Episode 2 Home Ground

Hello and welcome to another episode of Home Ground,

a series bringing you a slice of life in the country.

Gavin and I have a host of stories

for you from across Northern Ireland.

We've been out meeting some people

with a real passion for all aspects of rural life.

Here's what's coming up in tonight's show.

Walk on!

'I try my hand, and whistle,

'at sheepdog training with a fanatical father and son.'

WHISTLE BLOWS

Could this be the end for rural GPs?

We meet the doctor who's been working for 50 years

and is desperate to retire.

And discovering Northern Ireland's wartime past

on the shores of Lough Erne.

Later in the programme, we've got a weather forecast for the week ahead,

but first, we're here at Benburb Forest in County Tyrone,

and I'm joining a group of volunteers

who help preserve this hidden gem.

This 190-acre forest has the look and feel of an ancient woodland,

but during Victorian times, it was actually part of a private garden.

As a result, many non-native species were introduced,

plants that have since taken over.

Right, guys, so here we are back in the pinetum and we're going to be...

I'm joining a team of volunteers helping to cut back

the invasive species to restore the woodland to how it was.

We want to cut this laurel away, so that we can give lots of light

into the plants that are native to this part of the woodland.

Alliance Youth Works is an organisation that works

with young people and adults with learning difficulties.

Right, today, we have Gavin with us.

-Gavin?

-OK, now... Gavin, yes.

He's a TV presenter, so he doesn't often do any hard work.

So he's come... Look at his lovely soft hands.

LAUGHTER

'In partnership with the Woodland Trust and the local priory,

'this group come to help clear this forest once a week.'

So there you go, that's that.

-Easy job.

-What are the group getting out of this activity?

Quite a lot.

There's the education value first of all,

learning about the local biodiversity, learning about

the woodlands and the wild.

Being outdoors, the physicality of this,

the health and wellbeing elements,

particularly for this group who have learning disabilities.

The Southern Health and Social Care Trust have a number of programmes

that get people out and about, and this is one of them.

-Too many trees in this forest. HE LAUGHS:

-Yeah!

That's the trouble with forests - too many trees.

-You can't do this on your own. That's why they're...

-Absolutely!

-..working so well together.

And that's half the work is working together as a team.

Um, it's the communication, it's the chatting and talking,

it's being careful of where the different trees are falling.

Being aware of where other people are at.

-And a bit of outdoors lifestyle is good for everybody.

-Absolutely.

Absolutely. Getting outdoors is essential.

-Whispering woods, it's good for the soul.

-It seems like a win-win.

-It's good for you guys, it's good for the area.

-Brilliant.

Um, one of the things that we're attempting to do here is

kind of restore the valley to what it used to be.

Taking down this laurel's a first step,

but we've a whole load of invasive species to tackle.

Down along the river with, you know, Himalayan balsam,

Japanese knotweed and then there's bamboo and things

that have been planted way back in Victorian days, when it was

-a private park.

-So years of work ahead of these guys?

Years of work. Years of work.

What is it about the outdoors that you like so much?

Cos growing up, as a child, I grew up on a farm, you see.

-Oh, very good.

-I grew up on a farm.

I was always outside,

either feeding cows or doing something around the farm,

and then I seemed to like outside more than I did the indoors.

You're very fit, you're keeping your breath very well,

-cutting the full tree down.

-I know!

This is going to come down very soon.

Right, are you ready for timber here?

-Stand back.

-Stand well back, everyone.

Half the forest is coming down.

Wey-ah...

You DID take half the forest down!

Well done, that man.

Well, if I had a tree like that in my garden, I'd be quite happy,

but obviously, it's not good in here.

No, cos it blocks your light up and it...

When you cut them down, things start to grow, cos it's getting more light

and more heat in around them.

With the rest of the group, have you made a lot of friends doing this?

-Yes.

-Look forward to seeing them every week?

-I do, surely.

-You're the leader of the pack, are you?

-I'm always the leader of the pack.

-Ha-ha!

-Will we get this one cleared, will we?

-Yes.

Right, let's do it, it looks heavy.

Actually, it looks far too heavy, but we'll try.

