I’d like to pay tribute to this amazing man, whose courage and humanity shines out like a beacon, proving that the countryside does not have to be cruel.
I love looking at this man’s face, in the picture, and wish so much I had met him. You look into his eyes, as I have looked into the eyes of so many farmers now, and country people, and you wonder how his mind works. He could be just another man who was content to carry in just as his forbears did, and his neighbours, and turn a blind eye to things that ‘didn’t seem quite right’. But he listened to his own feelings about what is right, and what isn’t, and had the courage to speak up against what he knew was cruel and unacceptable behaviour. I hope the Farming newspapers publish an article like this (please click on link below to the Irish Times) on Richard Power – if only to alert the good farmers out there to the fact that they CAN have the courage to stand up against tradition. But also to give credit due to this great human being. Long may his voice be heard.
RIP Richard Power
www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/obituaries/2011/0409/1224294304445.html
Brian