{"id":519584,"date":"2026-06-05T05:47:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/519584\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T05:47:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:47:20","slug":"wicklow-man-first-non-new-zealander-to-claim-coveted-sheep-shearing-title-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/519584\/","title":{"rendered":"Wicklow man first non-New Zealander to claim coveted sheep-shearing title \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A Co Wicklow man has been crowned New Zealand\u2019s top junior sheep shearer, the first non-national <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\">to take the title<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Se\u00e1n Dunne (20) from Laragh described his victory as \u201ca good feeling\u201d and is \u201chappy enough with the achievement\u201d he aimed for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The sheep shearing season lasts from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\">October to April <\/a>in New Zealand. In that time, Dunne took part in 30 to 40 competitions and gathered points based on the quality of the finish, a measure of how much wool is left on the sheep, whether there are skin cuts, and timing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Speaking on RT\u00c9\u2019s News At One, he explained that the points are then added together and the top-ranking sheep shearer is chosen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Considering he is the first non-New Zealander to win the title, Dunne said his boss and those who showed him \u201ceverything\u201d were happy with his win. However, he said he is not sure how other competitors took it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said it could take him a minute-and-a-half to three minutes to shear a sheep, depending on the breed \u2013 sheep in New Zealand have wool on their heads and legs, unlike in Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Since starting to shear at the age of 17, Dunne estimated he has sheared about 70,000 sheep. He considers it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\">physically demanding <\/a>work but rewarding and something that becomes enjoyable once \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\">your body gets fit <\/a>and immune to it\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Dunne is following in the footsteps of his father, Tom, who has competed in shearing competitions worldwide, and his grandfather, Paddy, who won four All-Ireland titles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s nice to carry on the family tradition &#8230; it\u2019s a nice thing to do,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Dunne continued his winning ways on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/farming-food\/\">Irish soil<\/a>, taking the national intermediate title at Mountbellew in Galway at the weekend after returning from New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He has sheared for three seasons in Ireland, two in New Zealand and one in Norway and plans to show around Ireland and the UK for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s what I love to do &#8230; I don\u2019t think I could ever see myself doing anything else,\u201d said Dunne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Co Wicklow man has been crowned New Zealand\u2019s top junior sheep shearer, the first non-national to take&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5790,5,55896,7,8],"class_list":["post-519584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-teagasc","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116695927692701330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}