"Voices from the Land" goes to The Ploughing Championships!

Simon Harris TD gets his copy of "Voices from the Land" at The Ploughing Championships. Apparently he later read my story "Family Farm Survivor" and was very moved by it. I just hope that he transforms that feeling into some kind of action so that no farm kid ever has to go through what I went through back then ever again.

The light of truth dawns over rural Ireland! We made it all the way to The Ploughing no less! This is quite an honor!Voices from the Land was hosted by the "Creative Ireland" stand in the Government of Ireland Marquee at the Ploughing! The woman on the right there is Tania Banotti - the Director of Creative IrelandThe booklet proved to be a big hit with all the attendees of the Ploughing. Thousands of copies are now                              being read and enjoyed by farmers all over the country.

I hope the farmers that read my story take its message to heart and actually learn something from it. The main lesson being that this is exactly how NOT to raise your kids. All those of you who haven't read it yet can simply watch me read it for you here if you like: Family Farm Survivor, by David Lynch - YouTube

I now consider both of these people to be my good friends - Ryan Dennis (the originator of the project) and Lucina Russell (Arts Officer for Kildare County Council). They both championed the inclusion of my contribution - a far more challenging story than is usual for these sorts of projects. For that they have my undying gratitude.Lucina also moonlights as a film producer in her spare time: Lucina Russell - IMDbAmong other projects she also produced the Irish film "All About Eva" which successfully debuted at the Dublin Film Festival a few years back. As such she has lots of contacts in the Irish Film Board (aka Screen Ireland)I have already discussed with her the possibility of adapting my story for the screen. I think it could be done quite cost-effectively as a short film which sticks closely to the text and takes a quite realistic, documentary-like approach. Not for general release or anything like that but just as a kind of PSA that could be shown online, in rural schools or at farming-related events. I think that would be a great thing for the government to put some much-needed funding behind. This is an ongoing issue that all farming families have to deal with sooner or later. We really need to open up and start talking about it because I'd hate for any more farming families to have to go through what ours did.

Coincidentally "All About Eva" - a thriller set in rural Ireland - contains a scene with a desperate young person who feels like she has no choice but to grab a shotgun in the dead of night in an attempt to survive and do right by her family ............

.........but then when it comes to it she is too emotionally conflicted to use it - until a third party intervenes to resolve the situation in an unexpected way. So there are definite thematic similarities between Lucina's previous work and my own story. That makes her a good fit for the material.

"All About Eva" is of course a homage to the 1950 Hollywood golden-age classic "All About Eve" - a movie where the title character Eve (left) plays an arch-manipulator sociopath who ruthlessly uses everyone around her and will stop at nothing to get her own way regardless of the carnage she leaves behind her. Again all very thematically appropriate to my own story of dealing with the impossibly selfish arsehole who called himself my dad whilst I was growing up on the farm. Perhaps "All About Tim" should be the working title.Anyway a big thank you to the entire Creative Ireland team at the Ploughing this year! They all did a great job!Lovely to see an old farmer finally get to realize his dream of seeing his writing talent in print so that it can be widely read and appreciated by others. For the sake of our farm kids I hope to god that decent old guys like this are the norm on our farms and selfish manipulative monsters like my dad are just an aberration. 

Business was brisk at the "Voices from the Land" section as you can see in the back there. I think the average farmer relates a lot more to honestly told farm stories than fashion stuff.Oh well, at least the young people seemed to get a kick out of it.

A big thank you to all those who picked up a copy and took the time to read it too!

So anyway now my story is finally told and all's well that ends well, right?

Nah not really - dumb luck and random chance may have intervened to avert disaster in my case but ultimately Cregane very much remains a deadly dangerous ticking time bomb. Absolutely nothing has changed since my time there. The clock on the timer has just been reset is all. There is no doubt in my mind that this bomb is still going to go off one day with devastating consequences for all those who are unlucky enough to be involved. When that day comes I will be saddened but not in the least surprised.

Indeed it is, Shirley.

And a very shite and boring history it is at that too! One that I am more than happy to leave far behind me.

My dad learned from his past alright. The only problem was that he took the wrong lesson from it. When his mother kicked his sister Margaret out of the house for good the lesson he learned from that is that she was dead right to do it because he was by far the more important person. Same deal with my brother when my dad sent him to kick me out. Not only would he angrily deny that he did anything wrong but he actually still makes the exact same stupid jokes/insults about it right now today that he did back then - as if he hasn't moved on one iota or gained any insight or maturity whatsoever in the last 25 years. If anything his position has become even more entrenched. And if he truly believes that he did "the right thing" back then, then what's to stop him from doing it all over again with his own kids right now?

Cregane is a fucking meat-grinder! All my grandmother/father/brother did (or continue to do) is turn the handle. Its a factory for producing broken and damaged children. What will it produce next? Another Kanturk? Or something far worse than that?