Bray People

Wicklow women get leadership awards

- By ESTHER HAYDEN

TWO Wicklow women received awards at the annual Macra na Feirme/ABP National Leadership awards recently.

Sarah Condren, a member of Johnstown/ Coolgreany Macra, and Jennifer Hall, a member of Ashford Macra, were crowned winners on the night, along with Sean Wallace from Dounoughmn­ore Macra in Cork.

Newstalk Presenter Bobby Kerr gave the keynote speech on the night telling the finalists that: ‘Leadership is about getting stuck in, changing your style as challenges and circumstan­ces change and keeping it simple because being a good leader is not about making things complicate­d’.

Sarah Condren (28) comes from a dairy farm in North Wexford and works in the Agricultur­al, Environmen­tal and Structures Division of the Department of Agricultur­e. She graduated from UCD with a Degree in Animal Science in 2011 and last year completed a Master’s Degree in Ruminant Nutrition.

Sarah joined Macra in 2010, has since held roles as treasurer and chairperso­n of the Johnstown/Coolgreany club and has been elected onto the county executive for the last six years, as YFDG chair, YFDG secretary and (currently) county secretary.

Some of her achievemen­ts during this time include winning both national titles and runners-up titles in drama and senior dairy stockjudgi­ng, receiving a Gold Leadership Award, helping her club to win Club of the Year, and also winning best fancy dress costume at the Muskerry Rally. Sarah has been part of the organising committees for many events, including the very successful Wicklow Macra Masquerade Ball and Harvest Hooley, and currently runs the Young Farmers Developmen­t Group in Wicklow.

Outside of Macra, she loves to travel and attend concerts, and is an active member of the Agricultur­al Science Associatio­n and the Irish Holstein Friesian Associatio­n.

Jennifer Hall has been in Macra Na Feirme since she was 17 years old. Through this time, she has had several roles and this year is County Chair for Wicklow and Club Secretary for her club Ashford.

Her highlights in Macra include being chosen to represent Wicklow in Miss Macra and organising the successful Harvest Hooley in Wicklow which was their largest event since the Macra Rally.

Her next step in Macra is to hopefully become National Council Representa­tive. She is currently completing her ACCA Qualificat­ion and working as a trainee accountant in an insurance company in Bray. This really aided her role as treasurer and she was extremely proud when she was presented with the Gold Award for her work.

She lives at home on the family farm where they have 30 beef heifers, 145 sheep and seven horses. At the moment they have started lambing so she helps out as much as possible. In 2010, she completed a diploma in veterinary nursing which helps with this.

Jennifer really enjoys working with animals and in her free time she goes horse-riding or brings Harvey, her St Bernard, for walks.

On the night, Macra na Feirme National President James Healy congratula­ted all the award winners and spoke about the importance of the award.

The National Leadership Awards recognise the leadership skills of Macra members within their clubs and the wider community. The competitio­n raises the level and standard of leadership in Macra and provides an incentive for the developmen­t of club programmes.

The three winners received specially commission­ed commemorat­ive trophies.

 ??  ?? Colm Dore of ABP, Bobby Kerr, Jennifer Hall from Ashford Macra, Sarah Condren from Johnstown/Coolgreany Macra, fellow-winner Sean Wallace from Cork and Macra President James Healy at the Macra Skillnet Leadership Awards in Dublin recently.
Colm Dore of ABP, Bobby Kerr, Jennifer Hall from Ashford Macra, Sarah Condren from Johnstown/Coolgreany Macra, fellow-winner Sean Wallace from Cork and Macra President James Healy at the Macra Skillnet Leadership Awards in Dublin recently.
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