PATRICK JAMES McGLINCHEY was born on June 6, 1928 in the village of Raphoe and grew up in the town of Letterkenny, both in County Donegal, Ireland. His father, Patrick McGlinchey, was a veterinary surgeon who spent much of his time teaching farmers improved methods of raising livestock. His mother, Sarah O'Boyle, was a nurse. Young PATRICK was the fifth in a family of six boys and three girls. He attended elementary and secondary school in Letterkenny and St. Columban's College in Navan, Ireland, the major seminary for the training of Columban Fathers where instruction is university level but the institution is not registered as a university hence does not give degrees. Throughout his youth, his father's influence was profound. "The personality and example of my father in trying to help poor farmers in Ireland was the major influence in my life," he has written. "I spent all school vacations going around with him."

In 1945 McGLINCHEY joined the Society of Saint Columban, a missionary order known as the Columban Fathers, whose foreign mission orientation goes back to its founder, the 6th century Irish missionary to Europe, St. Columban. Ordained a priest in 1951, McGLINCHEY was assigned to the South Korean diocese of Kwangju in June 1952. With the exception of his first year on the mainland in language studies, he has spent "all of my working life" on the island of Cheju.

Cheju is 60 miles off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, across the Korean Strait from Kyushu, the southernmost of the three main islands of Japan. With a perimeter of 120 miles, it is by far the largest island in South Korea. At the center is Mt. Halla, an extinct volcano, whose slopes, rising to 6,349 feet, are covered with rocks, forest and scrubby grass. The soil is red lava, porous, with an inability to retain water. Therefore, although the island has moderate to heavy rainfall, the center of Cheju lacks a natural permanent water supply. The island and its people were the poorest in South Korea.

When Father McGLINCHEY came to Cheju in the spring of 1953 the Korean War was just coming to a close. Some 60,000 people on the island had been killed as the result of communist guerilla activity during earlier years (1947-1949) and the population was huddled around the seacoast in small farms averaging one-third of a hectare. Although planting two crops per year, farm families lived at subsistence level. They were heavily in debt to moneylenders and the despair-suicide of children was not unheard of. Yet 50,000 hectares of land stood idle in the center of the island.

The people, as Father McGLINCHEY soon realized, had a "herd instinct," developed as the result of centuries of war and banditry, and perhaps linked to ancestor worship, with the present generation determined to remain near each other and their ancestral lands. The peasant was also firmly convinced that if something was possible his forebears would already have done it.

McGLINCHEY began his ministry in the small town of Hallim on the west coast. His parish, with a population of 40,000, had only 25 Catholics when he arrived. In spite of his small flock one of his first acts was to build a stone church. Due to the activities of McGLINCHEY and other Columban Fathers who came later, there are now 4,500 Catholics and the parish has been divided into two. With the end of the war McGLINCHEY found himself the "dispenser" of food and clothing provided by Catholic Relief Services, which was a conduit for private and governmental aid from the United States. Relief was necessary in the beginning but McGLINCHEY soon became convinced that continued relief was not the answer; it was better by far for the people to become independent.

After the first year or so, Father McGLINCHEY says of himself, he berated the farmers for their lack of initiative, pointing out the idle land and urging them to feed and care for their chickens and pigs and upgrade their stock. Their reply was typically: "The idle land around here is no good for anything. The only pigs or chickens or cattle or grass that will grow around here are the ones that you see now. It is useless and a waste of time to try to change them. Otherwise our ancestors would have done so."

His next reaction was to try to show the people how they could improve themselves but, as he points out, in seminary he was trained in religion and philosophy, not in agriculture. His first years of attempting to improve the farmers' lot were years of learning, through failure, how not to proceed.

His first project was a 4-H Club (to promote modern farm methods and good citizenship) for 25 of the youngsters of the parish. With his own money he imported a few good piglets and chickens, held classes to teach the children how to care for them and gave them to the children to raise and breed. The idea was to upgrade the stock on their parents' farms. To his great disappointment—and that of the children—the parents refused to cooperate, selling or slaughtering the animals at their pleasure. He realized then that he had first to convert the adults to the need and possibilities of change; in Korea's Confucian society age would not accept advice from youth.

