A wooly great time! Longford champion sheep shearer will be putting his skills on show at Lisryan fundraiser
Large crowds expected to flock to Lisryan for sheep shearing spectacular
This Saturday Caillum Kelly will be showing off his sheep shearing skills as he hosts a charity event in aid of a very worthy cause.
“He's organising the speed shear competition in Lisryan, Longford, in aid of The Make A Wish Foundation. All proceeds go towards the charity,” Caillum's partner Rebecca Lee told the Leader.
Rebecca has been tasked with getting the message out about the event: “Caillum and some of his friends have made the arrangements for the event.
“They've always wanted to do it in Longford, they've attended loads in other places so they just wanted to host their own one.”
The choice of charity was an easy one. Make-A-Wish Ireland grants the wishes of children with critical medical conditions, to bring hope, strength and happiness.
Since 1992, Make-A-Wish has granted over 3,200 wishes. Each wish granted is magic for the child, providing respite from their normal routines of hospitals, doctors and treatment.
Make-A-Wish does not receive any government funding and relies on the support of the Irish public to grant wishes.
“Then they picked that charity because it means so much for the children, children who face incredible challenges in their life.
The speed shearing is tough, but nothing compared to what the little children go through,” Rebecca said.
The speed shearing of sheep is a particularly demanding skill that requires physical endurance, and intense training. Shearers must have the strength and stamina to maintain a working rhythm over long hours.
Caillum is busy at this time of the year as a sheep shearer, switching over to his main job as a fencing contractor when the season ends.
Rebecca says Caillum has been busy since last April: “It's something he loves doing. He grew up farming and he loves competitive sheep shearing. He won first prize at the Mullingar Show earlier this year. ”
The Crossroads Inn, Lisryan may seem like an unusual place to host such an event, but Rebecca says a lot of work has gone into the preparations: “It's in the smoking area of the pub. They will have over a hundred sheep. They'll be coming in trailer loads.”
The sheep won't be the only ones making their way to Lisryan: “There's a few coming up from Kerry anyway. Say that again? There's a few, like, people that he knows that are coming from Kerry and there's some coming from Sligo, so we will be getting competitors from all over Ireland.
“We hope to get a good few spectators as well to see what is going on.”
The speed shear competition in The Crossroads Inn, Lisryan in aid of The Make A Wish Foundation takes place this Saturday starting at 4pm.