As the Flood Tribunal trundles on, it emerged that this week's star witness, builder Tom Bailey of Bovale, has an interest in sheep. While his brother Michael, equally familiar at the tribunal, indulges in racehorses, Tom is an enthusiast in the field of pedigree sheep. At a recent Reduction Sale (i.e. a sale of ewes in lamb) of pedigree Glenho Suffolks, at his Co Meath farm, some 110 lots were auctioned, from £200 to several thousand pounds.
Star of the day was a 20,000-guinea ewe, the proceeds of which Bailey donated to the Focus Point charity. Foreign buyers who had been driven in from Dublin Airport, fed and watered, bid the prize up, and initial reports said the buyer was none other than Bailey himself (despite his legal and PR costs at the tribunal, estimated at £5,000 - £7,000 a day). But, as the Farm- ers Journal reported this week, complete with happy photo of Tom and ewe, the sheep is on its way to Scotland.
