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m<br />
<strong>Macra</strong><br />
at the<br />
European<br />
Rally<br />
DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS<br />
Annette Nagle at the Giant’s<br />
Causeway in 2004.<br />
All roads lead to Gurteen Agricultural<br />
College in Roscrea, Co<br />
Tipperary from 3 to 10 August <strong>2013</strong><br />
for <strong>Macra</strong> <strong>na</strong> <strong>Feirme</strong>’s opportunity to<br />
host the European Rally <strong>2013</strong>. The theme<br />
this year is ‘Get involved, be the change:<br />
mobilising rural communities to active<br />
citizenship’.<br />
The European Rally, as most of you<br />
know, is a week-long leadership programme<br />
of workshops and activities that<br />
caters for over 100 participants from Rural<br />
Youth Organisations across Europe.<br />
We hope this year to have a variety of<br />
young people from all over Europe from<br />
Wales to Sweden and beyond.<br />
Plans and preparations for the rally<br />
are well underway with the announcement<br />
of two grants being awarded.<br />
<strong>Macra</strong> and Ireland will be represented<br />
by four participants who earned Gold<br />
Leadership Awards.<br />
This year, Clo<strong>na</strong>kilty will also have<br />
two representatives as they won the top<br />
prize in the RYE European Youth Project<br />
awards for their Know Your Neighbour<br />
event. This is an exciting and wonderful<br />
achievement for <strong>Macra</strong> and promises to<br />
be an eventful and insightful week.<br />
The 1986 European Rally in Quern,<br />
Schleswig Holstein, Germany. Pictured are<br />
<strong>na</strong>tio<strong>na</strong>l president, Thomas Sha<strong>na</strong>han, Kerry<br />
<strong>Macra</strong>, along with the <strong>Macra</strong> delegation.<br />
18 | m | <strong>Summer</strong> <strong>2013</strong><br />
2001<br />
“Veronica Curtis, Bree, Co Wexford; Geraldine<br />
Beattie, Co Roscommon; Michael<br />
O’Regan, Avondhu and John Hannon,<br />
Co Clare and I went on an exchange to<br />
Nurmes, Finland this summer.<br />
‘‘Finland may not be a holiday hotspot.<br />
It may not be one of the first countries<br />
to be mentioned when planning your<br />
holidays and for those very reasons we<br />
remain eter<strong>na</strong>lly grateful to <strong>Macra</strong> <strong>na</strong><br />
<strong>Feirme</strong> for giving us the opportunity to<br />
visit, see and most of all experience the<br />
country of a thousand lakes and believe<br />
you me, even more forests as we found<br />
out during our week long adventure.<br />
‘‘It began on 13 July, of all days, when<br />
five <strong>Macra</strong> <strong>na</strong> <strong>Feirme</strong> delegates travelled<br />
to Nurmes in Finland, not knowing what<br />
lay in store for us and also not knowing<br />
where our luggage was when we<br />
arrived at our desti<strong>na</strong>tion. The theme of<br />
this year’s rally was ‘Nature source of<br />
Creativity’.<br />
‘‘Bearing this in mind, there were<br />
activity trails, workshops, hiking, fishing<br />
and other trips such as shooting the<br />
Rapids organised.”<br />
— Shirley Bennett, Imokilly <strong>Macra</strong><br />
2004<br />
“The various young farmers’ clubs from<br />
around Europe came together for a<br />
week-long programme of fun activities<br />
and educatio<strong>na</strong>l modules at Greenmount<br />
College, Co Antrim, in July this year.<br />
Under the theme of ‘Conquering Conflict<br />
Across Cultural Divides’, the rally<br />
participants spent the week discussing<br />
various aspects of conflict with the help<br />
of the University of Ulster Understanding<br />
Conflict team of Libby Keys and Dr<br />
The European Rally delegation from <strong>Macra</strong> in<br />
Northern Ireland in 2004.
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