'And there's no stopping them.

'At this rate, they'll have the forests cleared in no time.'

Are you sweating there, Alyn? LAUGHTER

'Further along, the difference is clear to see,

'but there's one left standing that needs felled.'

Oh...

CHEERING Watch out, Mark.

WOOD CRUNCHES

Beautiful!

-Well done.

-Beautiful.

Well, they're certainly not shying away from hard work,

but as I discovered,

sometimes it's best to leave these things to the experts.

Especially when it comes to herding sheep.

'Among these fields overlooking the town of Larne,

'I'm in search of a father and son team,

'whose passion in life is sheepdogs.

WHISTLING

'And judging by that noise, I'm in the right place.

'22-year-old Dean McAuley has been training sheepdogs since he was 12.

'Today, he's getting in some final practice with his dog Jen

'ahead of the North of Ireland finals in just a few days' time.'

Dean's hard at work here. What do the judges look for?

-Straight lines.

-OK.

Very straight lines. And good outruns.

A dog running out from your foot out to collect the sheep.

WHISTLING

What makes a good sheepdog?

Well, brains for a start. HE LAUGHS

-But they're quite clever animals.

-Aye, they are. They are, aye.

It needs to be in them.

It has to be willing to be, you know, to be trained and listen...

And it's not in every dog?

No, you get farm dogs, these are trial dogs.

All mine and Dean's dogs just farm work and trial work.

-In fact, they do it, you know...

-Right.

-..if it needed to be done.

WHISTLING

To me, a whistle is a whistle.

What do all the commands mean?

The right-hand whistle could go... SOFT SLOW WHISTLE

The left-hand whistle could go... SHARP HIGH WHISTLE

-Ah!

-..you know, to the left.

-Yeah.

And then there's a stop whistle... SINGLE WHISTLE

Just a straight whistle.

And then there's a walk on whistle. REPEATED WHISTLE

-You know, it's...

-And you've got one of these round your neck.

Why would you use one of those when you can use...

-No, I never use this.

-..your lips?

-No, I never use the finger.

-It wasn't loud enough.

-But I see Dean's still...

-He's a finger whistler.

-Aye, he's...he's...

There's him and maybe four or five other fellas

who's very, very good at it.

'Neither Eamonn nor Dean are farmers.

'They do this for the love of it and thanks to a local farmer,

'they're allowed to use his field and his sheep for practice.'

So who's better?

Oh... HE LAUGHS

I wouldn't want to say who's the best.

But I would say I had the best dogs.

THEY LAUGH

-So this is the tricky bit now.

-This is the tricky bit here.

-So he's got to get them all in there?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Got to get them all in, no breaks.

-No breaks.

-There's a clean...

You call that a clean pen.

-So is that a 10 out of 10?

-That's a 10 out of 10.

-Yeah.

-Well done, Dean.

From my untrained eye, that was pretty perfect.

-All the training's been paying off, then?

-Yeah.

And what two dogs are you going to have, then, on Saturday?

I'm running Jen,

which is that one there.

-Mm-hm.

-And she's more easy work than... Easier on her sheep.

And my other one's Jan. She's a bit stronger,

like keener and eager, and you would have to hold her back a bit more.

-Is she faster?

-Faster and pushier,

wanting to come on quicker all the time.

I like the ones that you have to hold back a bit.

You get the adrenaline rush and warmed up when you have them out.

Could you make a handler out of me, do you think?

Aye, you could, through time.

Keep a straight face.

Could through time! THEY LAUGH

-A lot of time?

-Well, it depends on...

-It depends on yourself.

-What would I need?

You'd need a dog for a start. SHE LAUGHS

SHE TRIES TO WHISTLE

'Well, not much of a whistle.

'I'll stick to the voice commands.'

-My right hand or his left...? His...?

-Our right.

Walk on.

SOFT WHISTLE

You better watch out.

HE LAUGHS

Lie down.

Lie down.

Oh, such a lovely dog.

I think Eamonn's safe enough, I'm not going to win any competitions,

but that is so enjoyable.

Thank you. Thank you, Roy. You're a clever dog.

