FROM BARBECUES TO barn dances, the Macra na Feirme ‘Know your neighbour Weekend takes place across the country this Saturday and Sunday.

“A lot of people feel cut off from their communities,” Garvan Hickey, from Macra’s Rural Youth Initiative Committee told TheJournal.ie.

People have stopped going to pubs because they are afraid one drink will put hem over the limit, which would mean they’d lost their licence and freedom to get around. But there’s also the isolation brought about by technology. Everything is now being put on-line and many people in rural areas won’t have access.

Meet your neighbour allowed people to just sit back and talk he said.

“It’s about personal contact. Three years ago we had a barbecue and an older couple came in. The old man was moved that they were welcome, because he thought that even though he met people in the shop and had transport to get around, he was invisible.”

A barn dance took place in Redcross, Wicklow on Saturday, Clonakilty in Cork is hosting a Random Acts of Kindness Festival while a barbecue is being hosted in Ballyshannon, Donegal. Full details of all events are here http://www.knowyourneighbour.ie/events

Know your neighbour weekend started last weekend. Here are some photos Macra sent in from up and down the country