‘Shear Madness’ fundraiser to remember Christy Gallagher

Cory Kilbane

A 24-hour sheep shearing show titled ‘Shear Madness’ in aid of Mayo Mountain Rescue will take place in Drumindoo Stud at 4pm on this Saturday, June 17.
The event is a memorial show in memory of the late Christy Gallagher, who tragically passed away last summer after an fatal fall on Mweelrea Mountain.
“Christy was well-known as a big sheep farmer and done a lot of shearing himself, he had a lot of sheep,” said Colm Clarke, the organiser of this weekend’s event.
The idea of the memorial show came about when Christy’s nephew Thomas Gallagher and three men from the local community came together.  They wanted to create a fundraiser to show their thanks to the Mayo Mountain Rescue services for the work they had done in trying to rescue Christy Gallagher.
“Without the Mayo Mountain Rescue services the recovery effort would have been near impossible,” said Colm Clarke.
“We wanted the fundraiser to have something to do with sheep and we came up with ‘Shear Madness’ as Christy used to do a good bit of shearing himself,” he added.
Four local men will take turns over the 24-hours at shearing sheep. Peter Heraty, Padraig Corrigan, Michael Scanlon and Thomas Gallagher will be the men who keep the crowd entertained over the course of the day
Sponsorship cards have been made available in enterprises throughout the county and donations of €5 can be made for each line.
“We would appeal to people to make a small donation of €5 if possible at all as it’s helping a great cause in the Mayo Mountain Rescue” added Clarke.
It promises to be a fun filled 24 hours as there will be sheep shearing exhibitions ongoing and there will also be a rescue demonstration on show from Mayo Mountain Rescue.
“We want to make the Sunday a family fun day, the shearing world record holder Ivan Scott from Donegal will be making an appearance and will be giving a sheep shearing demonstration. Along with this, the Mountain Rescue are coming along to give a rescue demonstration and we are hoping they will have the helicopter with them,” he said.
Bouncy castles, face painting, fun and games will also be available for children on the day and no doubt there will be plenty of enjoyment had.
A number of prizes will be on the offering on the day also and the draw will be picked in a different but unique manner.
“Every name on every sponsorship card from all enterprises will be put into the draw for the prizes on offer,” he said.
The big draw will take place before the finale of the show and there are a number of prizes on offer. Some of these include, a tonne of feed, a tonne of fertiliser, a €250 voucher for the Castlecourt Hotel, Westport, a one night B&B at the Delphi Resort, Connemara and 2 freezer lambs etc.
Clarke further expressed his thanks to the owners of the premises in Drumindoo, “They gave us the premises and everything we wanted without any bother at all, they really couldn’t do enough for us,” he concluded.