'Just a few days later, and I've come to a wet and windy Burt

'in County Donegal for the finals to see how Dean and Eamonn get on.

'The bad weather isn't helping. Dean ran out of time on his first run,

'so now it's all down to Jen.'

The dog's got a wee bit far over that side.

Aye, a wee bit wide she went there and up to the pen.

-He's on the left here now.

-Has he lost a bit of time there?

Lost a bit of time, aye, and maybe a couple of points, you know...

-OK.

-..for going too wide.

-Right.

She went next to the pen there and she got onto them now,

-coming well on the fetch.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Coming up straight, we can see. Up straight through the middle.

-Yeah.

And, presumably, it's hard to squeeze it all in

to the allotted ten minutes.

Yes, it is, aye, it's a big course for ten minutes.

We could do with another minute, or maybe two minutes, you know.

-Coming away over to the pen here.

-There he is, there he is.

In they go. How long have we got to go?

He has got, er...

-Just over a minute?

-A minute, yes.

Oh, oh, oh, oh...

And good pen. 10 out of 10, I'd say, for that.

10 out of 10, good man, Dean.

Hey, Jen, the star of the show.

Well, Dean, you must be happy with that, that was a good one?

Yes, a better start, she went a bit wide at the top and missed them,

but I was happy with the rest of it.

She did well after that. And do you know your time yet?

Not yet. People struggling to finish in time today.

-All right.

-But I got finished, so it must've been within time.

And is that the course, or is that part of the weather?

The course. But the hearing's not good today, with the wind.

WHISTLING

'Next up, it's dad Eamonn's turn,

'and he seems to be getting on pretty well.'

SHARP WHISTLES

'And, in the end, it was a close call.

'Neither placed, but Eamonn returns with the bragging rights,

'beating Dean overall by just two points.'

What about Dean here, how do you think he did?

Dean did a hell of a good run.

-I thought he would've had more points, you know, but, er...

-Yeah.

-That's the way the judge seen it.

-You were pleased, weren't you?

-Happy enough, yes.

-I don't know about you,

but I'm cold and I'm wet and I'm muddied up to the eyeballs.

You wouldn't think of taking up an easier hobby?

Something a bit warmer?

-Chess?

-Definitely not.

-Tiddlywinks?

-No.

-Can do that in the house.

-Dogs!

-Can't interest you? Something by a nice warm fire.

-No.

-Just dogs.

Rural GPs are at a crisis point - there simply aren't enough of them.

That's according to the British Medical Association

and local doctors groups,

so could this be the end for the local country doctor?

Ruth's been to find out.

The shortage of rural GPs is at crisis point.

Numbers overall are falling, while patient numbers keep rising.

How do you feel?

Just much the same, really.

Not a lot of difference.

Dr Benny Glover has been single-handedly running

his surgery in Glenarm for the past 50 years.

He looks after more than 2,000 patients in the area,

but he's 77 and finally thinking about retirement.

It's a bit better. Still room for improvement,

-but at least...

-Well...

-..it's going the right way.

'I have a responsibility to the people here.

'I don't know what's going to happen'

if and when I retire.

-When do you think that might be?

-Well, I have to make decisions

over the next, before the end of this year, I would think.

-Right.

-So we'll see how we get along.

Why do you think there are fewer rural GPs now?

The problem is that the younger doctors now,

they're quite happy to work in A&E,

they're quite happy to come and do locums,

but they're not prepared to take on the responsibility

and the management of general practice.

-Hi.

-OK, doctor...

'Josephine has been coming here for the past 47 years and, like her,

'the entire local community rely on the surgery.'

What do you think the impact would be if this surgery wasn't here?

Oh, if this surgery wasn't here,

this village would be just devastated.

I mean, there are a lot...

-There are a lot of old people in the village that don't drive...

-Mm-hm.

..and there are a lot of young families that don't have cars.

-Mm-hm.

-I just don't know what they would do,

or how they would manage to see a GP.

The nearest GP from here would be Larne, Broughshane, Cushendall,

-and the bus services - maybe two buses a day.

-Yeah.

That's not very good at all.

-So this year's crunch time?

-This year's crunch time.

-Yeah.

What do you think will happen?

