Cyril Ó Flaithearta

NOMINATION DESCRIPTION
Cyril Ó Flaithearta runs the family farm based on Inis Mór island, keeping beef cows and selling weanling calves and/or stores. The highly fragmented farm, with up on 80% of its area within an SAC runs from one side island to the other and contains fine examples of species rich grassland and the associated biodiversity with them. Active management by Cyril and his family maintain these grasslands, maintaining and rebuilding stone walls to control the grazing livestock, controlling encroaching scrub on to the grasslands and continuance of the traditional winterage management system that have created and maintained these grasslands but also adopting any new methods such as improvements in animal breeding and nutrition to improve the agricultural output of the farm.
Cyril was a participant in the AranLIFE project and in the new Caomhnú Árann project working with the project team and helping in the delivery of these programmes. He was and is always willing to help the projects, allowing his farm to be used for farm walks, demonstration purposes and allowing imagery from the farm to be used in some of the project’s publications.
Cyril has a great respect and appreciation for the islands landscape and the importance of maintaining this link within the management of his farm. He has a great knowledge of the islands archaeology and run walking tours on the islands and his farm, organising walking tours to the different historic monuments in the island giving visitors the historical and cultural story, in these tours he also highlights the flora and fauna of the farm. Cyril is also talent artist, central to his work is work is the attachment to the landscape both the cultural and natural landscape (http://www.oileanart.com/).
Nominator: Patrick McGurn, Project Manager, Caomhnú Árann