What I Do: ‘When I saw the job for a goat herder in Howth, I couldn’t make sense of it’

I am originally from the Netherlands and my family moved over to a farm in the Burren when I was 10. Ginny was my first goat — my dad and my brother caught her from the feral herds there. I’ve kept goats since then, and when I finished secondary school, I set up my own business as a goat farmer. I did that for seven years, making milk and cheese and yoghurt, and walking around the Burren with my herd. I’m self-taught, I suppose.

I decided to go to college before I fully settled, so I rehomed my goats and qualified as a veterinary nurse. When I saw the job for a goat herder in Howth, I couldn’t make sense of it in terms of goats in Dublin. I wasn’t really aware of the wildfire issue in Howth. The Old Irish Goat Society is providing a grazing service to Fingal County Council, and I am now employed as the herder.

The goats’ main job here in Howth is fire prevention and habitat management. With fire, destruction of the habitat is a big thing. There is an awful lot of smoke and air pollution, the soil is burnt, destroying plants and animals. There is a risk to people and homes too.

The old Irish goat came to Ireland with the Neolithic people 5,000 years ago. They are like the poor man’s cow, and they would have seen us through a lot of hard times. Their palate is for woody, herbaceous plants, such as gorse, bracken, briars and nettles — weedy stuff.

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The gorse has a natural oil in it that makes it very flammable. It’s a very prickly plant and not many animals eat it. But the goats are inquisitive, and they are up for the challenge. They will settle themselves at a gorse bush and tackle it from all sides.

The firebreaks were created mechanically by the council, so that if a fire breaks out, it can’t travel across the hill. We are managing them biologically. So, instead of coming in with herbicides or machinery, it’s the goats that are grazing the firebreaks and pooping out the result, which is not flammable.

The goats are a low-maintenance animal. They are dainty and delicate, a skinny kind of animal, and also very hardworking and resilient. They are not looking for improved grass or anything like that. It’s a happy work crew.

The easiest way to manage them is to connect with the matriarch. I let her follow my lead and with that, the herd follows her lead. We’ve built a trust so that they know when I come it’s, “time to go, time to go, focus, let’s move and she’ll bring us to a nice spot”. She has my full trust and I have hers.

Colleen especially, she is one of the matriarchs, she is eight and she would have been caught from a herd living in the wild when she was a yearling, so she still has the wildness in her. But yet when you have a working relationship with her, she is on the ball, she is very intelligent, very respectful, she gets the job done.

We are a team. I talk to them in my goat language. I only have to make one call and you have them all standing, ready to go wherever we decide to go that day. They are very loyal, to be fair. It’s very nice to see that.

If we are out grazing, if we meet the public, it’s nice to have a chat and answer any questions. They are always delighted to see the goats, so it’s always quite uplifting in that way. And then I have a lovely volunteer group, the Goat Squad, that helps at weekends.

At the back of the farm, you can see the Poolbeg towers. Out over Dublin Bay, you see the boats coming in. When I walk across in the morning, I am walking fast, trying to get a bunch of things done and I see that and think, it’s beautiful. It surprises you with its beauty. — In conversation with Joanne Hunt

If you have an interesting job or hobby and would like to tell us about it, email magazine@irishtimes.com with What I Do in the subject line