Meet the Tipperary farmer who sold his best cow to buy a guitar
Meet the Tipperary dairy farmer who sold his best cow to buy a guitar, before taking a sabbatical from farming with a solo driving trip around the US.
With his wanderlust still unsated, he then relocating to Germany, where he played mainly Irish pubs and met his wife.
Music was always John Bermingham's first love and his future was expected to be college and a career.
However, when his father suffered a stroke when Bermingham was sitting what was known then as the Inter Cert, he felt the onus was on him as the eldest son to take over the farm.
Bermingham stayed out of school for a term milking cows, but his parents wanted him to complete his education so he returned to school, the cows were sold and the farm was rented.
After doing his Leaving Cert, he spent a year in the civil service in Dublin Corporation.
However, Bermingham explained: "When I came home at the weekends, my father who was invalided would say: 'I'd love to see the farm working again'."
"So I came home and got back into dairying but unfortunately my father died a few months later in 1980.
"I was completely snookered by the milk quotas which came in a few years later.
"I had borrowed a lot of money to get back into cows so that didn't help someone who was trying to develop dairying at that stage," Bermingham said.
He continued to milk cows for the next 11 years.
"I was renting milk quota. I had gone up to having over 40 cows but I hadn't a great set-up for doing it.
"I would have needed to invest a lot more money to modernise and that would have been very difficult with the restrictions on the quota.
"So I decided sell the cows - a big decision - and lease the land."
Music
Bermingham's passion for music - passed down from his father - then kicked in.
He left the farm behind and spent six months in the US, followed by a stint in Germany, playing music where he met his wife, Monika.
"I was over and back to visit my mother who was always a great help and support on the farm following the death of my father. She passed away four years ago at 100 years-of-age," Bermingham recalled.
With a hankering for home - picturesque Mullinahone at the foothills of Slievenamon - he returned to this country and studied sustainable development in Tipperary Institute.
"We had the old farmhouse where I was born, which was pretty much a ruin and we got the idea from the course from the rural development aspect to take on a major renovation project of the house and buildings," Bermingham explained.
The agri tourism enterprise has been a success.
“We worked hard at it and it became very busy with Croc an Oir holiday homes and all sorts of events," Bermingham said.
"We renovated one room where I teach the guitar and that place became a venue where we later held concerts and workshops."
Bermingham's son, Seánie who is a backing musician with the hugely successful folk band, Amble, records all his own music in a building that was once used to store potatoes, and has just released his first album.
"The project very much became a diversification into all sorts of things," he said.
Forestry
While that was developing, he started to plant trees on some of the marginal land and then slowly started to plant more and more, starting back in 2002/2003.
"So the forestry grew in tandem with the tourism business," he remarked.
About 90ac of the 100ac farm is planted, with mixed varieties including elder in the wetland, beech, oak, sycamore, Norway spruce, and a lot of ash.
Ash dieback meant a lot of it needed to be taken out but Bermingham is availing of the Department of Agriculture's reconstitution grant to replace it. He is also developing a firewood business.
While the first lot of thinning was done by a contractor, the Tipperary farmer bought a machine with an attachment so he can harvest his own timber.
“When we renovated the place and tourists started to come out, we created pathways and walks so it’s an add-on amenity value to the tourism," Bermingham said..
"We love this place. We are fortunate to live in a very scenic location and to be able to make a living from it.
"We get to meet people from all over the world. We've had people from about 60 countries so far. I'm probably better with people than I ever was with cattle," he laughed.
As for that pricey guitar, it proved to be a good investment.
"It was a handmade Lowden and my son plays it all over the world when he tours with Amble. I wrote a song about it," Bermingham said.
For those curious to hear the Berminghams musical talents, a video, with the tag #TuesdayTrees, and whjch includes a performance by John and Seánie, can be viewed on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's social media sites,
