From Kiltimagh to Uzbekistan: One Mayo man’s journey to a degree in agricultural science

Sean McGreal (25) was never a “straight A” student in school, and when he didn’t get his first choice in the Leaving Cert in 2017, he didn’t really know where to go and was worried he would be “left behind”.
“I did quite well, but I was just kind of clueless, to be honest,” he says. “I didn’t put the head down and was more interested in sport.”
Growing up Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, he attended St Louis Community School. Coming from a small rural community, he had a big interest in agriculture and working outside from a young age.
“I would have been relatively academic but not top of the class when I was in school,” he says. “I certainly wasn’t a straight-A student. It felt like everybody else had it all figured out and I was going to be left behind.”
When he completed his Leaving Cert, he found himself at a crossroads. “Honestly, I was lost,” says McGreal. “I had toyed with the idea of doing a trade but I was again unsure of myself. I had a rough idea about the direction I wanted to take my life in but I think asking a 17 or 18-year-old what they would like to do for the rest of their life puts them under a lot of pressure.
“That’s how I felt at least. Honestly, I was very apprehensive about what the future held for me because I was unsure about what I was passionate about.”
But then he was told about Westport College of Further Education (CFE). “I chose the course after sitting down with the course coordinator and figuring out what I wanted to get out of it,” he says. “It suited me because each day was different.”
McGreal would study Animal Care Level 5 before going on to complete an honours degree in agricultural science at UCD, specialising in animal and crop production.
His journey would take him to farms in Germany, Uzbekistan in Central Asia, and East Lothian in Scotland, before he would move back to Ireland where he now works as an as assistant agricultural inspector with the Department of Agriculture.
He says the decision to take up the course in Westport was the best he ever made. About half of his friends took up a trade, while the rest went to university, but he never felt like he was missing out on anything.
“A degree is more of an endurance test than anything and a lot of people just fall off the wagon after four or five months,” he says. “After Westport, I felt I had seen something through. I was positive that I was ready to take on something for four years.”
McGreal says there were many benefits to studying at a further-education college, including smaller class sizes.
“You could have a lecture with more than 200 people in UCD, whereas here there were about 20 people,” he says.
“I found all the teachers to be very approachable. It wasn’t all theory based, which can be incredibly daunting for a lot of people. You’re learning something, but then you do the practical side of it as well. There was a big emphasis on that.
“The classroom and practical hybrid teaching approach suited me personally and I grew fonder of the course with each passing week.
“The academic, career guidance and personal support I received from the tutors in Westport grew my confidence in myself massively and took me from a place of uncertainty and indecisiveness to having clarity and a definite path I wanted to follow.
“I started to become very excited about all these doors which were opening for me and the opportunities I was being presented with.”
McGreal says Westport was the “springboard” from which he managed to secure a place in university before completing an honours degree in agricultural science in UCD.
“UCD has consistently been the number one agricultural science course in Ireland and within the top 20 globally,” he points out. “With access to some of the most respected researchers in the industry, as well as UCD Lyons Farm, I had no doubts about putting UCD as my number one choice.
“I chose UCD mainly because of the professional work experience in third year where I got the chance to work and get hands-on experience on farms across Ireland, and I even got the chance to visit farms in Germany belonging to the Costello family. These were fantastic opportunities for a young person and they really stood to me.”
Throughout his four years in UCD, McGreal spent his summers working on large-scale arable and livestock farms across the UK.
“Being given the opportunity to work on farms of this scale was a great experience and helped me a lot when I was interviewing for jobs,” he says. “Spending my summers working in an area relevant to my chosen field was also advantageous as I was putting the skills I was learning to work.”
After he graduated from UCD, McGreal travelled to Uzbekistan as part of an international team of machinery drivers from Ireland, the UK and New Zealand to complete a large-scale wheat and barley harvest for a commodities conglomerate called Indorama Agro.
“I had heard of people travelling to work in agriculture in the United States, Australia and New Zealand but Uzbekistan was a new one for me,” he says. “I had spent my summers working in the UK. A friend and I were coming to the end of our degree and applying for jobs. We saw the advertisement and got in contact with the operations director of the company.
“He said he would be in London a couple of weeks after, and that he would fly to Dublin if we were interested. He offered jobs to five Irish guys.”
McGreal describes it as having been “an incredible experience”.
“Although it was a challenging environment it was a great opportunity for a graduate to work in one of the lesser-known agricultural frontiers. Culturally it was so unique and to get to see it at 22 years old was a real privilege,” he adds. “The scale of the farms there was enormous, with the company farming over 75,000 hectares.
“We lived so close to the Afghan border – just 90 kms – so it was unlike anything I had ever seen in my life. I had never encountered heat like it. The guts of 50 degrees, and you are working for three months straight without a day off. But I was happy I did it.”
McGreal says the experience would once again set him apart when he was later applying for jobs.
“Especially because I was so young,” he adds. “Most of the guys working out there were in their 40s.”
After that, he worked on a 4,000 acre arable and potato farm in East Lothian in Scotland.
“I gained a lot of valuable experience out there and thoroughly enjoyed my time working there,” he recalls.
He then moved back to Castlebar, Co Mayo, and took up a job a technical agricultural officer in the Department of Agriculture. Since then he has moved to Dublin where he works now as assistant agricultural inspector with the department in the import controls division.
“I really enjoy the job and I work with great people,” he says. “All of these different opportunities stemmed from my decision to go to Westport CFE and I proved to myself – and hopefully it can also show others – that there are numerous routes through education, full-time and part-time, and distance learning.
“Only a few years ago I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life but with small incremental steps and utilising all the help and guidance that’s available, I’m now in full-time employment and very much looking forward to what the future holds.
“Sometimes taking the first step is what’s most daunting but after that, provided you allow yourself to be open to the different pathways, the chances for development and progression are huge.”
McGreal isn’t finished there. Still at the books, with which he juggles hise job in Department of Agriculture, he is currently a minor dissertation away from a Level 9 Master of Sciences Degree in AgInnovation from the University of Galway.
“It is a one-year programme and my application was based on my life experience and did not rely on my academic history,” he says.
He travels to the university one Saturday per month for a class with about 30 other students from “a variety of backgrounds”. He also attends an online, two-hour session every Thursday evening.
“It’s subsidised by Springboard so it doesn’t leave the piggy bank empty,” he says. “We need happy farmers in Ireland in order to have food and I now feel that I know how to use the skills and experience I have in order to shape a better future for myself and for others through learning about developing new products and services that will help keep rural Ireland alive and profitable.
“After this learning experience, I now think better than I did before. Looking back on what have been an immensely positive few years, my year in Westport CFE was the catalyst that kick started everything.
“Since my first day crossing the threshold of the school everything has just been yet another step in the right direction. When I graduated from Westport CFE, I started something and I saw it through. Everything else has just been taking the next step.”