
Life lessons from the farm
Module Overview
John Connell ‘s award-winning books draw on his experiences when he returned to the family farm in Ireland. He talks to Farmstrong about the life lessons he learned in the day-to-day routines of farming which have struck a chord with readers all over the world.
It’s not easy to describe Irishman John Connell in a few words. He’s a very successful author, a journalist, a documentary producer, wellbeing ambassador and a man in love with farming.
His debut book, which spent 37 weeks in the Irish book charts and won the Best Non-Fiction Book Award in Ireland, is called The Cow Book.
“It’s the story of a young man coming back to work on the family farm after a bad time,” says John. “And it’s the story of me and my Dad working together and coming to understand each other better. Ultimately, it’s a story of family farming and the ties that unite us all.”
John, who was a guest speaker at this year’s Featherston Booktown, runs a medium-sized farm in County Longford, in the midlands of Ireland. He returned to the family farm after living a very different life in Sydney and Toronto for more than a decade.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting back to a simpler life as a farmer. Farming is the bedrock of my days now,” he says.
He has a sheep flock, yearling heifers and bullocks “which are maturing nicely and the price is really good at the moment,” he’s pleased to say. “It’s the best it’s been in years. There’s actually a shortage of livestock right now, of cattle and sheep, so the prices went up. Even the weather is good, making up for a bad summer last year. Farming people are in a good mood here at the moment.”
For John, however, farming is not just an enjoyable way of life. It has also been a lifeline, a path to restoring his health mentally and physically. When he was living an intense, busy life in big cities, he suffered bouts of depression and, later on, the publishing success of The Cow Book led to burn-out. It was in the simple rhythms and regular routines of farming that he found his way back to good health.
Change of pace
John can identify a number of factors that helped him on that journey. He enjoys being his own boss and the flexibility that being a farmer brings.
A change of pace was key to his recovery, he says.
“As a farmer, I have more time for myself, more time to be in nature. Just today, for example, I had a million things to do but I went up and was looking at the cattle, and the horses and the sheep and I just felt relaxed.
“We converted to organic farming a couple of years ago and I’ve been interested to see the impact of that on the farm. I was up on the hill farm a couple of weeks ago and there was a pair of nesting hawks which I’d never seen before. There are things like that you notice.
“We have a river on the farm and I like fishing. The mayflies are up at the moment. There is a whole little world there. I’ve become good mates with our family vet, and he’s a fisherman so we catch up and have a chat.”
Slowing down is a key part of maintaining mental health, he says.
“I know that slowing down is not possible all the time, but you have to take the opportunity when you can.
“There was a time there when I ran myself into the ground. The Cow Book had come out and was a big success and I was travelling all over the world and I just ended up being chewed up a bit.
“I said to myself, I’m a farmer. Go back to farming and nature. I’m going to put the computer away, not write for a while. I had this idea to buy 12 sheep and just follow them over a lambing season and keep a diary of it. That’s what I did and that’s how the book Twelve Sheep came about.
“There’s always pressure and bills and paying your mortgage and all that kind of stuff. It can be a real challenge to slow down but it’s important.”
Five ways to wellbeing
Exercise is also fundamental to a sense of wellbeing, says John.
“I was someone who didn’t exercise in my 20s. Now I cycle and run with my buddies and do triathlons. Some days are really busy, but you have to find an hour for yourself to do it. For me, even if I am having a lousy day, it picks me up. I go for a run and it shakes out any annoyance or bad feeling and I feel centred again.”
Having a network of friends is really key to a good mental outlook, says John. He looks back to when he lived in Toronto and he didn’t have friends as he had previously had when he lived in Sydney.
“That’s when my mental health took a dip, when I had no-one to turn to.”
It’s different now. As well as his local friends, and friends who are coming home to Ireland, he keeps in touch with friends he has made round the world through WhatsApp.
“I have a list of friends on WhatsApp who I talk to once a week or once every two weeks, and it’s free. I have mates in Australia, mates in America, mates in different parts of Ireland who I ring up for a good chin-wag.
“This technology wasn’t available to previous generations. It’s meant I have been able to maintain close friendships that I probably would have lost.”
John is well-placed to write about mental wellbeing and to be a motivational speaker on the subject. He speaks from experience.
“I haven’t suffered from depression for over a decade. I put that down to the way I have lived my life – the exercise, the eating right, the network of friends, going to bed on time, things like that. A steady regular routine has helped a lot.
“I’m very proud that I have been able to look after my own mental health and help other people to talk about it. Conversations about mental health have become more normalised. When that happens, people aren’t afraid to ask for help. Thirty or forty years ago, it was a taboo subject.
“To be a modern farmer is to know when to ask for help. That’s why the Farmstrong initiative which you have in New Zealand is so important. It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help. It’s the sign of an intelligent person who knows that maybe this thing is a little too big for me and I need to talk to somebody about it.”
The issues faced by famers in New Zealand are the same as those in Ireland, says John. Rural isolation and the loneliness that can go with it are issues that need to be dealt with positively by getting people involved in community. The Five Ways to Wellbeing promoted by Farmstrong are great, he says. They focus on what it takes to make yourself mentally stronger.
“New Zealand and Ireland are similar places. Farming is very central to our societies. I’ve been in America a few times and you tell someone you’re a farmer and you may as well say you are an astronaut. They have no concept of what’s involved.
“But in rural communities like Ireland and New Zealand, farming is part of the bedrock of who we are. We have to look out for our farmers because if there are no farmers, there is no food and if there is no food, there is nothing!”
Farmstrong is nationwide, rural wellbeing programme that helps farmers and growers to manage the ups and downs of the industry. Last year more than 15,000 farmers and growers attributed an increase in their wellbeing to the programme. For free farmer-to-farmer tools and resources, head to www.farmstrong.co.nz