Lighten Up: Forget about Oasis. Sheep shearing is the new rock 'n' roll
Some shearers tour the world like something out of 'Rolling Stone' magazine.
If you think shearing sheep is all about broken backs, aching muscles, poverty and general slavery, well think again.
You are living in the past! Sheep shearing today, is all about fast living, big money and a jet-setting lifestyle. It's more like the work of the Gallagher brothers than The Brothers Grimm.
Sheep shearing has become global, and it's all very exciting. It's just like rock and roll, really, only without the music. Recently, the BBC reported on the phenomenon of sheep shearers who go on world tours; it was like something out of magazine.
The broadcaster spoke to one man from County Donegal (the birthplace of Rory Gallagher), who has toured the world, not with a Fender guitar, only with electric sheep shears.
This fellow, a man with a pharmaceutical degree behind him, gave it all up to pursue his dream of becoming a globetrotting sheep shearer.
And it's a life he doesn't regret one bit, as he heads on a jet plane from Ireland to Scotland and then to the mountains of Europe, and then to the pastures of New Zealand, before going on to the Australian outback in an attempt to quell the huge demand that is there for his sheep shearing talent.
Like a rolling stone he gathers no moss, only wool.
"You could shear a sheep every day of the year if you wanted to, and chase the seasons," he said. "I'm only 26 and I've been shearing in Liechtenstein, I never even knew that was a country until I saw Ireland playing them."
And it's not only the thrill of travel that has the Donegal man on a high, he has also managed to pick up a lovely girlfriend along the way. "He sounds like Mick Jagger!" I hear you cry. You mightn't be far wrong.
"We get paid by the sheep, the more sheep you can do the more you get paid," the globe trotter explained. "In Ireland, if you're getting €2 per sheep, it doesn't sound like a lot - but if you can do 200-300 sheep a day you can make great money each day."
For fecks sake. Sure, who'd be working when you could be shearing sheep. It's "Money for nothin' and your chicks for free". Anyhow, like Jimi Hendrix, many pick up the instrument of choice at an early age.
Yerra there's no fear of him, sure hips can be replaced and hernias are overrated. Sheep shearing is the way to go.
So, when did this explosion of interest in global sheep shearing begin? Well, if you ask me, I believe it all started when the shears became electric. That was when the young people started to notice it.
Like the introduction of the electric guitar, it was then that the hips started to wiggle. In the old days, we all had hand held shears, or 'unplugged shears' If you like and nobody gave a damn.
Sheep were sheared and fellows spent their time talking and drinking tea. The world moved at a far slower pace back then. But then with the arrival of the electric shears, suddenly the kids got interested.
Like with the arrival of Rock and Roll back in the 60s, people started to get a buzz off of it.
And now, just like Oasis, the sheep shearer is conquering the world.
So, if your sheep shearers come into the yard this year wearing bucket hats and calling each other "our kid" don't be too surprised. It's just the way the world of sheep shearing is going.
And don't be too envious of them either, for they had it hard enough for long enough. If brilliant that Irish sheep shearers can become headline acts around the world and more luck to them. You've gotta roll with it.
