For Mrs. Anne Harte of Reynella, Bracklyn, the local public cowpark has been her family’s “farm” for the past 40 years. Likewise Frank Smith of Monilea and the Glennon family of Reynella, both of whose late fathers reared their families, thanks to the public cowpark.
For the past number of weeks, Mrs. Harte hasn’t been sleeping at night, worrying about her plight, and unable to see a solution, and the other two families are similarly upset.
“My little herd are my life. I love the cows and their calves, and have been here every day since I lost my husband thirty years ago. Now my sons look after them with me,” she told Topic on Tuesday evening, as she explained that the County Council property manager Mr. Higgins had been out with her, warning that if the cattle were not removed before Wednesday morning, they were going to seize them, impound them and she would have to pay to get them back.
“But I just can’t afford to pay such money”, she said. “just as I can’t compete against bigger farmers in trying to get any alternative land to rent for the cows. We’re the smaller people that nobody cares about, with just two acres of our own land, but we’ve reared our family thanks to this land being available, and its all we have. We get a Small Farm single payment which means a lot to us. We’ll lose this now,” she added, explaining that the Sheriff had called on her a week before, and announced she must leave or face having her animals taken.
“Mr. Higgins from the Council had our tag numbers today (Tuesday) and told us if the cattle aren’t gone by morning, they’ll take them. Where can I put them?” the distraught woman asked us. “I’ve the bit of land at my house in meadow, to have winter fodder for the animals. If I put them in on that grass, it will destroy it all, and I’ll have no fodder,” she said.
“I’m at my wits end, I can’t sleep with worry, I just don’t know where to turn,” she told us.
“If they take off my in-calf heifers, they could lose their calves, they’ll get so upset,” she explained, saying calves are due in August.
Mrs. Harte and the other tenants explained that the Council had changed its policy on Westmeath cowparks, and had tried to get them out some years ago, and they were told by an official the cowpark land was to be sold, to provide money for a big Council sportspark project in Mullingar, but they pressure went off them when the Celtic Tiger expired and the Mullingar scheme died.
“THE SIDE OF THE ROAD”
“Now they’re back to get rid of us,” Frank Smith explained, and we’re being told “the side of the road for ye” he said. “We don’t know what the Council want the land for, but we know it will be sold to some big local landowner, to give the Council money for schemes somewhere else.”
The Hartes and Frank Smith explained that when Frank’s father was alive, he used to milk the cows each morning, cycle six miles to Fagans of Crookedwood to work as herd on a big farm, and then cycle home and milk the cows again in the evening.
“He sent the milk in to Mullingar Creamery until it closed,” Frank said, “and the money we got kept the family going in hard times. It looks as if the hard times are back for us again, thanks to the County Council. They’re the new landlord class for us, putting us on the side of the road.”
For 40 years, without a break, the three north Westmeath small farm families have availed of the public cowpark lands at Edmondstown/Killynon, just a short distance from Turin GAA grounds, as their “farmland”, and the income they got was very valuable. Now they see themselves on the side of the road, with nowhere to put their animals.
“Does this mean we’ve to sell the few animals we have, while the cowpark lies idle, or is added to a big farmer’s holding?” Margaret Glennon asked.
Margaret and her brother are the third tenants on the cowpark land, and they’ve got the same “Quit” notices from the Council but don’t have animals on the land at present.
RESTRICTED HERD?
Paddy Boyhan, Collinstown, member of a new group, the Farm Rights Group, set up to defend smaller and weaker farmers, remarked to us that as Frank Smith’s herd appeared to be restricted at present, he could not see how the Council could move animals from the cowpark at present, because it would be against all regulations,
When we spoke to Deputy Willie Penrose on Tuesday, he promised to talk to the County Manager to try to help the tenant farmers, and former Councillor Dan McCarthy said he was willing to help, if anything could be done, and he appreciated the plight of these people.
Westmeath County Council, when asked about the matter, sent Topic a four page document, saying that in 2006, the Council decided in relation to cowparks, to “ensure the assets would benefit the wider local community rather than the few who currently use them.”
The policy was to rent cowpark lands on a standard Grazing Agreement Licence, they stated.
(The cowpark tenants have paid their rents promptly over the years, but point out they cannot compete against big farmers seeking grazing.)
The Council say providing playgrounds and sports facilities and graveyard improvements are among the benefits from their cowpark policy changes.”The status quo is not appropriate and should not be facilitated,” their report says.
As far as the Edmonstown cowpark tenants are concerned, their lives are now in ruin, and the graveyard is where the Council wants them to go.
