The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 200

Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin House Farm and gardens on day 95 out of lock down. When I say we are 95 days out of lock down I hope the trend continues but there is a lot of nervousness in Cork today as we fear we will be locked down again. As they say in Connemara “Tá mo chroi bhriste”. My heart is broken and I will tell you why. As a small, organic farming business of 37 years, we were closed for business in the B+B for about 5 months and then we began to crawl out of lock down and re-establish only about 20% of our normal business. Then Dublin, who are one of our main outlets, got locked down and now it looks like Cork will be too. This means we will have no business again and yes I am angry. Why? Well I will tell you why - there are sections of our community, our people, behaving irresponsibly and not only putting our lives at risk but also the lives and livelihood of all the people and families who play by the rules, be they school kids, parents, grandparents. All these law abiding citizens need the respect, care and attention in our society from the “irresponsibles”. Another question - what are the state services doing to prevent this behaviour going on in the streets, party houses, sheebeens etc. It is time that we get the protection from the state that we as tax payers pay for. I feel very strongly and upset by all these goings on and I know many of my family, friends and fellow business are appauled at the section of society that are selling us in hell. We need to pray more, that I am sure of. We need to send blessings and healing to all people. Be mindful, be caring and wear that smile no matter what.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick