Irish farmers rally together to help targets of Westmeath animal theft

When Jim McLaughlin, a 150 suckler cow farmer from Muff in Co Donegal, heard about the theft of 75 cattle and 25 sheep from a farm in Co Westmeath last week, he immediately felt Niall and Christa Dillon's pain.

"As a farmer myself I just thought, 'How would you cope with the loss of 75 cattle?' Apart from the financial loss, there's the mental pain of someone breaking the bond you have with your cattle. It's not just a business for us, it's a way of life."

After thinking about ways in which he could help the Dillons, McLaughlin finally decided to offer one of his suckler calves to help them in their time of crisis, and he posted his offer of help yesterday on the Irish Farmers Journal Facebook page.

Comments

Within a few hours of the post going live, McLaughlin's offer of support had received more than 4,000 likes and more than 100 comments. Within 19 hours the post had received 12,348 likes, 2,424 shares and 240 comments.

The vast majority of the comments are from other farmers who were moved by McLaughlin's thoughful offer and are themselves offering some form of compensation, from suckler calves and ewe lambs, to offers of transport and money to buy new livestock.

Although the majority of the comments are from Irish farmers, there have also been comments and offers of help from farmers in the UK and Australia.

Rob Doran from North Devon in the UK congratulated Jim on setting the ball rolling and said if it gathers pace he will send enough Euros to buy a calf. "You are right," he said, "good will prevail, it's a pity that the bad just keeps getting worse."

Phyllis Coverdale who lives in Australia commented, "to all you beautiful Irish people with hearts of gold I say thank you. It makes me proud to have been born Irish. To the Dillon family I don't know what happened but just getting the gist, very sorry for you all. Looks like you're soon going to be back on track. Good luck. Best wishes. Hope all those little calves bring back your life."

The Dillons have been overwhelmed by the response with Christa replying to the comment thread saying "I can't believe such kindness and generosity. I want to thank you so sincerely. I'm beyond words to express my gratitude - to you, and to the thousands who are rowing in behind us. I have never been so proud to be in agriculture in Ireland. Thank you. Just THANK YOU. This means everything."

McLaughlin said he is also very happy with how Irish farmers have responded to his post and said he hopes he has done a lot for Irish farming in the last 24 hours. "This just shows we're good people," he said.

Search

Gardaí have told the Dillons they are following various leads on the case and they are piecing together their evidence.

Christa Dillon said that despite the overwhelming and much appreciated generosity of fellow farmers, the priority for her and her family is still to get their cattle and ewes back.

"It's only been a few days. We're still hoping the gardaí will find a way to get them back to us. They were more than just farm animals to us, they were like our pets."

She also noted that someone contacted Facebook last night trying to get their Find our Livestock Facebook page closed down for posting "inappropriate content".

She said they haven't managed it so far but if the page does disappear people will know why.

"We have no idea who it was but it's highly suspicious," she said.