'How is this fair?' Cork farming family risks losing everything

Jerry and Ita Murphy and their sons Diarmuid and Conor on their farm in Co Cork. The family’s solicitor says Everyday Finance is not engaging with them on the basis of a downsizing plan. Picture: Denis Minihane

The hammer blow came when the Murphys heard that a neighbour had bought their land from the receiver. This they could not fathom. Farmland, particularly for dairy, is of the highest standard in West Cork, much valued and coveted. Yet the idea of neighbour taking advantage of their misfortune, the depletion of their livelihood, was beyond reason. There was a time when such action would have prompted communal reaction but maybe those days are gone.

The Murphys are one of thousands of farming families who have found themselves in hock to an alien, largely faceless entity — the vulture fund. Their story resonates across rural Ireland. They had loans, they ran into some trouble along the road, but managed to come out the other side, and then they found themselves no longer owing money to a bank, but at the mercy of a vulture fund.