Do me a favour

BARTERING:Whether it's a trade of goods or services, bartering is as old as time itself and is back in vogue, writes ALANNA GALLAGHER.Meet six members of the favour exchange

AS A NATION, THE IRISH understand the art of giving and receiving favours. During the boom it may have remained a factor of political and business life but it fell out of fashion with the ordinary people. However, now that credit is tight, barter is back. It echoes the old idea of the meitheal, when your neighbours helped harvest your crops in return for your labour when it was their turn to bring in the harvest.

Some communities, such as the Clonakilty Favour Exchange, have formalised the trading policy, streamlining the barter idea by converting money into increments of time. The group connects people willing to work for each other by operating a central directory of services and a system of credits. Each quarter hour worked gains you a credit which can then be used on any of the services available.

“We’re a community swap,” says Clonakilty Favour Exchange founder Bev Cotton. “What we’re doing communities have been doing for centuries.” Barter is more than just exchanging favours, says Cotton. “It’s a great community builder. If nothing else, people get to know each other better.”

Individual citizens prefer to operate their favour exchange on a more personal level. The barter is casual, tends to happen organically and is usually a one-off. Here, we meet a few people who find bartering works.

HONEY BEES FOR TURF

Donegal man Donal Duffy learned his bartering skills from his recently deceased mother, Mary, who made her own butter, cakes, grew vegetables and was a dressmaker, as well as being the local district nurse. “She passed on that appreciation to me,” he says.

He became a beekeeper by accident. A friend who had a hive developed an allergic reaction to the insects. He was offered the hive. That was five years ago. He now owns 10 hives.

Through a friend of a friend he was asked to remove a swarm from a local woman’s house. Wearing a bee suit, he captured the bees in a box and closed the lid.

He also removed a swarm for local businessman Sir Gerry Robinson. “To buy a starter box of bees costs about €150,” he says. “I’m glad to get the bees.” To show his appreciation, he gives a few jars of honey, preferably made by the same bees, to those who had the swarms. Once a year, Duffy also swaps sticks for turf. “A friend of mine cuts turf. I cut trees to get sticks for our open fire. Rather than exchange money, we barter one for the other. A trailer load of sticks is exchanged for a trailer load of turf.” With his neighbour, Aoife McLaughlin, he has exchanged honey for homegrown strawberries.

You can buy Donal’s Meadow Honey, which is sold at his door, at 3, The Meadow, Kiltoy, Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

DENTAL TREATMENTS FOR LANDSCAPE GARDENING

Dentist Robert Gallagher met landscape gardener Derek Hannon by accident but their meeting was fortuitous – and Gallagher did notice his smile.

At the time, the dentist had just bought a house in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim. “It was set in a big field and had no garden nor any sort of landscaping. I offered to do cosmetic crowns and bridges for Derek if he would landscape around the house in return.”

The garden part of the plot was about one-third of an acre. Value-wise, Gallagher estimates he gave him about €3,500 worth of work. “He was happy. I was happy, ” says Gallagher. The Dublin-based gardener came and stayed and treated it like a working holiday. “It worked out perfectly.”

“I don’t think you plan to barter,” says Gallagher.

“In my case, I needed someone to lay out the garden. If someone does you a favour, you try to do a favour back. My being a dentist means that most my favours are in the form of dental treatments.”

LIFTS FOR CHILDCARE

Childcare worker Sara Subiak is one of the newest and younger members of Ireland’s best-known barter charter, the Clonakilty Favour Exchange. The difference between the favour exchange and traditional barter is that time is used as a unit of currency. You don’t return the favour directly. The time you put in is the time you take out.

Subiak has offered her services as a childminder to the exchange. She has taken out favours, mainly lifts to Cork city on the days she is working. The journey takes 60 minutes.

“I no longer have to take the bus, a saving of €18 return,” she says. “Nor do I have to negotiate staying over in Cork with friends.”

Since joining in June, Subiak is now trying to convince her mother and her boyfriend, a software developer, to sign up. In her spare time, she helps out at the local favour exchange library where a donation of two books, DVDs or CDs entitles you to make use of their collection.

“It’s extremely social and a great way to meet new people,” she explains.

[ clonfavour.com ]

PERSONAL SHOPPING FOR A FACIAL

Stylist and personal shopper Cathy O’Connor bartered personal shopping for a facial. Aoife O’Dalaigh, a beautician friend of hers, wanted O’Connor to take her shopping, so O’Connor suggested she give her a facial in return.

“I love the idea of bartering,” she says. “For me a facial is not an essential, it’s a treat. Orla would never ordinarily pay for shopping services. We went to an outlet mall in the States and she still talks about the great things she bought.” When bartering, it is important to know the value of what you’re offering, cautions O’Connor.

“To successfully exchange favours you have to explain what your services are worth and appreciate what the other person’s services or goods are worth. The whole idea is that money doesn’t change hands but the value of the money has to be mentioned.”

“Barter is great for the non-essentials,” says O’Connor. “But I wouldn’t like to be bartering for my groceries or to pay my ESB bill.”

MAKE-UP TUTORIALS FOR PILATES

Danielle Murphy is a make-up artist. “It is a high-maintenance job,” she admits. “How I look is really important. It can be expensive to maintain, as I don’t have a regular wage.”

While making-up a corporate client, she discovered that she was a pilates instructor who wanted to learn how to do her own make-up. Murphy, who suffers from a bad back, asked how she might feel about exchanging make-up tutorials for pilates lessons. Pilates helps relieve her back pain. She got five classes in return for a make-up lesson.

Murphy also engages in barter to get her hair done and offered make-up lessons in return for getting her business cards designed and printed. “I negotiate the offer in advance,” she explains. “That way everyone is clear on what is being proposed.

“All my barters have happened organically,” Murphy continues. “It is something that is struck up in conversation. It isn’t something that I would ever be able to hard sell. It only happens with people I like and trust.”

CHOPPING TREES FOR FIREWOOD

Joe Boyce is one of a trio of Donegal tree men who will chop trees locally in return for taking half the firewood. His barter experience started when his father, a landscape gardener, was asked by a client to remove an old and unstable tree. He enlisted his son Joe, to help, and Drew Gibbons, a friend who had worked in forestry and owned the correct climbing gear to get up the tree.

“That tree gave us wood for the winter,” says Boyce. All three men have wood-burning stoves installed at home to cut down on gas and oil bills.The free wood really helps keep costs down. The trio has just cut down four trees for another woman in Donegal. The timber from these will be seasoned for a year before being burnt as fuel during winter 2014.

“The whole thing is quite organic,” Boyce says. “It works both ways. The trees are taken away for free. You get half the timber to keep. These one-off favours work out for everyone.”