With an eye toward influencing young adults who were marrying and in need of farms of their own, McGLINCHEY walked across the central wastelands to determine how new land might be utilized. As an Irish countryman he thought of sheep, although the grass was poor and short-lived. Before importing sheep he decided to set up a cottage industry using the wool from sheep already on the island so there would be an established market for fleece from the sheep farms he envisioned. However neither he nor the women he tried to teach knew enough about wool preparation and knitting to produce marketable wear. No one, he said, but his fellow Columbans would buy the lumpy socks he first tried to sell. When he returned home on leave in 1960-61 he managed to get some Irish Columban Sisters assigned to Cheju who understood weaving, knitting and design, but in the meantime he went ahead with his plan of introducing an improved breed of sheep.

Again misfortune dogged him. A local religious body promised to distribute, and supervise feeding and rearing, the 500 sheep which he had bought with a loan from MISEREOR (the German Catholic Social Aid Fund, the official agency of the German Catholic Church for Third World Development). With the sheep on the high seas, McGLINCHEY learned that the religious had no such intentions; they planned to keep both the 35 local sheep he had already given them, and the 500 imported sheep, for the group's own farm.

Refusing to accept defeat, he recovered the local sheep and himself distributed them and the 500 imports to various farmers. But it was winter, the farmers had made no preparations for the sheep and he had no fodder to give them; most of the animals died of malnutrition.

Recognizing now the need for both expertise and capital, neither of which was available in Korea, McGLINCHEY decided to seek funds abroad while on home leave. He met with little response in the United States but persuaded MISEREOR, OXFAM England, OXFAM Ireland and OXFAM Canada to give help "piecemeal." He also received funds from his own family.

First priority was the weaving project which began in earnest with the arrival of the Columban Sisters in 1962. A wool processing and weaving factory was set up in quonset huts obtained from the U.S. Air Force Radar Station at Mosulpo on Cheju Island, and with used machinery purchased with funds obtained from MISEREOR. This central factory—where the wool is cleaned, spun, dyed and woven into bolts of tweed—today has over 40 permanent workers. Knitting is done in 300 island households by farmers' wives and daughters; sweaters bring about US$6 per garment and knitters average one per week. These handwoven sweaters, scarves, caps and gloves are sold through major hotels and department stores in Seoul—the capital of Korea—and are in great demand by foreigners. They sell for about one-third the price of Irish handknits which they resemble. The purpose of the project was met—to create a market for the wool of the sheep yet to come.

Converting the idle lands of central Cheju into fertile farms and pastures was another matter. Starting with the purchase of two-thirds of a hectare in 1959, McGLINCHEY eventually bought 1,000 hectares of undeveloped land. Farmers were glad to get rid of their idle land by selling to "that crazy red-haired foreigner." But because of what that crazy foreigner and his colleagues have done with it, the worth of the land by 1975 had increased 150 fold. The original land is the site of the training farm of the Isidore Development Association (IDA).

Named after the 13th century Spanish patron-saint of farmers, Isidore, the name is strangely fitting. Koreans pronounce it "Isidol," and isi means rock in Japanese and dol is rock in Korean. Since Cheju is known to all Koreans for three things—rocks, wind and women, which have all three always been in surplus—nothing better describes the land on which the IDA is located than "rocky rocks."

When the IDA was formally organized in 1963, with the Archbishop as president and three Koreans on the Board of Directors, Father McGLINCHEY was relieved of his pastoral duties to give his full time to its development. Today there are four elements of IDA: the Hallim Weaving Center, the Central Training Farm, the Hallim Clinic and the Idle Lands Development Project.

