Farming and mental health in Ireland

ECO-UNESCO'S Eco-Choices

ECO-UNESCO, Ireland's environmental education and youth organisation has built a whole programme around the idea that time outdoors is good for us. It's called ECO-Choices, and it uses nature-based activities and outdoor learning to help young people. Della Kilroy joined one group on one of their weekly summer outings.

Miles of Hope

In 1964, Wicklow farmer Charlie Keegan won the world ploughing championships, driving a Deutz D40L tractor. More than sixty years on, Charlie's grandson Michael will drive it the length of the country, in aid of the suicide prevention. If you've been affected by anything we've discussed, please go to rte.ie/helplines for helplines and services.

Countrywide Full Episode 25/07/2026

Countrywide Full Episode 25/07/2026

Farming and mental health in Ireland

Louise McHugh is a professor of psychology and the deputy head in the school of psychology at UCD, and she’s been involved in researching mental health and suicide in the farming community in Ireland. If you've been affected by anything we've discussed, please go to rte.ie/helplines for helplines and services.

The Green Loy

The loy is a long, narrow spade that broke hard ground for generations. A new exhibition at The Dock in Carrick-on-Shannon, The Green Loy is curated to make a quiet case that the everyday things of rural life - tools, dressers, haycocks, quilts are works of art in their own right, and a link between people and the land they worked.