‘Dublin? It’s just way too noisy’
— Margaret O’Farrell
MARGARET O’FARRELL and partner Alfie McCaffrey went from running a scuba diving business in Dublin to pig farming in North Tipperary in 2003. They had been looking for a new business premises in Dublin “but the cost of ‘key money’ was astronomical and we just couldn’t afford a quarter of a million euro to acquire a new premises. We tried to continue running the business from our Donabate semi-D but it really wasn’t viable”, Margaret says.
They sold their home and bought a detached house in need of renovation on five acres. “We worked at various jobs up to the end of 2009 when everything once again went pear-shaped and we had to reinvent ourselves again.
“We were keeping pigs for meat for ourselves so set up Oldfarm Pork, selling freerange pork to customers nationwide. Other sources of income are social media training and we’ve opened up our home to Airbnb since 2013,” Margaret says.
“I can’t say there were any problems integrating into the community except I guess that you do always feel the blow-in. People here have gone to school together and have known each other all their lives, so we will be outsiders to the end. That’s not said in a bad way, but we’re not related to anyone or haven’t been born here, gone away and come back, we are completely from outside. So you just have to accept that.”
Alfie had a heart attack last September. “Alfie was able to ring our GP at 6.30am to get a letter for the hospital — not sure we’d be able to do that in Dublin,” Margaret says.
“I drove like a lunatic to get to Galway Clinic, an hour away. Alfie was taken straight in and was on the operating table within half an hour. At the same time my 88-year-old dad had to wait two hours in Malahide for an ambulance to take him to Beaumount.” The couple can’t envisage returning to Dublin. “It’s way too noisy,” Margaret laughs.