Well, I would hope we would be able to get someone,

but the whole place could just close down and...

Is there a danger of that? If you can't get anybody to take over

-from you, will this surgery stop practising?

-Yeah, yeah.

-It will?

So, can the rural GP be saved from extinction?

As the health service struggles

to recruit doctors into rural practices, I've come here

to Dungannon Farmers Mart to hear about a new scheme, which aims

to draw medical students out of the city and into the country.

Every fortnight, Dungannon Farmers Mart is

a hive of activity, but it's not all business.

It's also a social hub and a chance for many to catch up.

It's the perfect place for the Northern Trust's mobile health van

to park up and offer free checkups.

-All right.

-Right.

-You've got your male and female...

-Yeah.

Today, medical students from Queen's have come to lend a hand.

It's an initiative between the university

and the Ulster Farmers Union to enable student doctors

to spend time on farms with vets and experience country life,

all with the aim of encouraging them into rural practices.

-I'm Alice.

-I'm Harry.

-It's nice to meet you, how are you?

-Are you here to get your health checked?

-Yes, indeed.

Sure, come on in, we'll get you sorted.

Students Alice and Mark have come to offer checkups to farmers

outside the mart in the health check van.

So today, we're just going to be doing some of these health checks.

Have you been in this van before?

-I'm just going to do a few checks...

-'In Queen's in Belfast,

'you're very much in Belfast.'

And most people like to stay around Belfast because travelling's a

problem, so it is really interesting to kind of get out.

And we're both from rural areas,

so it's nice to go back to home and kind of be around the people we've

-been brought up with.

-You know, there's an issue in recruiting

doctors to work in rural areas.

And if people are never getting exposure to rural life,

then they're going to be less likely to apply for rural jobs.

I know your height, but I'm just going to check your BMI,

I'm going to get you to stand on these weights...

I thought the only way you're going to make a difference as a doctor

is if you get a big job in a big hospital.

You do lots of research and you really make the news,

but seeing the rural GP and seeing how much an impact he can have in

his community, because he can have a massive impact because you know that

person, you know their family, you know their story.

'And you might do the smallest thing,

'but it means such a big thing to them.

'You become part of someone's life when you're a rural GP,

'whereas you're just another face in another hospital

'if you're in one of the big trusts.'

-Hmm?

-How come you don't go to your doctors?

-There's nothing wrong with me.

-There's nothing wrong with you?

I don't think there's anything wrong with me.

If, say in our year group, there's 270 studying medicine,

there will only be 40, 50 maximum who come from a rural background.

If we don't choose to go into rural medicine,

if we choose to move to Belfast and do hospital jobs,

then it's even more unlikely that those who were brought up

in an urban setting will move to the countryside

and so that is a massive problem for recruitment.

So, having done this module, what about you two?

Do you think you'll become rural GPs?

I think I'm going to become a farmer.

THEY LAUGH

-Even after today?

-Yeah.

I think yes, definitely. Before this module,

even though I'm from a rural background,

it was quite low down on my list

of what I thought were my future career options,

but now having spent some time in the countryside again,

in different areas of Northern Ireland, and with the rural GP,

it's definitely made me think a lot more about it,

it's definitely a lot higher on my list now...than it was before.

Yeah, definitely. I'd never even considered it before,

but now I think I'd quite like to.

Well, the weather has been pretty kind to us here today,

but let's find out what's in store for the week ahead.

Northern Ireland is jam-packed full of historic sites,

but many are only known to those who live near them or have

a personal connection. I've been to County Fermanagh to find out about

a new project aimed at sharing that knowledge

and preserving it for generations to come.

Lower Lough Erne on a calm and peaceful morning.

On a day like this,

it's hard to believe that this place was once a hive

of military activity during World War II.

I'm here at Boa Island to meet with a local history group

to find out more about this area's wartime legacy.

-ANNOUNCER:

-'British warships give safe passage to...'

RAF seaplanes such as the Sunderland and Catalina

launched from Lough Erne.

They were crucial in the protection of ships carrying essential supplies

to Britain. Ships that were easy prey for German U-boats.

-ANNOUNCER:

-'The Catalina takes off to spread her wings over the precious company of ships.'

