Jacket and trousers

We got to see a dying art today in a private demonstration. Pat Corrigan, who has been shearing for 65 years, since he was a teen, demonstrated how to shear a sheep in a special jacket and trousers cut. Back in the day, if the sheep weren't sheared well, they wouldn't sell at market. Sheep that were sheared in the jacket and trousers fashion would get very good prices. Four weeks after the shearing, this cut apparently looks amazing. Few shearers can do this today, and soon its secret will be lost.
It starts out with a sheep with full fleece...Pat's son Andy (it's a sheep shearing family), a brilliant shearer in his own right, tips the candidate...




Pat steps in and the process begins...




More off...




The ewe looks at me as if to say "how embarrassing"...




Voila!




To put the difficulty of this in perspective, all the ridges line up on both sides of the ewe (a live feisty animal) and Pat's other son, David (standing on the right) who is also an excellent shearer, won't even attempt this. David said his own version doesn't look like jacket and trousers, more like bad pajamas!
After the demonstration, the Corrigans showed us different spots where the movie "Braveheart" was filmed on the Curragh, (they live near and pasture sheep on the Curragh, and were the sheep wranglers keeping sheep away from the movie set during the shoot).
Sheep are such a part of life over here and on the Curragh, golfers must even contend with sheepy distractions!




Sheepdog trial tomorrow with 740 yard outrun! Should be fun!
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