The first step in developing the IDA central farm, which later became the Central Training Farm, was to send a young man to the mainland for six months' training. Then he and other volunteers undertook to settle on the new lands, building roads and walls and clearing the rocky soil for farming and pasturage—without equipment. Lack of water proved a major problem which was solved by burying heavy plastic in the ground to create a reservoir of 4,000 ton capacity. The second problem was the grass itself. The native grass grows to about four centimeters in height during June and July; at the end of August it turns brown and the land is useless for grazing until the following May. McGLINCHEY attempted to upgrade the pastures by importing seed from other parts of the world, but he was unsuccessful in finding the right grass for the climate, soil and terrain until he also began importing foreign experts. Today, on the advice of a young New Zealand agriculturalist volunteer who was recruited by CORSO (the New Zealand Council of Organizations for Relief Services Overseas) a New Zealand grass grows luxuriantly on the downs of Cheju. Reaching a height of 40 cm, the grass, McGLINCHEY admits, is even greener and richer than the grass of Ireland. Two hectares will support five cows instead of the one scrawny creature of a few years back. Sheep are brought in to graze behind the cattle and the dung and urine of both help fertilize the land, although commercial fertilizer must also be added. The sheep help sow. In the spring they are fed seed which passes through their digestive systems and is spread through their droppings across the fields and tamped into the ground by their hooves.

Once the correct grass was found, 600 purebred sheep were imported from New Zealand with the help of CORSO, but again the project almost failed because of lack of knowledge; Chejuan farmers knew little about livestock raising. The venture was saved by two CORSO-supported volunteer veterinarians from Australia.

Profit to the farmer on Cheju from sheep, McGLINCHEY found, is less than from pigs or cattle, therefore pig raising was attempted again in 1962 when McGLINCHEY discovered that he could obtain corn for such a project under Title II of U.S. Public Law 480. The only expense to the recipient were transportation costs which the Korean government agreed to pay. Catholic Relief undertook to sponsor the project and assure its tax-free status. In all 41,000 tons of feed com worth US$3,000,000 were donated by the U.S. government prior to 1972. At that time aid to Korea was discontinued on the grounds that Korea was economically able to meet its own needs.

With the availability of free feed McGLINCHEY again imported piglets, giving farmers 20 each to fatten. IDA helped them build fattening houses and gave them the PL480 corn, on credit, at half the market price. The farmers were to be paid for the fatted pigs on the basis of the difference between their original cost plus the price of feed, and their weight value. Later McGLINCHEY established a price for the farmer midway between the market's cyclical highs and lows—a profit of approximately US$16 per animal.

Again the farmers failed to abide by the arrangement. They sold the corn—which was in short supply—to mainland buyers and turned the pigs loose to forage for themselves. When he discovered what was happening, McGLINCHEY was forced to take back the pigs and develop fattening houses on the IDA central farm.

This episode had most unpleasant consequences for McGLINCHEY. Angry at having their lucrative, although illegal, income stopped (a provision of the gift of feed by the U.S. was that it not be resold) and the piglets taken back, farmers and grain merchants began leveling charges of "smuggling, tax-dodging and self-enrichment" against McGLINCHEY, to Korean and American authorities, and in the press. He endured 14 months of public and private harassment until the charges finally ceased; both the authorities and the people realized they were baseless.

Today the central farm has both breeding and fattening houses. Pregnant sows are kept tied—an innovation in Korea—to prevent them from fighting, and they are yoked after giving birth to prevent them from rolling over on their young. Modern equipment allows one farmer simultaneously to feed them and clean their stalls—handling 279 sows in 20 minutes morning and night. Piglets are fed up to 95 pounds before being slaughtered for meat. IDA imported some 1,500 pigs and today sells that many fatted animals per month to Japanese buyers. It reinstituted the boarding system and has convinced farmers to feed piglets with IDA feed.

