Couple change pace to start an alpaca farm during lockdown
HER BROTHER’S DEATH PROMPTED CARMEL MAHONY TO REALISE DREAM OF RUNNING A FARM
The tragic death a year ago of her brother Andrew Mann, a musician and Voice of Ireland finalist, gave Carmel Mahony the impetus to pursue her dream of establishing an alpaca farm.
The former fire fighter with Tallaght Fire Service and her partner Geoff Young, a mechanic, bought and moved into Riverstown Farm in Murrintown a week before the Covid-19 lockdown, and took possession of their first alpacas on the first anniversary of Andrew’s death on May 18.
‘It was a dream to have a farm and after Andrew died, it made me think that you have to try and make your dreams come true’, said Carmel who moved to Murrintown from Coolgreaney, where she and Geoff lived for seven years.
Forty-two years old Andrew Mahony died in 2019. He was a well-known Dublin singer-songwriter who used the stage name Mann.
Unable to meet up with her parents and siblings to remember Andrew on his anniversary due to coronavirus travel restrictions, Carmel decided to make the day special by having the alpacas delivered on the date he died.
The starter group includes three female alpacas, two of whom are pregnant and one mother accompanied by a male offspring born five weeks ago.
‘When we were buying the alpacas the baby didn’t have a name and as alpacas are like show dogs and have to be registered with the Irish Alpaca Association, we were asked to give him a name, so we called him Andrew. Now we have a little Andrew running around. He’s gorgeous’, said Carmel. The expectant mothers are Violet and Mitzy and baby alpcaca Andrew’s mother is Ellie.
Carmel was looking on Daft. ie when she spotted Riverstown Farm, comprising a farmhouse, outhouses and 22 acres of land.
‘It was the kind of place I always imagined I would end up in. It was perfectly laid out for what we wanted. With alpacas, you have to have hedgerows to keep the boys from the girls.’
The alpacas idea came to her about two years ago while watching a feature on the BBC television programme Countryfile and she thought they were ‘wonderful’ animals.
‘We started looking into them. We found a man in Wicklow, Joe Phelan who had alpacas and he was open to letting us spend time with them and learning about the husbandry’.
‘They are the most wonderful animals. They are incredibly calm and very gentle and they bring out the best in people.’
‘They are great as therapy animals for people with anxiety or children with disabilities’.
Currently working on building up a herd, Carmel and Geoff are eventually hoping to turn Riverstown into a visitor attraction, offering people treks and a chance to spend time with the animals and help out.
‘They are very beneficial for people with depression or children with disabilities. They are great for building up their confidence because they are so gentle’.
There are also opportunities to use the fibres from their coats, which are sent to mills in the UK, to be turned into wool which is 20 times warmer than sheep’s wool and is hypoallergenic as it doesn’t contain lanolin.
Once established, it is an ambition of Carmel and Geoff to have their own clothing line made from Alpaca wool. ‘That would be a plan but you have to wait and see what way the animals turn out and how they take you. It depends on their temperaments’, said Carmel.
The coincidence of the Covid-19 lockdown happening just after the couple moved into Riverstown, isolated them from the world and enabled them to get to know their new home without interruptions.
‘We’re loving it. Covid-19 has been a terrible time with so many people dying but it has enabled us to completely settle in here.
‘With the lockdown, we didn’t know how things were going to pan out but it feels like we have always been here. It was very easy to do. It feels so natural’, said Carmel, 10 weeks into the move. The couple have been busy during the lockdown getting fields ready and building fences.
But it has not been without a feeling of separation at a time when the family would have been supporting each other on the emotional first anniversary of Andrew’s death.
‘It was his birthday the week before he died so we had the memory of living through the last week of his life again, but not being able to get together,’ said Carmel.
There are five surviving brothers and sisters in the family and their parents, who are in their 70’s, were cocooning, as the anniversary came just before the easing of restrictions.
‘We all tried to get through it by doing different things and distracting ourselves in our own ways. It was particularly hard for my mam and dad. it was very difficult being by themselves. It just made it more difficult for everyone’, said Carmel.
‘Everyone made it through that tough time and we have so much to enjoy and look forward to. We’re looking forward to caring for and growing our herd and finding all the different way these lovely creatures can help and make people’s lives better.
‘What it has taught me is that you don’t know what’s around the corner so make the most of the good times and try to remember that when you’re going through bad times that the good times will come again’.
IT WAS A DREAM TO HAVE A FARM AND AFTER ANDREW DIED, IT MADE ME THINK THAT YOU HAVE TO TRY AND MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE