0:06:41 > 0:06:43HE LAUGHS
0:07:29 > 0:07:32DRUMS PLAY
0:14:53 > 0:14:57John Pitt Kennedy was my great great grandfather.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59He was a military engineer.
0:14:59 > 0:15:05He was born in Carndonagh and educated in Foyle College in Derry.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09He started out his career in Greece.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12But in his 30s, he came back to Ireland,
0:15:12 > 0:15:17and he saw the deplorable state of Irish agriculture.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20There was a growing population.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24They were dependent on one crop, really.
0:15:24 > 0:15:29And he wanted to, by example,
0:15:29 > 0:15:33show that farming could improve.
0:15:33 > 0:15:40And that is why he was so important in Irish agriculture
0:15:40 > 0:15:43in the famine years.
0:16:03 > 0:16:09John Pitt Kennedy revolutionised Irish agricultural education.
0:16:09 > 0:16:13He was put in charge of all the primary schools in Ireland.
0:16:13 > 0:16:19And he purchased 60 acres of land in Dublin.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21And the aim of this place
0:16:21 > 0:16:27was to teach teachers the principles of good agriculture.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30And these teachers would then go out into the primary schools
0:16:30 > 0:16:33and teach children the principles of good agriculture,
0:16:33 > 0:16:39such as crop rotation, best management of land,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43animal husbandry, all that kind of thing.
0:16:44 > 0:16:50He was obviously a very able man, very industrious man.
0:16:50 > 0:16:54He was a Protestant Unionist.
0:16:54 > 0:17:02He did his utmost to better the lot of peasantry,
0:17:02 > 0:17:07the poor. He was a very charitable man, I think.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11During the famine, he was in charge of famine relief,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14and in places like this,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18soup was given out to starving people.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21And what was his role post-famine?
0:17:21 > 0:17:27Post-famine, he was still trying to push for
0:17:27 > 0:17:33agricultural education. He wrote a number of books and papers on it.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38And I think he should be regarded as one of the most important people
0:17:38 > 0:17:43in agricultural education in that century.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43DOGS BARK AND WHIMPER
0:21:43 > 0:21:46# Dogs are everywhere Almost everywhere
0:21:46 > 0:21:48# That I go... #
0:22:05 > 0:22:10# They leave their scent behind them
0:22:10 > 0:22:12# Everywhere they go... #
0:22:12 > 0:22:18I'm a member of Northwest Mushing, and we compete all over the country
0:22:18 > 0:22:19and abroad as well.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22It's just a fantastic sport for people that are into dogs
0:22:22 > 0:22:25and it's just addictive sport.
0:22:25 > 0:22:29You can't... Once you've started, you can't stop.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32- How long have you been doing it here in Ireland? - I've been doing it six years.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36I started off, I got two Siberian Huskies.
0:22:36 > 0:22:37They were the first two dogs I got.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40Then I got a few Alaskan Malamutes,
0:22:40 > 0:22:44and I was having bother exercising them,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and I found out that you can do this sport, so I started from there
0:22:47 > 0:22:48and I haven't looked back.
0:22:48 > 0:22:51Are there many others in Ireland that are out with teams of dogs?
0:22:51 > 0:22:56Our club, the Federation of Sleddog Sports, has 100 members
0:22:56 > 0:23:00at the moment. And it's growing every year.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04From one dog to eight dogs competing against each other.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08It seems to be picking up. Every year, there's more and more members.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10And it's getting bigger and bigger.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14It's not huge yet, but we're trying to get the World Cup here next year.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16It's called the Triple Crown, and
0:23:16 > 0:23:20England, Scotland and ourselves are competing against each other in it.
0:23:20 > 0:23:26And we're trying to get the European Dryland Championship here in 2016.
0:23:26 > 0:23:30So, we're putting a bid in for that next year and see how we get on.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32But if the World Cup goes well,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35we shouldn't have any bother getting it, you know.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37And what sort of speed would a team like this get up to?
0:23:37 > 0:23:43You could get up to 20-25 mph on downhills
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and 15-20 on the flat, you know.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49The more meat them boys can get, the better.
0:23:49 > 0:23:52They're canine athletes, you know.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56# Sometimes I have to wonder
0:23:56 > 0:24:01# About the dog in me
0:24:01 > 0:24:05# Oh, dogs are everywhere
0:24:05 > 0:24:10# Yes, dogs are everywhere
0:24:10 > 0:24:15# Yes, dogs are everywhere
0:24:15 > 0:24:20# That I go, that I go... #
0:24:54 > 0:24:56- Hello, Donal.- Hello, Frainc. How are you?
0:24:58 > 0:25:00Aw, hello.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Well, we found Quiney tied to a scrapped car
0:25:08 > 0:25:11below Donegal town three or four years ago.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13We got a phone call about him.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17We went down to find him and he was in a very bad state.
0:25:17 > 0:25:22He had overgrown hooves and basically just tied with very little rope.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24- We took him in that time then. - Poor fellow.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28- He's looking well now, though. - He is. He's in very good health now.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31He's in the best of shape and he's working for the sanctuary...
0:25:31 > 0:25:34Excellent. How did you get involved with donkeys, then?
0:25:34 > 0:25:37Eh, my grandfather always had donkeys,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41and when I came back from Scotland and England,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44I just bought a bit of land and we started keeping a few donkeys
0:25:44 > 0:25:46and the sanctuary evolved from there just.
0:25:46 > 0:25:48And how many donkeys are you keeping at the minute?
0:25:48 > 0:25:51We have 54 donkeys at the minute in direct care,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and we have over 200 rehomed since we started.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Why are there so many homeless donkeys in Ireland?
0:25:56 > 0:26:00Away back in the '60s when the tractors came in,
0:26:00 > 0:26:03donkeys became pretty scarce. And then when they were scarce,
0:26:03 > 0:26:06people... you know, they were more sought-after.
0:26:06 > 0:26:10When the Celtic Tiger came in then, people bought them as pets.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13And then, the way the economy's gone now, with the decline,
0:26:13 > 0:26:17they're dumping them, they can't afford to keep them
0:26:17 > 0:26:20and a lot more of them are turning up on our doorstep,
0:26:20 > 0:26:24and people are looking for new homes for them.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26Quiney here's such a placid animal.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29What's the role of the donkey in Ireland today?
0:26:29 > 0:26:32Well, I suppose most donkeys are now kept as pets.
0:26:32 > 0:26:34There's very, very few working donkeys in Ireland,
0:26:34 > 0:26:36but if you went back 30 or 40 years,
0:26:36 > 0:26:38there was thousands of donkeys working in Ireland.
0:26:38 > 0:26:42You know, they worked on the farm all week, and a lot of them then
0:26:42 > 0:26:45even took people to church or chapel on a Sunday in a cart.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49They did everything. They were the tractor of their day.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53And Quiney has really become the ambassador for the sanctuary?
0:26:53 > 0:26:55He would be, aye.
0:26:55 > 0:26:59Quiney's face has been all over the world at fundraisers
0:26:59 > 0:27:02in Australia to America, and he would be one of our adoption donkeys
0:27:02 > 0:27:05and an awful lot of people adopt him.
0:27:05 > 0:27:06Well, it's been wonderful
0:27:06 > 0:27:09to meet you and the very famous Quiney as well.
0:27:09 > 0:27:11- I'll move along. It's starting to rain.- Bye now.