‘YOU’VE GOT TO LOVE IT’
TEACHER, international rugby player and farmer Ciara Griffin simply didn’t have time to talk on Monday.
After a bruising defeat to Scotland on Sunday – the first in 11 years - the Ireland captain was back at work teaching on Monday. That day was extra long as Ciara did a stint of what teachers call ‘Croke Park [deal] hours’, and then, travelling back from Limerick to Kerry she picked up some calves along the way. Speaking on Tuesday morning, she said she was due “back in camp tomorrow [ Wed] in preparation for the game with England on Friday night”.
That games comes on the eve of the Six Nations grand finale in Twickenham on Saturday, St Patrick’s Day, when already tournament champions Ireland take on the English in a bid for the grand slam.
With schedule that busy it is, perhaps, no surprise when Ciara talks so enthusiastically about her farming life – it’s her bolthole as well as her passion.
“Oh yes, I do miss it when I’m not farming, especially at times like now when it’s so busy with everything else,” she said. “I love getting out there, looking after the animals. Even just watching the cattle chewing the cud, or getting various jobs done around the farm; that’s the kind of thing I love and I really miss it when I’m away from it.”
Ciara’s family have a beef farm and also rear dairy heifers - and any spare hours are spent