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| Fr. Patrick James McGlinchey, founder of St. Isidore Farm / Courtesy of Joon Choi |
McGlinchey recognized by Ireland, Korea
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| Irish Ambassador Aingeal O'Donoghue |
JEJU ISLAND — Irish priest Patrick James McGlinchey has saved Jeju Island farmers from poverty by sharing with them cattle-raising knowhow from his home country.
His six decades of tireless efforts have made Jeju Island a model for the cattle industry today.
McGlinchey, the founder of the St. Isidore Farm in the Hallim area, said naysayers were the biggest challenge he had to deal with in the beginning, after he arrived in Jeju in April 1954, less than a year after the end of the bloody Korean War.
The then 26-year-old missionary, who was sent from the Missionary Society of St. Columban, was startled to discover that local farmers raised their livestock in their toilet.
"I saw that the way farmers raised cattle and pigs was very bad. They were wrong," McGlinchey recalled during an interview with The Korea Times on Feb. 12 at the farm.
The problems went beyond sanitation.
"They didn't know how to feed them. Three-year-old pigs couldn't reach 50 kilograms."
McGlinchey, who used to milk cows when he was a primary school student in Ireland, began to lecture farmers about the proper way of raising cattle. For the first five years, he visited them, encouraging them to change the way they raise their livestock.
"I made some proposals in different ways of raising cattle for five years. I talked to them, but they wouldn't listen to me," he said.
The local farmers viewed the young expat missionary as an outsider who knew nothing about farming.
"Farmers were the most difficult people to help because they thought they already knew all about farming because their ancestors had done the job for hundreds of years and this was the way they did things," he said. "The first Korean words that I learned were ‘An-doep-ni-da' (‘No, it won't work')."
The farmers' defeatism and frustration were partly rooted in a series of tragic events in Jeju's modern history.
Six decades ago, like people in other cities and provinces of this country, people on the island were very poor. At the time, the country was torn apart by the bloody civil war that raged from 1950 to 1953.
The Korean War broke out five years after the country gained independence from the brutal 36-year Japanese colonial rule.
The years in between, however, were not free of tragedy.
In the early morning of April 3, 1948, when then the newly independent country was undergoing political turmoil, thousands of communist guerrillas and their supporters assaulted more than half of Jeju Island's 24 police stations, killing 30 police officers and young activists. The then Rhee Syngman government responded to the incident by swiftly cracking down on the communist forces. The conflict between the government and the rebels left thousands of Jeju residents either killed or injured.
Historians say the rebellion was what caused the islanders to harbor suspicion toward outsiders.
"Jeju people suffered. They were very poor and in debt because nearly 30,000 people, mostly men, were killed during the series of tragedies after the independence," McGlinchey said. "So people were left with a lot of widows, but the government did not have the budget to help them."
As he found difficulty working with the stubborn, older farmers, he turned his attention toward the younger generation as the source of change for the island.
McGlinchey set up the farm, named after Spanish patron saint Isidore, in 1961, with the aim to make it an exemplary farm for training young farmers in advanced farming techniques from Ireland.
At the St. Isidore Farm, the farmers learned how to raise milk and beef cows. The farm's businesses thrived, and the well-trained farmers were able to profit from their own farms, too.
With the income from the sales of the farm's organic milk, cheese and beef, McGlinchey established a clinic, a nursing home, a hospice center, a youth center, a retreat center and a daycare center to meet the diverse needs of the marginalized people on the island.
Owing to his endeavors to lay the groundwork for the local cattle industry, he has been recognized by both the Korean and Irish governments.
On Oct. 31, 2014, Irish President Michael D. Higgins gave the Presidential Distinguished Service Award to 10 eminent Irish people living overseas, including McGlinchey, for their remarkable contribution to Ireland, the Irish community abroad and the countries they had made their home.
Irish Ambassador to Korea Aingeal O'Donoghue went to Ireland and received the presidential award on behalf of McGlinchey, whose health was declining.
On Feb. 12, she went down to Jeju for the award ceremony for the priest.
"To this island, Fr. McGlinchey brought a unique blend of spiritual leadership and an array of practical initiatives to help lift thousands of Jeju citizens out of poverty," she said in a speech at the ceremony.
"His model of development and profitable farming encouraged use of underused farm land and new farming methods. St. Isidore is now a thriving organic farm with successful dairy and beef operations and a highly regarded horse stud."
The Irish ambassador lauded the priest for his role as a bridge between Ireland and Korea.
"For 60 years, Fr. McGlinchey's extraordinary drive, dedication and vision has changed the lives of those on Jeju, and Ireland is now forever associated with this great island."
In December last year, President Park Geun-hye also recognized the Irish priest with the highest national honor, the National Recommendation Award, at the presidential office.
McGlinchey explored many new business areas to meet the needs of marginalized people. For example, he started the horse stud project about a decade ago to help farmers who were struggling to raise and train horse studs and to raise money to build a hospice center.
The former Roh Moo-hyun government decided to make Jeju the principal place for breeding racehorses in Korea. It provided funds to help farmers start their horse stud business but did not train the farmers.
"It was a good idea except that the farmers didn't know how to do it. The government thought a racehorse would automatically take care of itself," McGlinchey said.
"It's difficult to raise racehorses. They are delicate animals. So, we decided to set up our own training farm in Isidore. I brought in an expert from Ireland who is the first racehorse expert there."
The hospice center has become his renewed focus.
