Jim O’Brien’s weekly column in the Farming Independent was published from 2017 to March 2025. 

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"I would hope that through my scribbling I painted an authentic picture of what life is like for a man in late middle age. It shows me living through the loss of my parents, the delightful blossoming and inevitable departure of my children, the creeping reality of the ageing process, a brush with cancer and all in a space that is held together by the constancy of the current consort. I hope it enabled you to join me in laughing at myself, that it occasionally gave you the permission to cry about things you never cried about, but above all I would like to think it affirmed the value of tenderness and the belief that decency will always have its day."

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