‘Open Your Eyes to Farm Safety’ project

The #Openyoureyestofarmsafety began with a pioneering initiative from students and their teachers at Nenagh CBS in County Tipperary.

From a community who have been deeply and personally affected by farm accidents, five students Patrick Fogarty, Jack Gleeson, Michael Ryan, Paul Seymour and Patrick Quigley embarked on a mission to change the culture of farm safety.

The transition year students, helped by their teacher Paul Butler, put together a practical video showing the risks involved in farming and how to farm more safely.

“Many students were affected by farm tragedies,” said Paul Butler. “We wanted to save lives on farms.”

The students and teachers began their farm safety campaign after Peter Gohery, a Galway farm accident survivor, gave his passionate presentation to the students about his own accident during which he lost a leg in a tractor PTO accident.

The students with support from the school held a tractor run in aid of Embrace FARM in November 2019, and raised a €7000, which supports families affected by a farm accident.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) will promote the video to all secondary schools in Ireland in September as a resource to be used to support health and safety learning outcomes which are embedded across the Leaving Certificate agricultural science curriculum.

The Irish Farmers’ Association has come on board to give its support and solidarity to this Farm Safety initiative. In conjunction with Nenagh CBS, IFA, Embrace FARM and the HSA a competition will be run for people to answer questions after watching the video.

Embrace FARM (Farming Accidents Remembered & Missed) was established by Brian Rohan and his wife Norma in 2014.

Having experienced the tragic loss of his father Liam during 2012 in a farming accident, Brian and Norma created the vision of Embrace FARM as ‘a caring and supporting agri-community for all those affected by farming accidents’.

IFA has made €5000 available for this competition. The competition will run until Friday, July 24 to coincide with ‘Farm Safety Week’.

Anyone wishing to participate in the competition can take part by answering the questions on this link https://surveyhero.com/c/da34bcce.

Only fully correct answers will be accepted. Ten names will be picked at random from all correct entries submitted by July 24.