Patrick Barrett grew up in Liscarroll, a small Irish village in Cork
County, Ireland, where his parents founded Ireland's Donkey Sanctuary. As a
teenager, Patrick joined the Irish Defence Force and served in Kosovo and Lebanon
from 1998 to 2003, then worked at the Donkey Sanctuary for almost a decade. It
was during this period that his life turned around and The Donkey Sanctuary
became a place of refuge where Patrick made strong reconnections to nature, the
land, his family, and the wisdom of the donkeys. He became a psychotherapist in
2016 and uses what he learned at the sanctuary in his work with men suffering
from PTSD and addiction. In 2015, Patrick married his childhood sweetheart,
Eileen, and together they have five children.