When PL480 corn was discontinued and the cost of IDA feed tripled, McGLINCHEY looked around for other fodder. He found that the local sweet potato alcohol factory was dumping its residue into the sea—with attendant problems of pollution. Devising a method for separating the solids from the liquid, he persuaded the company to give him the solid waste in return for removing it. As a result he obtained a ton of dry matter suitable for fodder from every two tons of residue he hauled to the IDA feed mill. The mill, where the residue is mixed with protein concentrate, was financed by the PL480 corn sale. Pigs "loved" the new food but they fattened on it more slowly— in eight to nine months instead of six. The cost of fattening them, however, was nominal.

Selling the meat was the next step. McGLINCHEY toured Japan and Hong Kong to check market possibilities, and he became the first in Korea to sell meat to Japan, signing an agreement with a Japanese importer to provide frozen boned pork on a monthly basis. His example was followed by others on the mainland and in 1975 frozen meat exports from Korea to Japan is a US$12 million business with IDA accounting for US$1 million. The market is still expanding and McGLINCHEY is on the radio weekly urging farmers to raise pigs. In the beginning IDA used a fish freezing plant that stood empty on the east coast—seven and a half miles away by difficult roads. A new freezing plant has recently been built near the IDA farm.

Since the main objective, McGLINCHEY has noted, was "to improve incomes by putting the farmers on their feet and teaching them the proper farming and livestock raising methods," not just to run a profitable IDA venture, the central farm was early organized as a training center where a young farmer could live, learn by doing and be paid on the basis of his results. In the beginning training was for six months; now it is for a minimum of 12 months and may be extended to three years. A farmer may bring his wife and one or two children and live in the simple housing which was built with a grant from CORSO. The farm can accommodate 70 to 80 families.

The housing units, as well as the pig barns, are another first for Korea. They are constructed in the form of the ancient Ctesiphon arch—which is "2/3 as high as it is wide, with the curved, thin cement roof joining the foundation while serving also as wall." The curve of the arch is determined by hanging a chain from two hooks on a wall. Frames shaped on this curve are set up and covered with cloth. Cement mixed one part to two parts sand is plastered on 1 to 11/2 inches thick. The sag in the cloth makes for a rib effect that also is stronger. Essential is a strong foundation with metal reinforcing in the cement that ties together all four sides. Should a higher building be desired, the arch can be constructed on top of pillars and placed in contiguous series for more space. This design was adapted over the centuries by Irish and English engineers; Father McGLINCHEY himself had built three Ctesiphon arch houses in Ireland before coming to Korea It proved its worth on Cheju in the 1972 typhoon when buildings so constructed remained intact; others suffered severe damage.

Only those who have been trained at IDA are eligible to buy the pure breed animals imported and bred at the IDA farm. They must also agree to use IDA feed which is specifically designed for optimum results. Religion has nothing to do with acceptance at IDA. Trainees need not even be from Cheju; today one-third are from the mainland. Those who have been trained at IDA can also get credit assistance to buy house, land, livestock and feed. "If a man comes to us and puts up 50 percent of the operating capital we'll put up the other 50 percent including the land and equipment on a loan basis and get this man started in the hog business," McGLINCHEY says. He has three years grace, then another ten years in which to repay the loan at three and one-half percent interest. In this manner IDA has helped develop 300 farms, in clusters, in four areas of previously undeveloped land which IDA had bought for redistribution with money generated by the hog project.

Farmers who were helped to start their own farms have a dual incentive for repaying the loans that made this possible. Twice the amount they repay is deposited in their credit union and they can borrow this sum, provided three-fourths of it is for productive investment. Again, Father McGLINCHEY has had problems policing this expenditure of funds since some farmers diverted larger portions of the money they borrowed from the cooperative to non-productive purposes.

Father McGLINCHEY’s latest livestock venture has been his cattle project—which doubled in size before it even got started. He sought to import 450 Hereford cattle from Australia to upgrade the stock on Cheju; MISEREOR agreed to pay 75 percent of their cost. Because of the economics of the situation, however, no exporter would ship him less than 1,000 head. Therefore, persuading others to take 300, and arranging to take the remaining 250 himself on the basis of credit guaranteed by the Columban Fathers, McGLINCHEY contracted to have 961 pregnant Hereford cows and 39 bulls shipped to Cheju. At the same time he signed an agreement with Japanese meat importers who guaranteed to take 500 grain fattened beef cattle per month once the project was underway.

