Loved ones honoured and remembered at Embrace FARM annual service

EMBRACE FARM, the organisation that supports the farming community and families who have experienced serious injury and sudden death on Ireland’s farms, held its annual service on Sunday, 28 June in the Church of the Most Holy Rosary in Abbeyleix, Co. Laois.

In attendance were President of the Irish Farmers' Association, Francie Gorman and Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, who were joined by farm families from across Ireland to remember loved ones lost within their community.

Now in its 13th year, the service has become a cornerstone event for the not-for-profit organisation Embrace FARM, which was established by husband and wife Brian and Norma Rohan in 2014 following the tragic loss of Brian’s father Liam in a farming accident.

Since the first annual remembrance service in 2014, the network has expanded to support more than 700 farm families nationwide. A central element of the service remains the remembrance roll call, where the names of loved ones are read aloud in tribute. This year saw hundreds of names called out during the service, reflecting the far-reaching impact of loss within the farming community.

As 2026 has been designated the International Year of the Woman Farmer, this year’s service also recognised the vital and often unseen role of women within farming life, particularly in the context of care and loss.

For more photographs of the Embrace FARM memorial service, see next week's Laois Nationalist (dated 7 July, 2026).