Female successors in Irish family farming: four pathways to farm transfer

This article focuses on potential female successors and family landholding in the Irish farming community. Four case studies are drawn on to explore the dynamics surrounding female succession. Four distinct possibilities emerged for how the landholding could be transferred and used: lease of the land by the successor, who acts as a landholder; the development of a business that draws on the farm's resources; personal farming of the land; and sale of the land. It is suggested that the changing nature of succession will lead to a reimagining of what it means to succeed and the possibilities arising from this.