ABOVE: Philip Cushen, Paddy Morgan and Miriam Cushen sorting the new fleeces. The shirt you’re wearing, or your favourite pair of jeans - do you know where they came from? Not just the shop, but the individual strands used to make the material that was conjured into a piece of clothing? Remarkably, there is a family business in Kilkenny where not only can you buy textiles that are woven on the premises, but now you can visit some of the sheep the wool came from, just a few miles down the road! The stars of this new development are a herd of Galway Sheep. A heritage Irish breed, they are a protected breed and Ireland’s only indigenous breed, but remain in small numbers in this country. They are a specialised wool breed, not favoured by the changing farming business that has focussed on food supply for many years. The Galway Sheeps’ thick, high quality wool is perfect for processing into yarns and textiles. At Cushendale Woolen Mill it has long been the wool of choice. In the past Miriam Cushen and her husband Trevor Ging have travelled all over Ireland to visit Galway Sheep herds, choosing the wool by hand and forming friendships with their farmer-suppliers. However, until now there hasn’t been a local herd of the special sheep. That changed this year, when friend and local farmer Paddy Morgan fulfilled his own dream of owning a herd of Galway Sheep. Introduced to one of their suppliers by Cushendale, Paddy - like all Galway sheep farmers - was impressed and enamoured by the docile friendly sheep and last year brought some of the breed to his farm on the outskirts of Graignamanagh where they sheep settled in and are enjoying their new home at Dalton Farm, in the shade of Brandon Hill.
First sheep shearing in town in Kilkenny for a generation!