The cattle were off-loaded from a German cattle transport in the open sea in December 1973. With barges and personnel from the U.S. Army Port Operations-Pusan, the difficult job was accomplished without a hitch. Three days of perfect weather and a glassy sea—an extraordinary condition, particularly in mid-winter—made the task easier.

A second shipment of cattle was received in the summer. The IDA farm now has 2,000 purebred cattle, preponderantly Herefords with a few Santa Gertrudis and Brahman bulls for breeding, and 1,000 calves have been distributed to farmers for fattening before shipping them to Japan as beef. The plan is to train 1,500 farmers to raise 4,500 head of cattle by 1977. The government of Korea is actively supporting this project with US$1,500,000 as part of its third Five Year Plan.

To prepare for the cattle, silos were built to store the rich grasses growing on IDA lands, and dipping tanks, to rid the animals of the ticks that infest the area, were constructed. These were both innovations and are now being adopted in other parts of Korea.

To prepare for the continued growth of the livestock industry IDA is signing agreements with villages to improve communal pasture lands by replanting them with New Zealand grass. In ten years they will be able to support five to ten times the number of cattle they do now. Since this is common pasturage, all village families will benefit equally. One hundred and sixteen villages have signed and many more are interested.

As McGLINCHEY hoped, IDA has served as a development model. When the local farmers finally became convinced that the uplands could be cultivated and that livestock raising was profitable, they themselves began to pressure the local government to supply the needed infrastructure. A large scale piped-water project was undertaken by the local government after McGLINCHEY proved it could be done; reservoirs have been built and roads have been improved and extended around the island.

In recent years the national government has turned its attention to agriculture, after neglecting it for some time in favor of industry, and is using many of the ideas pioneered on Cheju. It is actively supporting the 4-H movement and 70,000 clubs have been formed throughout the country with the government's blessing. However they are just an "empty shell," McGLINCHEY warns, unless actively supported by someone of local authority.

The New Zealand grass, first grown on the IDA central farm, is now being grown under government auspices elsewhere in Korea, and the government is importing sheep and cattle and giving livestock loans to farmers through government cooperatives. It is buying idle land and redistributing it to farmers, following the same pattern as IDA. It is also supporting the credit union movement—which on Cheju was started by McGLINCHEY among his parishioners in 1962—through improved credit union laws.

Since 1972, as the result of an unexpected visit by a high government official, Father McGLINCHEY has become something of a national celebrity. On June 5, 1972 President Park Chung Hee bestowed on him the Order of Industrial Service Merit, Stone Tower, "in recognition of his contribution towards helping promote the nation's livestock industry," and asked him to address the Economic Planning Board to discuss Isidore projects. The government also made a half hour documentary television film of his work entitled, "The Sheep and Pig Farmer," and ran it twice, nationwide, during the month of September.

The money which accompanied the award (US$1,850) McGLINCHEY gave to the IDA clinic which the Columban Sisters had started in 1970. The clinic now treats some 17,000 persons annually.

Most of the progress at IDA, McGLINCHEY acknowledges, has been since 1968 and as the result of the volunteer work of foreign experts. As he says, only amateur "do-gooders" are bold enough to try unlikely new projects but professionals are needed to bring them to fruition.

Volunteers have come to IDA from the Irish Columban Fathers and Sisters, from the Voluntary Missionary Movement in London, and through CORSO. Many have had farm experience or are graduates of agricultural colleges. The New Zealand and Australian volunteers, all graduates of agricultural colleges, have stayed for at least two years, one extending his stay to four. Volunteers pay their own expenses, "work very hard and they are marvelous."' IDA pays their transportation costs with a grant from OXFAM. McGLINCHEY feels that foreign experts will be needed until 1977.

