Meet the Louth TikTok star who has become a big hit with Ireland's farmers
Louth social media star Sammy Heaney built a connection with the farming community through Sammy TV despite having no farming background, and she is at the National Ploughing Championships in Offaly this week
Samantha Heaney built Sammy TV around real storytelling and showcasing real people.
She now has 115,000 followers on TikTok and 146,000 followers on Instagram.
Sammy said: “I just love telling peoples’ stories and because I don't come from a farming background, it just really worked.
“I go to farms and ask all the simple questions that other people want to ask but they're too afraid to ask or maybe too embarrassed to ask.
“I'll ask all the silly questions and get a good tune and good craic out of the farmer, whoever's story it is that I'm telling, and just make it into SammyTV.
“I didn’t grow up on a farm or come from a farming background so it’s hard to believe that in such a short space of time I’ve totally immersed myself into the farming community.”
Sammy is also a safety ambassador for Gas Networks Ireland’s Dial Before You Dig safety campaign alongside comedian Marie-Claire Fitzpatrick.
Sammy is at the Ploughing Championships this week in Tullamore as part of the campaign, as she gets involved with its popular Tattoo Parlour activation.
She said: “This is the first time Sammy TV is going to be there, I'm going to be there with my own stand, so I'm equally excited and nervous, anxious as it's a big investment for a small, young company.
“I really have to be on the ball over the next three or four days and make sure I get my sleep every night because it's going to be very busy, hopefully it's going to be very busy.”
Gas Networks Ireland will be located at Stand 153, Row 8, Block 4 at The National Ploughing Championships.
Farmers, contractors and families can visit across all three days of The Ploughing to learn more about gas pipeline safety, renewable energy and the future of Ireland’s gas network.
Sammy sees her channel growing with refurbishing projects, due to the success of a recent project on the SammyTV YouTube channel.
“We refurbed a Ferguson 20, I bought him out of a shed where he'd been sitting for 30 years and totally refurbed him with the help of a lot of different companies and people, and then we launched him in May.
“There were around 2,000 people at the launch of that, so that just shows that there's a massive interest in this type of content, taking old tractors or trucks or diggers and doing them up, so I definitely see that somewhere in the Sammy TV future, more projects like that.
“I very much go on what people want, I'm very much involved with my audience, I ask them what they want to see.”