Energetic committee is the backbone of Iveragh Mart

ALL successful groups need a proactive and conscientious committee to ensure everything works well and the 30-year story of Iveragh Mart is a prime example of this. Having vision and drive is essential to any business, but good personnel is what makes organisational effort seem worth it. The mart is fortunate to have had many diligent members over the years and the current committee, which consists of 11 members, is a voluntary group that helps ensure the mart stays in rude health.

The committee membership come from across the Iveragh region covering a broad range of different ages which is essential to ensuring experience and enthusiasm is in plentiful supply for the greater good of the mart. Members are elected annually at the mart’s AGM and the officers change positions every few years.

Encouraging more youth to get involved in the mart is also a priority as their expertise will undoubtedly be required to see the mart through to the next 30 years. Mart Manager Mike Kissane praised the committee.

“They are very easy to work with which is important from my point of view. When you have a committee that is helpful and wants to go forward it’s easy to work with them,” he said.

Mike added that one of the mart’s main challenges, both locally and nationally, is the age profile of farmers. When Iveragh Mart opened in 1988 there was more full-time farmers living off the land. This generation is now moving on, and in most cases when the farm is handed down, the recipient will usually have another line of work to contend with. This means farming is now part-time in nature.

“Given the smaller and more fragmented nature of farming in south Kerry, it’s getting harder to live off the land full-time,” Mike said.

“Farmers will need another income stream to work around this. One of the positives of having a committee in place is that we can share and discuss issues as opposed to just making individual decisions. We’re a co-op structure and all major decisions are made collectively at our meetings. This structure has been very good for Iveragh Mart over the years.”

Photos by Michelle Cooper Galvin Iveragh Mart staff members Bernadette O’Sullivan, Helen Kissane, Emily Ahern and Michael Kissane Manager (back from left) Denis Curran, Paddy Casey, Paul O’Sullivan, Stephen McCarthy, Sean O’Connor, Fionnan Kissane, John O’Sullivan, Sean Murphy, Niall Lyons and John Joe O’Shea.

Pictured above are Iveragh Mart founder directors/committee members Muiris O’Donoghue, Paddy Daly, Michael Kissane Manager, Dan O’Connell, Pat O’Driscoll, John O’Neill (second row) Jackie Moran, Joe McCrohan, John Casey, Padraig O’Connell,