‘Men look after their livestock better than themselves’ – mental health prioritised as Movember approaches

Winter is just around the corner, and with it an important event on the calendar in Men’s Health Awareness Month and the Movember campaign getting under way.

Tucked away in a corner near the busy retail area of the Ploughing in Screggan, Co Offaly, the Movember Ireland Mo-Shed was providing information on men’s health, getting involved with the campaign and offering hot towel shaves to willing volunteers.

Young men and boys peeled away from the nearby queues and passing crowds to visit the shed, chatted with staff about the importance of physical and mental health checks and took part in a spin-the-wheel challenge to try to nab some prizes.

Doing the shaving honours in the shed was fourth generation master barber Sam Donnelly of Sam’s Barbers in Dublin, a family-run business with a history dating back to 1901. He and Clyde Carroll, the chief business officer of Davis Events, have been ambassadors for Movember for more than a decade.

Mr Carroll said the Ploughing was an important opportunity for the charity to connect with men from rural Ireland.

“One of the core strands of what Movember does is mental health, and there is a huge amount of suicide in Ireland,” he said.

“Four out of five suicides in Ireland are men. A lot of that is preventable, and a lot of it comes from loneliness and isolation. Particularly in rural Ireland, that is something that’s happening all the time, and something Movember wanted to be here to talk about.”

Having Mr Donnelly providing shaves the old-fashioned way with a straight razor served to highlight the unique relationship between men and their barbers, and its importance as a social outlet.

“It’s quite unique, the barber and the client. When someone gets into the chair, we get to talk about things,” Mr Donnelly said.

While the aim is to raise awareness and funding for serious topics, Movember is a bit of craic

“It’s very significant with Movember, growing a moustache – they bring awareness to physical and mental health for men during the month.

“On November 1, they clean shave, start growing the moustaches, and that’s where the barber chair comes in.”

From engaging with passersby at the shed, Mr Donnelly said he came to realise “that men look after their livestock in this country better than they look after themselves”.

“We’re here trying to get those guys to look after themselves, because if they don’t look after themselves they can’t look after their livestock and they can’t look after their families,” he said.

Mr Carroll highlighted that while the aim is to raise awareness and funding for serious topics, getting involved with Movember is a bit of craic.

“You grow the moustache if you can, but if you can’t you can get out and do a bit of exercise, you can run, walk or swim for November,” he said. “You can host an event with your local GAA club or any sports club and just raise money, and the money goes to a really great cause that is doing good here in this country.

“It’s been incredible to see fellas coming into us here and opening up. They started telling their own stories, and we’ve been saying that if people come into you and open up, just listen.”

Mr Donnelly and Mr Carroll pay particular tribute to the efforts of the Def­ence Forces, gardaí, Ambulance Service and Coast Guard who, as a combined team, are on track to reach €500,000 raised for Movember over the last decade.

Closer to the centre of the Ploughing site, another important issue was being addressed – rural safety and crime.

At An Garda Síochána’s display at the Ploughing, Sergeant Graham Kavanagh, rural crime prevention officer in counties Laois and Offaly, said wildlife crime and trespassing are two major issues for rural people.

“As a rural crime prevention officer over two counties over the last 10 or 12 years, the conversations we have with people on a regular basis in rural Ireland, particularly the farmers, is problems with people coming on to their land, hunting hares or killing livestock and the fear that causes for people in rural areas,” he said.

Sgt Kavanagh said these crimes can be tackled through a collaborative eff­ort involving everybody across Irish society, and there could be a perception that rural crimes like trespassing on land are acceptable.

“There is a potential that mindset is there, but the one thing I never lose sight of is there’s an organised element to a lot of this. There is money being exchanged,” he said.

“There’s big money paid for the number of hares killed, so those are organised elements. Is there a link to criminality? There is. Our job with all the other voluntary and statutory stakeholders is to hopefully get them to tackle that.

“A part of that is possibly an educational awareness piece with those that are involved, but also, we have a duty to prosecute people, whether we do it ourselves or the other stakeholders that have statutory powers, we have to work together to achieve that.”