Although today the IDA is independent of outside financial help, over the years the Catholic Relief Services of the United States, MISEREOR of Germany, CORSO of New Zealand, OXFAM of England and Gorta of Ireland, by their loans, grants, volunteers and procurement and expediting services, made possible the dream that McGLINCHEY began in 1953.

Gorta, which is the Gaelic word for hunger, since 1968 has given US$58,000 worth of farm equipment, prefabricated cattle sheds (it is cheaper to import these from Ireland than build them in Korea) and veterinary medicine. OXFAM supported projects totaling US$145,000: 10 miles of water pipe, electricity for the farm, farm equipment, pig houses, garage, machine shop, mobile clinic and travel and housing for the foreign technical staff. OXFAM and Gorta together made possible the purchase of Ford tractors which were built especially for use on slopes and were the first of their kind in Korea; today Ford has a plant in Korea for assembling them.

MISEREOR provided the first funds—other than US$5,000 given by McGLINCHEY's own family—to begin the purchase of land for the Idle Lands Development Project. Over the years it has given US$400,000 in grants and loans for the small spinning and weaving factory in Hallim, the IDA clinic, the importation of sheep and cattle, the travel expenses of foreign technical experts, and for training farm projects. Catholic Relief Services made possible the procurement of PL480 corn for the hog project whose profits went to develop the resettlement program, and it was the conduit through which material and equipment could be imported tax free. CORSO supplied a total of US$50,000 for constructing schoolrooms, an office, a dining hall and simple quarters for trainees who come to the farm to learn animal husbandry.

McGLINCHEY himself expects to leave the IDA as Koreans take over but anticipates spending the rest of his life on Cheju Island, as an Irish Christian priest trying to help modernize Korean farming and keep young people on the land. "Any investment in this country in the form of aid to farmers is a wise investment," he affirms, and urges government and professionals to take the burden off "amateur do-gooders" like himself. He points out that someone must take a risk in order to move forward and this should be the role of government; farmers are not economically able to do so. Professionals also must chance change; "do-gooders" haven't the knowledge to proceed successfully on their own, they can only be the motivating force.

Whatever the future holds, Father McGLINCHEY is sure to be practicing in some form what he has long been preaching in a predominantly non-Christian country: "Christians have to work for their neighbors." As a Columban Father, the world is his neighbor.

September 1975
Manila

REFERENCES:

Ayers, James. "How You Get 'Em Down to the Farm," Pacific Stars and Stripes. Tokyo. January 22, 1973.

"Cheju Island," Report to the Government of the Republic of Korea on Possibilities for Development of Range, Pasture and Podder Resources. November 1970, p. 29-32.

"Irish Priest Explains Success in Ranch," Korea Times. Seoul. June 6, 1972.

"Isidore Development Association," by the Association, Hallim, Cheju, Korea. September 19, 1972. (Mimeographed.)

"Isidore Farm Welcomes Australia Cattle," Korea Herald Seoul. January 26, 1973.

Kelly, Father Jerry. "Dreams Come True," Guideposts. Korean Edition, Vol. 10, no. 1.

Lincoln, Tom. "Father McGlinchey's 'Flock' on Cheju," Pacific Stars and Stripes. Tokyo. October 1, 1972.

McGlinchey, Patrick J. I.D.A. Project Analysis. Isidore Development Association, Hallim, Cheju, Korea May 25,1970. (Mimeographed.)

______. Presentation to Group Discussion. Transcript. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila September 3, 1975.

Murphy, Sunny. "Cheju Do--Korea's Island Province," AWC Journal. Seoul, Korea. January-February 1973. p. 24-45.

Tracy, Norbert J., SJ The Green Revolution of Cheju Island, Korea. N.d. Typewritten.

Yun, Ik-Han. "Missionary Worker Fights Farm Poverty," Korea Herald. Seoul. June 11, 1972.