Bertie Ahern looked suitably sheepish: "I've never shorn one, but I've dipped one" he confided yesterday to The Irish Times.
The Taoiseach was opening the World Sheep Shearing Championship held for the first time in Ireland this weekend.
Sheep shearers from around the globe had gathered in Gorey, Co Wexford, for the event. Four hundred enthusiastic competitors will work their way through 5,000 Irish ewes during the three-day competition.
There was a wealth of material for sheep joke enthusiasts, but this was no place for woolly thinkers, said one competitor, Tyrone man Alistair Crawford (20).
"Yeah, they can be a bit nervous and some of them will kick you," he said, explaining just one of the sport's occupational hazards.
This year, the first women's international competition was taking place. Eileen O'Connell, the current Irish champion, said it was all about style. You need good control to be a sheep shearer, she confided. Other Irish champions competing included the Irish close champions, Tom Kennedy from Galway and George Graham from Wexford. Graham holds the Irish record of shearing 483 sheep in nine hours.
But the man all serious sheep shearing fanciers had come to see was world champion, David Fagan (36). He has won 411 open championships and four world titles over the last 15 years.
Signing autographs for a group of young fans, he said it wasn't a love of sheep that attracted him to the profession.
"I don't particularly like 'em," he said. "I love the travel and competing at the top level of my profession is very exciting." For this sheep shearing novice, the competition proved just that. The shearers all wear matching singlets and sheepskin Mocassin shoes. They stand on a custom-built stage and grab the sheep between their legs and remove every trace of the animal's pure Irish wool.
The sheep have been temporarily donated by farmers located within a 100-mile radius of the town. Top shearers can finish a sheep off in just over 60 seconds.
The giant white marquee where the event is taking place was packed yesterday. A panel of commentators add to the atmosphere. "That's a cracking sheep" they bellowed down the microphone or "That man knows his way around a sheep, and that's for sure". The shearers came from 22 countries, including South Africa, New Zealand, USA and Russia. It's not just shearing. Sheep dog trials and a wool handling contest are also going on this weekend. Gorey is in festival mood and tomorrow the Queen of the Wool pageant takes place.
Organisers say they expect between 30,000 and 40,000 spectators to visit the world championships. "It's different to the football and the hurling anyway," said one observer yesterday.
Ned Brown, a farmer, formerly of Fairview in Dublin and now living in Gorey, proved a bit of a wolf in sheep's clothing, as Bertie Ahern formally opened the event. "Is my sheep subsidy coming this week?" he asked as he gave the bemused Taoiseach a massive bear hug.