{"id":570095,"date":"2026-07-27T08:37:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T08:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/570095\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T08:37:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T08:37:18","slug":"it-is-a-miracle-i-am-here-cork-farmer-shares-his-close-call-with-combine-harvester-for-farm-safety-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/570095\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It is a miracle I am here&#8217;: Cork farmer shares his close call with combine harvester for Farm Safety Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Cork farmer whose combine harvester turned over with him inside believes it is a miracle that he escaped with no injuries.<\/p>\n<p>As part of  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/farm-safety_topic-5071073.html\">Farm Safety<\/a> Week, Nick Dunican, from Belgooly, who also runs Cork Combines, has spoken out about the horror accident which occurred in Oysterhaven in August 2024.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He features in a video by the Irish Farmers\u2019 Association that is supporting the safety campaign,<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Westmeath native Nick told the  Irish Examiner that the accident occurred just months after the death by suicide of his brother Paddy at his workplace in Kilbeggan Racecourse. He said: \u201cWe, as a family, had a tough year in 2024. I am here to tell the tale. It is just coming up to two years since that accident happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Nick still remembers the terror of those moments after the combine turned over, resting on its cab.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI remember it stopped. My fear was that I was paralysed. There was a little bit of grain in the tank, the combine was upside down, glass was broken everywhere, the windscreen was broken, and the doors were broken.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cIt was roasting hot, there was hydraulic and engine oil in it, and the reel was still going.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI had this machine of 15-tonne weight on top of me, and all that was between me and the next world was a cab that could take that weight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI was thrown into the ceiling of the cab and the header, the whole front of the combine is hanging down, and I pull the cord, and it all stops. The side windows were broken, and all I had to do was to run out onto the ground and run away, and that is what I did.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\n            I rang my neighbour. He came up, and I actually hugged him because I needed to feel someone.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">The memory of his brother\u2019s death came quickly to mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI stood at a grave only a few months before that to say goodbye to my brother, and here I am facing the end. It is just where that takes you and the mark that leaves on you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">Nick got back on a combine the day after the accident. He had spent the past 25 years worrying about combines being brought into his yard and being offloaded from trucks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cLoading and unloading combines is a dangerous business. I have always been worried, conscious, and careful about that aspect of my business. When it\u2019s on the ground here in the yard, it is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">He believes that he was repaid with his life for his weekly attendance at Mass.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cI think I was well paid for every minute I spent in that church. Something got me there that morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu Body Body\">\u201cAs that combine tumbled over and all that steel and glass was breaking and cracking and bending and turning and crinkling, all that noise that happens in the spur of a second, when that was happening, it is a miracle I am here. It probably lasted about 10 seconds, 15 seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cork farmer whose combine harvester turned over with him inside believes it is a miracle that he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[240508,79,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-570095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-farm-safety","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}