Girls go back to nature for worthy cause

MACRA na Feirme’s women are no longer keeping it country.

Instead, in a merger between farming supplements and page three girls, members of the organisation have gone back to nature and left their overalls indoors.

It is all part of a charity drive to raise money for the Samaritans and involves 12 women from the Limerick branch revealing what is really concealed beneath those wellingtons and wax-jackets.

The result is a once-off calendar which will tastefully track the 2008 seasons on the walls of milking parlours and hay barns throughout the country.

The launch of the calendar will be an added treat for visitors to today’s National Ploughing Championships with the first preview of what the Limerick lasses have to offer.

However, Limerick Macra’s PRO and a model for the calendar, Lisa Cahill, assured ploughing patrons the images were carefully posed to avoid a descent into low-brow agriculture.

“It was all very tastefully done — there was a bit shown but not too much. Some of the girls were a bit nervous when we were out on the farm but it was done in the right way.

“We had a photographer who was very good and was able to coax and cajole us and on the day it was kind of a group thing so we were able to egg each other on and we were encouraging each other when we were posing,” she said.

The women are following the lead from their male counterparts in Offaly who featured in last year’s calendar and raised funds for the Irish Cancer Society.

This year the calendar is being sold for 10 each to help the Samaritans.

Ms Cahill said apart from raising money it was an opportunity to change what people thought of Macra na Feirme. “A lot of people have a negative impression about what it is about when it is actually a vibrant and thriving organisation,” she said.

Copies can be bought by e-mailing [e-mail]. It will also be available at the National Ploughing Championships and at all Macra events.