If you have a problem, talk about it to get advice, gather yourself, and then do something. Yeah that’s right you, do something about it. Not that I know many people with problems, except Margaret Hanrahan, she is 58, a mother of 2 and is trying to save her farm.

Her protest needs to be highlighted. We are living in an age of pathetic passiveness, the bankers and the government tell us “the money is gone….so…ammmm…*burp*….give us more…now.” Or “yeah about that loan we gave you….uuuhh…we…like…want it all paid back now….and if ya don’t….well….*evil laugh*…..sure we don’t care we will just go and take it cause we can.”

 

Margaret Hanrahan left Cahir on Saturday (10.09.11) to ride 110 miles to Dublin as she is in a fight for her land with the ACC Bank, who appointed receivers to her land after she could not repay the loan of €1.2m.She hopes to reach the Dail by Wednesday (14.09.11). Margaret owns a riding school plans to drop in on farmers in a similar financial difficulty along the way.

ACC Bank hired workmen to plough her land in preparation for sale, this was a bitter pill for Margaret and she is in a fight for her land and lively-hood. Farmers have promised to feed and water her horses along the route while TDs, including Mattie McGrath, plan to meet her at the Dail.

Margaret alleges that the receivers were aggressive and threatening. “They cut the locks on the gates and warned me not to get in their way. One of my neighbours had a camera with him and was told by the receiver that if he didn’t stop taking photos they would destroy the camera.”

“ACC sent an ‘expert’ out to look over the land I wanted to buy and said that it was good land. I’m not a farmer so I decided to get an independent agri consultant in to have a look around the land and let me know what he thought. Again the report that came back was very positive, so I went ahead with the loan,” Margaret said.

She then discovered that her new land was far from ‘in good condition’. “It was completely flooded, I had to get the land drained and then reseeded. There were no fences or gates so there was a lot of work which had to be done before I could use it for the horses,” now she is left with a huge debt, no help from the “expert” but the one thing she does have…action. She is not sitting in stoaking the hot ash, she is travelling 110 miles, in this weather, to Dublin by horseback.