A Co. Wicklow couple, who run a small business based at Ballinclea Farm, are working with farmers to preserve the breeding lines of sheep farmed for Irish wool production.
Ériu, founded by Dubliner Zoë Daly and sheep farmer Lionel Mackey, is working with over 80 farmers across the country to source wool which is then spun at Donegal Yarns and hand knitted in Dublin – a true “farm to yarn” network.
Currently farming just under 100 Bluefaced Leicester and Romney sheep, Ballinclea Farm plans to grow its flock size this year, buying rams and ewes from breeders to preserve these breeding lines, Daly said.
The couple are excited about the potential of Irish wool from a breeding perspective, working with the Bluefaced Leicester Sheep Breeders’ Association and a group called the Emerald Romneys.
Speaking to Agriland, Daly said only certain farmers are “committed” to wool quality because they are “fed up with the pathetic price that wool has gone down to” and that there is “no incentive” to breed for wool quality.
Grandmother’s wool blanket
Daly told Agriland that she first fell in love with wool when she had her first baby nine years ago and her grandmother gifted her a hand-knitted baby blanket made of wool.
At that time, Daly didn’t know much about the “amazing benefits” of wool as a fibre that is temperature regulating, non-allergenic, fire resistant, wholly compostable, and carbon friendly.
Turning her new “obsession” into a business idea, Daly, who previously worked in documentary making, wanted to document the story of souring wool directly from the farmer and producing a blanket.
Determined to find the “most beautiful” Irish wool, Daly was amazed that she could not buy wool anywhere, despite the number of sheep in Ireland, which didn’t make sense to her.
During her research, Daly kept bumping into the same story claiming that Irish wool is “worthless” and of “very low quality”, and that it’s “only fit to be exported as carpet material”. A narrative which she found not to be true.
After meeting farmers and hand spinners who told her that there is beautiful wool in Ireland, she collected fleeces from farmers in the back of her car and sent them to the UK to process them as there were no mills available in Ireland.
“I needed to find out for myself if this narrative was true, that Irish wool was terrible. When I got it back in my hands and knit it up, I knew that this narrative wasn’t true, that Irish wool is of high value.
“Once I knew that, I thought I have to do something about this,” she said. The wool enthusiast then curated the blend she wanted the use, choosing Bluefaced Leicester and Romney sheep.
Along her journey meeting with farmers, Daly met Lionel Mackey, a sheep farmer and businessman from Wicklow – an encounter bound to lead to the establishment of Ériu.
Wicklow
Together with Mackey, her now soon-to-be husband, Daly founded Ériu which is based on a “farm to yarn” network, working directly with Bluefaced Leicester and Romney sheep farmers nationwide.
Shortly after meeting Mackey, Daly learned that there was already a woolen mill on his farm which was about to be sold outside of Ireland, while at the same time there was a warehouse sitting empty on the farm.
Recognising its potential, the couple bought the mill and is currently working to receive funding to set it up. However, Daly believes in working with other mills as “collaboration is the key to get the wool industry back up on its feet”.
Irish wool has its “own character” and is different from the “mass imported” Marino wool which most of the world’s wool market and the Irish knitwear market relies on, Daly said.
Ériu is the first Irish brand to use 100% Irish wool and pays its suppliers 10 times the industry price to incentivise them to maintain the wool and shear it correctly, according to the co-founder.
The Co. Wicklow business is a member of the Irish Grown Wool Council (IGWC), which brings together wool stakeholders across the island of Ireland to realise the potential of Irish wool as a natural, sustainable and versatile material.
A lot of the wool imported globally is “not fully sustainable”, “not always ethical”, and “untraceable”, while at Ériu, everything is done in Ireland at a low carbon footprint. This comes at a higher price, she said.
The couple meets many people who want to use Irish wool, but the cost is too high. But there are also many people who consider using Irish wool within certain collections or products, the co-founder said.
“We need to keep creating markets, and then we can keep incentivising the farmer, and then the farmers can increase the quality of the wool and grow the networks,” Daly said.