County Tipperary and the Devil’s Bit

Each summer during my late teens, I would make my way south to my cousins’ farm just outside Templemore and just a short spin from the Devil’s Bit Mountain. Those short balmy weeks were often spent bringing in the hay. Friends and neighbours would pitch in and during the quickly-snatched breaks, we would drink from bottles of sweet cold tea and wolf down a sandwich before setting back to work to beat the inevitable oncoming break in the weather. These days, while the hay is gathered mechanically, to my mind it remains as picturesque and redolent of farm life as it ever was.