Driving at no more than 25km, a Wicklow farmer will spend six days on board a vintage tractor travelling from Co Cork’s Mizen Head to Malin Head in Co Donegal in hope of raising money for suicide awareness and prevention charities.
On August 21st, Michael Keegan (46) will set off from Cork at 2pm, travelling nearly 127km to Killarney in Co Kerry, driving for a more than six and a half hours.
In total, he will spend nearly 32 hours driving around 690km.
The following day, he will break up the journey inMiltown Malbay in Co Clare, followed by Co Galway’s Monivea before heading onto Leitrim Village by day four.
The sheep farmer has set a target of €50,000, but hopes to surpass that, for charities Pieta House and the 3TS.
“Suicide’s a big issue in rural Ireland,” he said, adding that he wanted to do something to “highlight and help with it.”
The tractor he will be driving, the Deutz D40L, once belonged to his grandfather Charlie Keegan who won the World Ploughing Championships in 1964 with it, the first world ploughing title ever won in the Republic of Ireland.
He will also be joined by classic tractor enthusiast, co-founder of the “Miles of Hope” event and friend, Tony Killarney from Galway, who will drive a 1971 Chevy pick-up as a support vehicle along the route.
In 2014, 50 years after he grandfather won the World Ploughing Championship, the tractor was restored.
He said it is not used around the farm and instead is taken “out for a spin” occasionally.
To get the tractor prepared for the Mizen to Malin trip, “a few jobs” were carried out on it, he said.
“It’s fully restored. It’s like showroom condition really or very near to it.”
Keegan said he is looking forward to meeting people along the way to spread his “message of help and hope” while showcasing the Deutz D40L to tractor enthusiasts and members of the public.
Donations can be made here.