{"id":356419,"date":"2026-03-31T06:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/356419\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:46:09","slug":"john-connell-i-was-running-on-empty-and-the-mental-health-issues-emerged-it-started-a-journey-that-took-a-few-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/356419\/","title":{"rendered":"John Connell: \u2018I was running on empty and the mental health issues emerged. It started a journey that took a few years\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom4 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop4\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\" data-testid=\"title-summary\">Spring lamb is on the menu in Longford\n<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Farmer and author John Connell on his farm near Ballinalee, Co Longford. Photo: Frank McGrath\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/c9d7c87f-6ef8-49fe-a6b6-e72dfc1eaf76.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Farmer and author John Connell on his farm near Ballinalee, Co Longford. Photo: Frank McGrath<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It still feels like winter as I navigate wet country lanes in Co Longford, but in John Connell\u2019s kitchen there\u2019s a welcome reminder that the seasons have changed: spring lamb is on the menu.   <\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">For some, cooking and talking might be a tricky interview setup but Connell moves easily between philosophy, farming and writing, checking the oven and returning to a conversation that veers from cattle to climate change, from Sydney to Dingle, from panic attacks to the healing possibilities of an early morning run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spring lamb is on the menu in Longford Farmer and author John Connell on his farm near Ballinalee,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[188440,134,188441,554,555,111,139,69,145090],"class_list":{"0":"post-356419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-donal-lynch","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-john-connell","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-people-culture-magazine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}