{"id":7473,"date":"2017-02-03T05:13:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T05:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/?p=7473"},"modified":"2018-03-15T12:35:11","modified_gmt":"2018-03-15T12:35:11","slug":"seanobrien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s thumbs up for African agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gorta-Self Help Africa has received a ringing endorsement from Irish rugby international Sean O\u2019Brien, on the eve of this season\u2019s \u2018RBS Six Nations Championship\u2019 curtain raiser, in Scotland.<\/p>\n<p>One of Ireland\u2019s top stars, the Tullow-born sportsman took time out from a busy training schedule to speak about the vital importance of developing Africa\u2019s agricultural potential, and about his own experiences living and working on a family farm in Ireland.<\/p>\n<div class=\"x-resp-embed x-is-video x-is-youtube\"><iframe title=\"Sean O&#039;Brien&#039;s Thumbs Up for African Agriculture\" width=\"877\" height=\"493\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/k55EByrS5qU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWhenever I can, I spend time on the farm\u201d, he said. Away from the intensive preparation that is a part of his life as an elite professional sportsman, he said that \u201cfarming has taught me so much. It keeps me grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Leinster and Ireland flanker said that he liked Gorta-Self Help Africa because of its focus on farming communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHelping farmers to grow more food and sell their surplus lifts communities out of poverty for the long term,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s not about hand outs, it\u2019s about a hand up. It\u2019s about organizing farmers to grow more on their small plots, and to sell their crops for a profit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfrica is on the same journey that Ireland was on many years ago. By making farming more productive, everything else will flow from it. When farming is more productive, communities prosper,\u201d he declared in a short video that was filmed on his County Carlow farm, last week.<\/p>\n<p>Gorta-Self Help Africa has its origins in Hacketstown in the County Carlow countryside, and today is the chosen charity of the Irish Farmers Association.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gorta-Self Help Africa has received a ringing endorsement from Irish rugby international Sean O\u2019Brien. <\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/\"> Read More<\/a>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[659,700,637],"tags":[799,68,70,224,796,692,798,797,795,794],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.3 (Yoast SEO v22.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sean O&#039;Brien&#039;s thumbs up for African agriculture - Self Help Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ireland rugby star has given a ringing endorsement to Gorta-Self Help Africa on the eve of the RBS Six Nations Championship.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sean O&#039;Brien&#039;s thumbs up for African agriculture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ireland rugby star has given a ringing endorsement to Gorta-Self Help Africa on the eve of the RBS Six Nations Championship.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Self Help Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SelfHelpAfrica\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-03T05:13:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-15T12:35:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Self Help Africa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@comms\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@selfhelpafrica\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Self Help Africa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Self Help Africa\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/person\/ef27df5dc9e961797418d7a8bf315404\"},\"headline\":\"Sean O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s thumbs up for African agriculture\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-03T05:13:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-15T12:35:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/\"},\"wordCount\":275,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"#COBG\",\"Agriculture\",\"Farming\",\"food\",\"international\",\"Ireland\",\"Murrayfield\",\"RBS six nations\",\"rugby\",\"sean o'brien\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Agriculture &amp; Nutrition\",\"Featured\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/\",\"name\":\"Sean O'Brien's thumbs up for African agriculture - Self Help Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-03T05:13:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-15T12:35:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"Ireland rugby star has given a ringing endorsement to Gorta-Self Help Africa on the eve of the RBS Six Nations Championship.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg\",\"width\":630,\"height\":380},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sean O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s thumbs up for African agriculture\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/\",\"name\":\"Self Help Africa\",\"description\":\"Farming for Africa&#039;s Future\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Self Help Africa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/12\/SHA_Logo_high-res.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/12\/SHA_Logo_high-res.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":435,\"caption\":\"Self Help Africa\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SelfHelpAfrica\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/selfhelpafrica\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/selfhelpafrica\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/selfhelpafrica\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SelfHelpAfricaTV\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/person\/ef27df5dc9e961797418d7a8bf315404\",\"name\":\"Self Help Africa\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c742dba76c6de21edf4e4b342eb2790?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c742dba76c6de21edf4e4b342eb2790?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Self Help Africa\"},\"sameAs\":[\"Eoghan Carroll\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/comms\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/author\/comms\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sean O'Brien's thumbs up for African agriculture - Self Help Africa","description":"Ireland rugby star has given a ringing endorsement to Gorta-Self Help Africa on the eve of the RBS Six Nations Championship.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sean O'Brien's thumbs up for African agriculture","og_description":"Ireland rugby star has given a ringing endorsement to Gorta-Self Help Africa on the eve of the RBS Six Nations Championship.","og_url":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/","og_site_name":"Self Help Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SelfHelpAfrica\/","article_published_time":"2017-02-03T05:13:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-15T12:35:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":630,"height":380,"url":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Self Help Africa","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@comms","twitter_site":"@selfhelpafrica","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Self Help Africa","Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/"},"author":{"name":"Self Help Africa","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/person\/ef27df5dc9e961797418d7a8bf315404"},"headline":"Sean O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s thumbs up for African agriculture","datePublished":"2017-02-03T05:13:15+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-15T12:35:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/"},"wordCount":275,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg","keywords":["#COBG","Agriculture","Farming","food","international","Ireland","Murrayfield","RBS six nations","rugby","sean o'brien"],"articleSection":["Agriculture &amp; Nutrition","Featured","News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/","url":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/","name":"Sean O'Brien's thumbs up for African agriculture - Self Help Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg","datePublished":"2017-02-03T05:13:15+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-15T12:35:11+00:00","description":"Ireland rugby star has given a ringing endorsement to Gorta-Self Help Africa on the eve of the RBS Six Nations Championship.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/02\/seanobrien.jpg","width":630,"height":380},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/seanobrien\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sean O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s thumbs up for African agriculture"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/","name":"Self Help Africa","description":"Farming for Africa&#039;s Future","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#organization","name":"Self Help Africa","url":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/12\/SHA_Logo_high-res.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/12\/SHA_Logo_high-res.jpg","width":1200,"height":435,"caption":"Self Help Africa"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SelfHelpAfrica\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/selfhelpafrica","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/selfhelpafrica\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/selfhelpafrica\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/SelfHelpAfricaTV"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/person\/ef27df5dc9e961797418d7a8bf315404","name":"Self Help Africa","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c742dba76c6de21edf4e4b342eb2790?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0c742dba76c6de21edf4e4b342eb2790?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Self Help Africa"},"sameAs":["Eoghan Carroll","https:\/\/twitter.com\/comms"],"url":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/author\/comms\/"}]}},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-08 19:56:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/selfhelpafrica.org\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}