round bales and setting them on pallets which then had to be balanced on top of oil drums and taken down again, all while switching jobs from person to person. Monalty was the second last group to compete and were informed they had the best time so far and then watching them build the fence in the last challenge had me confident they were going to win. The pure coordination teams displayed while building the fence was something, they were fully in tune with what one another needed and how to help them clearly displaying how well practised they were. All their hard work paid off, Monalty brought home the award for the safety competition and won first place in the farm skills which was a high note to leave them on since we wouldn’t be seeing them again.
Our final 5 days were spent in Roscommon in a town called Knockcroghery with Diarmuid, Niamh and their son Paudi. Monday was a day of work, Martina milked cows first thing in the morning before we helped uncover the silage pit. Then because there was a storm the night before we also had the pleasure of sorting calves as the bulls and heifers ended up in the same field. Once we finished, we helped clear brush and trees that they had to cut down as it was difficult to do silage with them there.
Diarmuid had hoped cutting the trees would be a problem for next year but because of the great weather it became a problem now. Our final task for the night was milking, and then we watched as they filled the silage pit and went out to the field to watch them cut it.
Most of the week was spent with Niamh, she was great to discuss Macra and compare it to JF, we discussed ideas on how to bring in members and things that have worked/ didn’t for them. She’s originally from Galway but is friendly with many other clubs which is something we have in common. She actually took us for a drive to do the Wild Atlantic Way and go to coral beach. Her brother Sean Og actually lives in Boston with his wife Emily and they were in town so given she had never been down that way we picked them up in Galway and they joined us. We stopped by Niamh’s parents house to drop off Sean Og and Emily then headed home.
The only thing on my Ireland bucket list was the Cliffs of Moher, Niamh couldn’t believe I hadn’t been there in my two weeks so far and made sure to add it to our itinerary. Needless to say Wednesday was a good day for me, they all were but Wednesday was cliff day. We started out on a boat tour to view the cliffs from the bottom then did the hike along the top. The day was fairly nice with it only starting to rain on our way back.
Martina kept laughing at me because I was in Paradise. The rest of the trip was pretty relaxed with Thursday visiting a broiler breeder farm as that is what I currently do for work and Niamh’s friend is big into the poultry industry. We visited two farms, one which was fairly different to both the other and the one I work on but it was cool to see the similarities. That night Niamh showed up to inform us we’d have to change plans and take the bus to the airport and gave us the sweetest gift. There was an adorable cow card and plaque, a coaster with an Irish blessing, and a little book full of Irish tales.
I was incredibly fortunate for this adventure and all the people who treated us like family. I definitely made some lifelong friends from the girls who were on exchange with me to the clubs who hosted and everyone in between. For anybody considering an exchange I can not tell you enough, do it, make it work. As someone who’s been on two, it truly is the best way to travel and can make a huge difference in how you see yourself and what you believe yourself capable of. But, if travelling isn’t necessarily your thing, try helping out with incoming delegates. The travel program that JFAO offers is something you should definitely take advantage of in any way that works for you.
Ireland, you were wonderful! I’ll be back soon.
