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2 weeks ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
Curiosity may have killed the cat – but it is the best thing you can bring with you travelling around the country, according to writer Michael Fewer. It’s this very trait which has led to his new book, the perfect companion to any staycation adventure this summer.
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3 weeks ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
Choirs in decades past conjured up images of sombre Sunday hymns or serious classical singing. But group singing has gone through a revolution in recent years with more pop and mainstream songs added to repertoires, modernising the image of community choirs from fuddy-duddy to fun. Timahoe Male Choir definitely falls into the latter category – they are the very definition of feel-good.
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1 month ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
The best deal when you take out your mortgage may not be the most competitive for the lifetime of your loan. Mortgage rates are falling – the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its seventh cut last month, so now is certainly a good time to see if there is a better rate out there. There is also increased competition in the market with the recent entry of MoCo, owned by Austrian bank BAWAG, and the fact that over 70 credit unions now have a mortgage offering.
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1 month ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
Every evening the contents of their inbox is the main topic of conversation for the Whyte family in Co Westmeath. How many orders have landed into whyteagri.ie, and from where? This is the first thing transition year student Jack Whyte checks when he gets in from Moate Community School. The agri-website, up and running since November of 2023, is a quintessential family business with everyone playing a part in its success.
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1 month ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
Question: I recently undertook a full refurbishment of my kitchen, including buying all new integrated electrical appliances. While I got a good deal from my retailer after buying all of the goods in the one store, my oven stopped working over a month later. Since then, I feel like I’m being passed from pillar to post by the shop with no satisfactory outcome. What can I do? Answer: Sometimes problems arise after you buy or are gifted electrical items, goods or services.
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1 month ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
Hot smoke billows in the air and a lantern is lighting around an old hayshed in the tranquil Meath countryside that once housed round bales on a beef farm. Nowadays, it is the entrance to the forge of An Gobha, aka Tom King, the blacksmith of the Boyne Valley. He sets Irish Country Living to work at the anvil, hammering a sun pendant, just like the ones he will bring to the Bealtaine Fire Festival at the sacred Hill of Uisneach, in nearby Westmeath, on 10 May.
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1 month ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
In the shadow of the sun-kissed Slieve Bloom Mountains, a traditional custom that stretches back thousands of years was kept alive on Sunday by a merry band dancing around the May bush to the sound of a traditional tune. And this year I was privileged to be among them. Cadamstown village in Co Offaly was en fête as members of the Slieve Bloom Association gathered to mark the ancient festival of Bealtaine with a May bush to welcome summer and a community gathering.
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2 months ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
From Illinois to Alaska to perching on a roof in an overcast sky, close to the seaside town of Tramore in Co Waterford, it''s been quite an eventful life journey for Sara Leach, one of only two female thatchers in Ireland. On the day she meets Irish Country Living, she is in the middle of repairing a ridge on a roof of a relatively new thatched home at Mountain View Farm.
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2 months ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
"In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it, you’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade,” Judy Garland famously sang with Fred Astaire in the 1940s musical, Easter Parade. While the children of Dromore NS in Co Donegal probably have never heard of the Hollywood greats, that same spirit of Easter joie de vivre for the season ahead was certainly alive and well before the school finished up for the Easter break.
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2 months ago | 
farmersjournal.ie | Deirdre Verney
‘When I went back to study art, it was like I became a new person.” These are the words of farmer and visual artist Mary Slevin on rediscovering her creative spark at the age of 50. “For the years I was working, rearing kids and looking after the farm, I kind of lost myself. It brought me back to my youth. I felt young again,” she says from her studio, a converted shed on the family farm at Mount Henry, Portarlington in Co Laois. “There’s a great lift to it. Art lifts your soul.
