On Monday 4 April a small GAA club located at the southernmost tip of the country became FBD's Champions for Change for 2016.

Mizen Rovers GAA, a small but mighty underage club in west Cork, run solely by volunteers, was awarded the prize for its 'Care for our Players' programme, which began in 2010 and has grown in strength ever since.

Connie O'Driscoll, the programme co-ordinator, AI technician and part-time suckler and sheep farmer, has been involved in the Mizen Rovers GAA club for over 20 years in various guises.

From coaching to public relations to positions in the various executive committees, O'Driscoll has taken on many responsibilities during his time with the club.

New project

In 2010 a new project occurred to him and three other members of Mizen Rovers, that of setting up a 'Care for our Players' programme, which focused on the health and wellbeing of the club's players, their local employment opportunities and road safety.

O'Driscoll says about the initiative: "We felt for years we just saw the kids for three or four months of the year, that they just came in for the training and the playing of games, and gave us their sweat, blood and tears. We decided we needed to have a bit more involvement in their lives and in the issues that affected them and give something back. So we started a little programme called 'Care for our Players'."

In 2014, motivated by the tragically high number of farm deaths that year, which eventually saw 30 deaths on farms across the country, O'Driscoll and his three colleagues, Anne Murnane, Mary Hayes and Tim Sheehan, decided to expand the road safety aspect of the programme to encompass farm safety.

In the early days of the programme this entailed a tractor driving course, subsidised by the local Skibbereen FBD office, and some signage in the dressing room with farm safety messages.

Seanad submission

Then in 2015 Mizen Rovers were the only GAA club to make a submission to the Seanad public consultation on farm safety and had two of their recommendations adopted by the subsequent report.

These were that the GAA should become more involved in farm safety and that well-known GAA players should become ambassadors for farm safety such is the respect and admiration young people have for them in rural areas.

We get a great welcome from the teachers and the pupils. All the way down to 1st class the students are very engaged with the message of farm safety and the interaction with them is great.

At the beginning of 2016 the programme developed further with visits to around 10 local primary schools to spread the message of farm safety. The club brought safety packs with them on the school trips, made up of safety posters, wristbands and high-vis vests.

So far the response the programme has received from its young (and older) audience has been very positive.

"We get a great welcome from the teachers and the pupils," O'Driscoll says. "All the way down to 1st class the students are very engaged with the message of farm safety and the interaction with them is great."

The importance of the programme's message is brought home by the number of pupils who have been on a farm.

"If you ask for the number of hands of the young pupils who have visited a farm at least once in an average-sized class nearly all of them put their hand up. So even if you're not from a farm, it's still very important to be aware of farm safety," says O'Driscoll.

Farms are not "killing fields"

However, for all their dedication to raising awareness of this topic, the programme co-ordinators are adamant that they don't want the message of farm safety to create the impression that farms are "killing fields".

"Farms are a wonderful place to grow up," O'Driscoll says. "I have wonderful memories of my childhood on the farm. We don't want to give the impression that farms are terrible places to bring up a child. But there must be a balance between this awareness and the crucial awareness of safety around the farm. And safety is crucial. No one is immune to accidents happening on the farm."

Mizen Rovers received €1,000 as part of its designation as FBD's Champions for Change in 2016, an award which O'Driscoll says the club was "honoured and humbled" to receive. The prize money will go towards funding more safety packs for more school visits.

But ultimately O'Driscoll is hoping that other GAA clubs take up the mantle and begin to set up their own pilot programmes.

"This would be the best way to keep the message going and to ensure that we keep influencing young people in the right way at an early age," he says. "We want to encourage young people to be 'champions' of farm safety and to help their mum and dad and siblings to be more safety aware on the farm."

Farm deaths in Ireland

Farm deaths in 2015 were down 40% on 2014 with 18 deaths reported last year compared to 30 in 2014. But while the figure is lower than last year, it is up on the number in 2013. In 2013 a total of 16 people died on Irish farms and a quarter of those deaths were children. So far in 2016 three people have died in farm-related accidents.

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GAA has a greater role to play in raising awareness of farm safety

Farm fatalities down in 2015