A young hill farmer from mid-Kerry broke through a glass ceiling on the eve of March 8, International Women’s Day.
It is hardly surprising that the first female chair of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) in Kerry is Mary Sheehan of Lassabee, which is located northwest of Castlemaine village. After all, the INHFA has just recently established itself in the Kingdom.
However, Mary is also aware that she is the county’s first female chair of a farming organization.

“I’m shocked but thrilled, delighted, to be nominated and made chair,” she told The Kerryman after receiving the responsibility at the local branch AGM in Milltown last Thursday. “It’s great to get recognition.”

Mary is enthusiastic about encouraging more farmers, both female and male, to join farming organizations. Her membership in the INHFA is relatively new, but in the last year, she claims that being a member has increased her understanding of the industry she works in.

“I’m only learning all this myself over the past 12 months, since I joined the organisation, and it’s very informative… The biggest thing for us, because we’re such a young organisation in Kerry, it would be great to see people who have an interest in farming – especially females – sign up and join with us.” she said. “There are a lot of young, female Kerry farmers out there, and you can do it. I know it’s voluntary, but if you’ve been born on the land, farmed the land, loved the land, especially at lambing season and you have an interest, it’s great to get involved in an organisation, to understand what’s going on, what’s coming down the line, what’s going to work, and what’s not going to work.”

Mary claimed that her love of the game is what keeps her going. She and her son Gavin farm sixty sheep. She stated that now is the ideal moment to join a farming organization because farmers have a lot of exciting things ahead of them.

Read More: https://womenworldmagazine.com