Harvesting a Community: How MU’s Agri Soc Has Brought Farming From Fields to Student Life

One may ask, why start an agricultural society in Maynooth? Well, why not?  In this article I will discuss what inspired us to set up the society, and what goes on behind the scenes with regards to setting up a society in Maynooth. 

When I started my first year in Maynooth, I was eager to join as many clubs and societies as I could. “Join a society” was the advice that I kept hearing about truly settling into college life and finding your people. Yet, when I scrolled through the alphabetically-arranged list of clubs and societies to my disappointment, there was no agricultural society in Maynooth. I wanted to join an agricultural society to meet like-minded people and attend agriculture-themed events. This didn’t stop me from joining five clubs and societies, but it still felt like this society was missing. 

The following year, I began the process of setting up an Agricultural Society. In doing this I realised that students do not realise how much work goes on behind the scenes to set up a new society. The idea has to be brought forward and  justified in great detail, thirty signatures have to be collected as expression of interest, and that is not to mention rallying together a committee, opening a bank account, setting up socials and a MU Life page. I think this has been the greatest challenge in setting up the society. When you see a new society listed on MU Life it is effectively the tip of the iceberg. And rightly so, as you have to be serious about putting in the work required to run a society.  

So, the Maynooth Agricultural Society was born on a rainy November day. It was really exciting to receive our first memberships and to meet lots of people who were also passionate about the new society. We set up sign-up days where people could find out more about the society. It surprised me to see how many people from agricultural backgrounds shy away from this part of their identity. It seems that when people are in college, they act like they have never been near a farm in an effort to fit in. This was one of my main inspirations to set up the Agricultural Society, I wanted to create a space for people to meet like-minded people. I wanted to build a sense of community for people from rural backgrounds and an interest in agriculture right here in Maynooth. I also felt the need to bridge the gap between people from urban and rural areas, as in my opinion, there is a lack of knowledge in society about how our food is produced. This disconnect is a huge threat to our future farms and agricultural livelihoods.  

I have been privileged to meet some really amazing people while setting up this society. There is a great sense of community within many of the clubs and societies here in Maynooth, along with a great feeling of encouragement towards any new societies being set up. Within our committee and our members I have also met some brilliant people with a similar passion for agriculture. Who would have thought that we would have a society that watch online livestock marts together, chatting about the price of cattle and sheep over a cup of tea? While this sounds like such a simple thing, it has created a space for people to learn about agriculture and to meet people with similar interests.  

With regards to future plans, it is easy to feel the need to accomplish many things within a new society. Yet, when we consider that there was no Agricultural Society in Maynooth until now we have made great progress. The current committee hope that the society will go from strength to strength over the next couple of years. We will be continuing our most popular events such as “Bids and Biscuits”, pub quizzes, along with farm tours and jiving lessons in the near future.  

Join the herd here: https://mulife.ie/society/agricultural 

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