CountryWide

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.

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 infor...

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.

Countrywide Full Episode 08/08/26 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's programme is a River Shannon special as we hear about the life along the river. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

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 informati...

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...

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.

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.

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.

On Hawthorn Hill Farm in North Roscommon, Keith Brennan has been shearing his sheep. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

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.

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 informatio...

Countrywide Full Episode 18/07/2026 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Countrywide Full Episode 11/07/26

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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).

Countrywide Full Episode 04/07/2026

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.