If there was ever any doubt about the importance of the sheep industry in Ireland it was dispelled at the weekend when Gorey, Co Wexford, played host to the World Sheep Shearing competition.
An estimated 30,000 people travelled to the outskirts of the town to witness competitors from 22 countries take part over the three days.
While overnight thunderstorms kept the numbers down on Saturday, there was a huge turn-out at the rugby grounds yesterday for the final day of the competition. Over the three-day event, more than 7,000 sheep were shorn in the various competitions.
The wool, and there was a great deal of it, was bought by the local Wexford co-operative.
While wool is a small component of the £200 million industry, accounting for £13 million of the output, it is an important part of the industry.
There are 250 wool-buyers in the country and 40 of those export wool, mainly to the British wool markets which are vulnerable to world trends.
This year, for instance, there has been a fall in the price per kilo being paid to farmers.
This has fallen from nearly 80p per kilo last year to between 6570p per kilo now.
This has been caused by the failure of the Pacific Rim economies which had been taking huge amounts of wool from New Zealand and Australia.
According to the Irish Farmers Association President, Mr Tom Parlon, most farmers would prefer if their sheep had no wool at all.
"By the time you round them up, pay a man to shear them and deliver the wool, you are lucky if you can break even," he said.
Some Irish farmers were looking at the options of wool-shedding sheep breeds and if their meat proves to be acceptable to customers, they might opt for them.
Sheep-meat is one of Ireland's best performers.
Exports worth over £280 million are achieved and with France the major outlet. It takes 70 per cent of the lamb produced by 45,000 sheep-farmers who own 4.8 million ewes.
The average flock size is 110 ewes.