COMMENT: 'Tipperary farmers starting to mutter that familiar word again...drought!'

There’s something spellbinding about a stretch of fine weather in Ireland. It doesn’t just bring out the best of our beautiful scenery, but it transforms the people. 

I saw someone online refer to the Irish as “sunflower people” during the week and its the perfect analogy for the collective mood of the nation.

We really do turn our faces to the light the moment it breaks through, smiling that little bit wider, standing that bit taller, moods lifted like that first taste of a ‘99 from a corner shop.

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And hasn’t May 2025 delivered? A solid fortnight of golden mornings, sun-drenched afternoons and balmy evenings has made it feel like we’ve fast-forwarded to the height of summer.

Windows are flung open, children are barefoot in the grass, and barbecues (some still sporting cobwebs) have been dragged blinking into the daylight.

For the first time this year, we could even make weekend plans for the good weather.

For us on farms those plans have primarily been for silage! Contractors have been flat out, machines humming from dawn ‘til dusk as farmers across the country seized the dry spell to cut early.

Fields that were knee-high on Tuesday are neat and stubbled by Thursday.

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You can almost smell the sweet and grassy relief as the first cut goes into the pit.

Still, we’re starting to mutter that familiar word again: drought. Isn’t it a peculiarly Irish thing to worry about drought the minute the forecast stretches beyond three days of sunshine?

But there’s truth to it.

Grass growth has already started to slow. Our lush fields aren’t used to this level of sunshine without a splash of water, and what was a silage boom may quickly become a grazing worry.

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But along with death and taxes, rain is one of those certainties of life in Ireland and its not a matter of if, but when.

Historically, Ireland has a complicated relationship with dry weather. We dream of it, plan our holidays around it, but never quite trust it.

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The 2018 drought is most fresh in my mind, the long hot summer of 1995 still lives in lore, with stories of 30-degree heat and rivers drying up.

Go further back, and you’ll hear of the longest heatwave on record, which according to Met Éireann, for Ireland was 14 days in August 1976, recorded at Birr Castle, county Offaly and Ballybrittas, county Laois.

Even our folklore tips its hat to the unpredictability of Irish weather.

Social media has been awash with weather folklore lately, including the old saying, “Ash before Oak, in for a soak.
Oak before Ash, in for a splash.”

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It’s a rhyme that suggests if Ash trees leaf out before Oaks, we’re in for a wet summer but if Oak beats Ash, a dry spell lies ahead, it has caused quite the stir online! Rooted in tree phenology, it reflects how ash responds more to daylight while oak buds with temperature.

There’s no extensive scientific evidence to back this up but half the craic in searching for those signs in your own daily environment!

I’m soaking it all up while it lasts.

We spent a glorious Sunday basking in the sun on the terrace at Semple Stadium, watching Tipp take the win over Waterford.

The school uniforms have been swapped for shorts and T-shirts, and classes are spilling outdoors for nature walks and PE sessions.

Everything feels lighter, brighter, like the whole country’s been let out to play.

And on our farm?

Well, the yard is dusty, the cows are still content, and I’ve caught myself saying “isn’t it just glorious?” at least twice a day.

Because it is.

After all, we sunflower people know how to cherish the light when it finds us!

Katie Gleeson is an online content creator who documents family life on a dairy farm in rural Tipperary via her Instagram account @katieinthecountry.