They say from crisis comes clarity, and this proved true for Con Hurley.
Formerly of this parish, Con was the Irish Farmers Journal dairy editor for three decades, joining first in 1971. He then became a life coach and is now an author.
In 1978, at the age of 30, he bought a hill farm in Cork. Even though he was dairy editor, he had a passion for sheep – this goes back to a year at the age of four spent on his grandparents’ farm in west Cork.
With £80,000 of his own money, some of which was inherited, he borrowed the same sum again at an interest rate of 11%, which rose to 22.5%. Alongside this, the farm was not performing as predicted.
I was driven by ambition and ego. It was keeping up with the Joneses
This all put pressure on his financial situation. The farm went bust, the bank called in the loan. It was signed over and sold. Any debt owed was cleared by himself and his wife Eleanor in seven years.
To say this was an extremely difficult time is an understatement. Looking back now, however, Con can see the lesson.
“I was driven by ambition and ego. It was keeping up with the Joneses; the colleagues I had in the Journal, the people I knew in Moorepark, ‘Jesus, I’m going to be better than them’. Instead of that, I could have been much happier just calmly living a life and having a small mortgage.
“During that period I became very depressed. I didn’t go for treatment or anything, but I know now I was very depressed. I considered suicide. I was pulled out of the whole lot of it primarily by my wife.”
One very important realisation in redirecting his life, came just after he lost the farm.
I’m sitting there, looking at it and the earth is going through my hands. I’m probably a bit tearful and I’m saying, ‘This is gone’
“There’s a magical moment when the farm was gone, it’s a key turning point in my life. I went down for one last visit. This was my dream, my dream farm, overlooking the sea and a mountain behind it.
“I sat there on the hillside and there was still a bit of ploughed ground there for some reason. I’m sitting there, looking at it and the earth is going through my hands. I’m probably a bit tearful and I’m saying, ‘This is gone’.
“Then I said, ‘hang on a second, what was this all about?’ I said, ‘OK, I wanted a farm. Why did I want a farm? Just because all those people have farms’. It was like a conversation I was having with myself. I like hill farming. So you like being out on a mountain? Yeah. Sure all you need to go out on a hill is a pair of boots and a nap sack! I went home and bought the gear.”
Con reasons that the farm was not actually what he wanted; that he could enjoy nature without it and satisfy his liking for sheep by visiting his uncle’s farm. Maybe, he thinks in retrospect, losing the farm was a blessing and not a curse.
“You could say I was unlucky and all the rest of it, but maybe I was lucky I went bust? Let’s say I’d been very successful. I was working all the hours that God gave me when that farm was being developed. I was full time with the Journal. We had no family holidays.
Maybe I would have lost sight of my children
“All my things about ambition and ego, saying to my world, ‘Here I am, I’m a successful farmer’, but maybe my marriage would have changed? Maybe I would have lost sight of my children, I don’t know. But I’ve seen it happen, so I regard it as I’m quite happy with what happened.”
In his new book, A Life Examined, Con not only tells his life story, but looks at it through the prism of the decisions that shape your life. As a life coach, he shares how you can become aware of what you want and how to redirect your life towards this.
Con’s life is colourful, no doubt, and certainly won’t fit within the parameters of this page. Born in Cork, his parents bought a farm when he was young, which they subsequently sold, buying a pub in Cork city.
Examined.
After studying agricultural science in University College Cork (UCC) he got a job in the Irish Farmers Journal. As dairy editor, Con presided over a period of immense change. When Ireland joined the EU (then the ECC) in 1973, the number of dairy farms reduced and herd sizes increased. For the first time farmers could make an income from dairy farming, not just a subsistence. He also oversaw the introduction of milk quotas in 1983.
His interest in life coaching came through a tough situation. In 1996, he found himself depressed, which he called “burnout”. After going to therapy for a number of sessions, he largely found the approach being taken didn’t work for him, and subsequently decided to investigate what made him tick.
“That was the start of the whole life coaching, because I then developed a huge interest in how the mind worked and psychology,” Con explains. “I decided I would do a course in life coaching.
“Life coaching teaches people a range of skills that are in this book. It’s mostly about understanding yourself; what’s most important, what do you want, what are you going to do and who are you going to do it with?”
After sometime, Con left the Irish Farmers Journal to be a full-time coach. As well as writing books, he now likes to paint and grow vegetables in his garden. A perfectly content life, doing what makes him happy.
For more information see www.conhurley.com. A Life Examined can be purchased on this website and on Amazon. If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article you can free-phone the Samaritans on 116 123.