A Visit to South Armagh Farming Country

An evening walk to check on his nearly 40 head of cattle is how Declan Cromie likes to end his day. "It's my golf, my way to relax," he said while strolling though one of his hilly pastures in Kileevy Township in southern County Armagh, Northern Ireland near the border with the Republic of Ireland. (The picture at left is the view of the Kileevy Township valley)

Today he finds part of the pasture's fence knocked over and a white charolais cross calf running loose.

Declan says having the cattle takes him back to when he and his father were running a dairy operation on this land. He started working on the family farm when he returned from western Montana in 1997 as part of the Building Bridges program. Declan was taking an agriculture class when he heard about the chance to go to Montana. Thinking of cowboys and mountains, he applied and was selected. He was 24 years old at the time and had been dating his girlfriend Fiona for a couple of years.

Within six months of returning from Montana, Declan (pictured left) and Fiona were engaged. They were married in 1998 and have six children, four boys and two girls ages 10 to 18 months. Declan and his father sold the dairy cattle in 2000. His father died in 2004. The cattle he has now are for beef. Fiona says he has the cattle to remember his father.

The four boys, who came along to check on the herd, help their father run down the calf and get him back into the pasture. They hold the fence posts for Declan to pound them back into place with a sledgehammer. They also help feed another small herd in a different pasture. The boys would rather throw the hay at each other. But when the cattle start getting riled up, Declan tells the boys to settle down.

Family and business still mix in Declan's life. He now works in concrete construction with his father-in-law Eddie and brother-in-law Sean McComish. Earlier today, they were pouring a concrete slab for a new house not far from Declan's home.

Sean worked the loader and dumps the concrete into place. Declan (working in picture at left) and Eddie raked it into place. Then using a 2-by-4 as a float, they worked together in perfect unison to put the finishing touches on the slab.

Declan said he hopes they get the big to build the rest of the house. But for now he's happy to keep finding work near his home. "I'm not much for traveling," he said. He said a lot of workers went into Dublin, a nearly two-hour one way trip, to work for more money during the housing boom earlier this decade. Now they have no work, he said.

Between the concrete business, the cattle on the family farm and his wife and six kids, Declan seems happy. He says he'd like to return to Montana some day. But for now, he's found a way to make a living and live in the place he loves.

Notes: We spent the evening with Declan and his family. His wife Fiona, while totally against talking to us on camera, was a natural. They made us chicken curry with rice for dinner. Declan's brother Kiernan was there too. We met Kiernan the other day when we were searching for Declan. They were all great to visit with and have a cup of tea. They were so welcoming to John and me. And the kids were great. Of course, they mugged for the camera but they were very well behaved and fun to be around.

For the record, the Kileevy Gaelic Football team, featuring Declan's oldest Tiernan, won two games but ended up losing the final match in extra time this past weekend. Tiernan was still a bit upset about that match.

We have not been good luck for the home teams since we've been here. Dundalk and Kileevy both lost games we attended. The national teams playing in pool play for the Euro Cup haven't fared much better in our time here. But at least we've brought some decent weather. We hope it continues to hold off from raining too much.