There was a hospital on the site here,

there was a cinema on the site, there were fuel tanks

where planes could come in and be refuelled at the end of the jetty,

as well as the other activity.

And it was actually like a separate base,

an outstation almost of RAF Castle Archdale.

But it would have been a hive of activity with many people,

many of the RAF personnel living here.

And they had dances every week and all the rest of it, so, you know,

they had their relaxation and it was an area where men who needed some

rest and recuperation would have been brought to,

having come off some of the operations out over the Atlantic.

But logistically, this was obviously the jetty,

the depth charges were brought here.

-Over there, you had your munitions hut.

-Yeah.

You had all the planes landing over here.

Give us a sense of what it would have been like.

Well, I think the main thing would have been,

when a plane came back from being over the Atlantic,

it obviously would have dropped all its depth charges out there.

It needed to be serviced and re-fuelled

and re-armed again for the next operation

because they were continuously flying out of Lough Erne,

patrolling the Atlantic.

We are here today with the Department of the Environment,

who are involved in a project

mapping defence sites right across Northern Ireland,

looking for stories just like this.

This should place this on a map to within about an inch of accuracy.

Or 2.5 centimetres.

There's many 20th-century defence features

dotted around the countryside and coast of Northern Ireland.

A lot of them we aren't aware of,

and it's with the department liaising with

the locals and volunteers in

the project that they can help inform us of these sites.

It's very vital, because by the very nature of these sites,

it's only the locals that are aware of their localities.

They're encouraging the public to get involved

and enter any information they may have into a new app.

We have the Catalina at Killadeas.

The salvage, 20th of July, 1944...

'The department, in partnership with Queen's University,

'have developed an app,'

so people can go out on their smartphone

and if they're aware of a site,

they can upload the details and it will be mapped onto the existing

-defence heritage database.

-How important is all of this?

It is very important.

As time goes on, the knowledge of these sites are being lost.

We can help protect these sites through both policy and legislation.

As you said, it's multiple sites.

We're not just talking about Lough Erne,

we're talking about sites all over Northern Ireland.

All over Northern Ireland.

Currently we're aware of about 600 of these sites in Northern Ireland.

About 300 of them have been recorded over the last 20 years,

but obviously, as you've seen

about the Nissen hut behind me here, it uses the ammunition store,

the jetty for loading the ammunition onto the flying boats.

We weren't aware of these sites, and it was only speaking

to the Lough Erne Heritage group that they have informed us.

So there's two more sites within one conversation

with the community group.

One person who remembers the scene here is Gerry Kerrigan,

who was a child growing up on Lough Erne during the war.

Seeing all the activity going on here, were you ever scared?

No, not scared, not scared.

I think you become accustomed to it and there was a right few children

about. And...

the men that were there were very, very good to children,

you know. You had apples and oranges and stuff like that, you know.

-We were hard to keep away.

-THEY LAUGH

They had to chase you. So you have fond memories,

but did you appreciate the significance of what was going on?

I don't think we did, no. No, we were children at that time,

you know?

I'm following the information we've collected back to Queen's University

in Belfast, where it's all being collated and mapped

onto the main database.

We're encouraging younger members of the community and older members,

so family members all round, to talk about their local history.

So the information that was gathered out on site

with the Lough Erne Heritage group

has been mapped out and I can access that information.

So if we just zoom into Boa Island here.

We can click on the points, so this is the seaplane jetty.

That was the jetty? My goodness!

So if you click... Any member of the public can click on the point

and they can see the information that was recorded on site that day.

OK, so what have we got there?

Military site, seaplane station,

and the period of use was the Second World War.

So this gives us information about the ammunition store.

It's in good condition, and again,

Fred on site had uploaded, using his tablet,

he'd uploaded an image attached to that location,

so we have a photograph of an ammunition store

available on our database.

So, thanks to the work of the Lough Erne Heritage group,

important details about this site

have been preserved for generations to come.

And if you'd like to learn more about that app,

you can find all the details on the BBC Northern Ireland website.

That's all for this episode of Home Ground.

-Next week, we're here at seven o'clock.

-See you then.