A West Cork farm family who raised over €30,000 for Pieta House after their father died by suicide during lockdown are now on a drive to convert an old double decker bus into an AirBnB.
Paddy McCarthy from Ballindee, Co. Cork, died tragically on May 1 at the age of 59. His son Thomas had to take three flights over 23 hours to return from Canada to attend the funeral.
Trying to keep themselves busy during lockdown, Thomas, his brother Niall and their sisters Rachel and Anna came up with the idea of converting an old double decker bus into a novel AirBnB on the family farm.
Having bought an old Dublin Bus for €2,500 from Ovens Coaches in September, they showcased their renovation work on TikTok to a huge reaction.
“We have about 140ac here and Dad would mainly have done beef and tillage farming. Since he passed away this year, all four of us have been farming away. We got rid of all the cattle and the majority of land is rented but we held back 20ac or so for ourselves,” Thomas said.
Different ventures
“We’re going into rescue animals and organic farming. We’re doing different ventures like that. Rachel studies horticulture so this is her main interest and she loves it. Anna loves animals so we have rescue donkeys and goats and we have three calves that we kept back as pets.
“Down the line maybe in a few years Anna is thinking of starting an open farm and maybe a farm shop with fruit and veg or maybe a coffee shop, all of these kinds of things,” Thomas said.
“For now, our biggest project is the bus. We’re on a mission to turn it into a fully functioning AirBnB by spring of next year. It’s going well and we’re getting a lot of interest from sponsors and different media outlets so we’re blown away by how much attention it’s getting. It’s great because during lockdown, it has been keeping us sane. It’s been our lockdown project.
Learning
“My older sister and I are out of work because of Covid-19 so we’re doing this during the day so it’s great and we’re learning loads as well which is amazing. Hopefully, the future of the farm will be young: organic farming; rescue animals; and an open farm.
“Rachel is buying tunnels to plant fruit and veg so we’re doing alternative methods to what Dad would have done. We can see if we make a business out of it and we’ll all be operating the business ourselves.”
Positive mental health
The family also works to promote positive mental health, particularly for Irish farmers.
Farming is such a lonely and isolating job at the best of times so we are trying to promote that it’s OK not to be OK. Talk to someone, talk to a friend and there is ‘Mind Our Farm Families’ phone line and counselling service set up by the IFA [Irish Farmers’ Association] and Pieta House.
“We want to break the stigma around mental health issues and make them more normal,” said Thomas.
Pieta House can be contacted on Freephone: 1800 247 247.