Paula Hynes: The Italian job — Meet the YMA team representing Ireland
Damien Storan, team leader for the IHFA YMA team competing at the Italian Open Junior Show this week. Picture: Georgia Grennan
Fresh from competing at the FBD National Dairy Show, a big week lies ahead for Team Ireland and hopefully they will receive lots of support on the YMA IHFA social media pages as they head to Montichiari for the Italian Open Junior Show.
The show also hosts the 73rd National Holstein Show, along with the 14th National Jersey Show and the National Brown Swiss Show, so the level of competition there will be top-class.
Thirteen countries are sending teams to the Open Junior Show, where both junior and senior competitors will compete in clipping, stock judging and showmanship, with competitors also getting the honour of showing their allotted heifers in their junior Holstein breed class.
The Irish team has always been highly competitive at the show and this year the IHFA YMA are fielding a team that really knows how to deliver results.
But every team needs a team leader and this year they are being led by Damien Storan, who knows what it takes to be competitive. Damien grew up on a dairy farm, Liskinett Holsteins, hailing from Limerick. He is a classifier with the IHFA and has previously travelled across Europe and North America on the show circuit.
Read More
He competes across the show circuit in Ireland and can regularly be seen on a clipping crate or in the show ring. He was also team leader for the YMA team which travelled to Battice in Belgium in 2025.
The senior members of Team Ireland are Manus Murphy and Pauric Coleman, who both hail from the Carlow Kilkenny YMA club.
Manus farms at home with Evergreen Holsteins and also clips across Ireland and Europe. He was part of the team which travelled to Italy in 2025 as well, was YMA National Showmanship champion handler in 2025, and has also won the HYB rally in the UK. He can regularly be seen clipping and showing his family’s animals at shows across Ireland.
Pauric Coleman is currently researching beef cattle; however, he has a huge passion for dairy showing. He won the mature handler class at YMA National Finals in 2026 and went on to win honorable mention in the showmanship championship.
He has judged dairy classes across Ireland, and previously worked on dairy show teams in North America and is well known to us as he works with our show string at all the major shows.
The two junior team members come from opposite ends of the country.
Alex Windrum hails from Castleblayney and has been part of the Breffni Oriel YMA club since 2015. Currently in his final year of secondary school, he was part of the YMA team which competed in YBS in Battice, Belgium, this year, was champion handler at the Breffni Oriel club qualifier and placed second at National Finals.
Flying the Cork flag is our very own Georgie Hynes, the youngest member of the team at 13 years old.
Georgie is the current reigning National Showmanship Champion and has won all three national junior showmanship titles this year. She has competed in showmanship across the UK, winning at UK Dairy Expo, the Great Yorkshire, New Forest and placed second at the All Britains.
She was second in the team clipping alongside Kevin Smyth at national finals this year and has been lucky to have some world-class fitters mentor her.
The team are due to meet in Dublin on Tuesday and catch an early Wednesday morning flight to Milan, before travelling on to Montichiari in Brescia.
They will meet their heifers on Wednesday evening before clipping competitions begin on Thursday, followed by stock judging and reason giving. From there, they get a taste of the show ring, competing in the breed classes, and Saturday is showmanship day.
Luckily for me, I get to travel to Italy and watch the team compete, as Georgie is so young and the only girl on the team, so I travel as a chaperone.
No doubt it will be an amazing experience and a very proud moment to see first-hand as Georgie competes, having watched online when Becky won the senior clipping there in 2025.
At home on the farm, all the show team have recovered well from Millstreet. The cows look fantastic. Kasey is slowly being wound down on feed as we get ready to dry her off.
Cash has really improved from the show and is in cruise control for the RUAS Winter Fair.
The big decision for us at the moment is who becomes part of the team for Belfast. We have one Jersey heifer due to calve shortly, and she looks really promising. We may also have a milking yearling and, if JayZ progresses enough, she might travel.
It is without doubt one of the best shows of the season, with a magical festive atmosphere, and was missed greatly last year as it was cancelled due to bluetongue.
For Cash, she will be competing close to home as she was born and bred in Co Down and her breeders are excited to see her.
The weather has remained mild and mostly dry, thankfully, which means the cows have been grazing full-time. Every day at grass counts this year and helps shorten the winter a little bit.
Once I return from Italy with Georgie, the next big job will be housing and drying.
She has now won the YMA league final for two consecutive years at Millstreet and flies the flag for Ireland this week.
Perhaps that alone is a powerful message for young kids starting out in YMA showmanship: work hard, dream big, and you will get there, kids.
