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Win a hot date with one of Ciara’s farmers

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

A YOUNG Southsider who was recently made redundant has come up with a novel way of making money. Ciara Ryan (26) from Dundrum convinced dozens of Ireland’s finest male farmhands to pose topless in a risqué new calendar. Irish farmers have now joined the likes of New York’s firefighters in posing for a fun calendar, serving up a slice of what is described by Ciara Ryan as “100 per cent Irish beef” for every month of 2010. The 12 poses depict some of the country’s best looking young farmers strutting their stuff in the company of livestock and other animals on their respective farms. In the new calendar Mr September serenades a sow with his guitar, while Mr August cuddles up to his collie in his tractor. June features a devilish shot of a farmer with an Aran sweater draped over his bare shoulder, while five sheep in the background seem oblivious to the action. March is described as “a ladies special” and in contrast July is a handyman, producing the ironing board to keep his clothes in trim out in the fields. Ciara organised and choreographed the shots in the calendar. The creative Southsider studied music technology in Maynooth and then pursued a career in media, working first for a local community radio station, which was followed by a stint as a sub editor on the Evening Herald. But she was recently made redundant following restructuring at the newspaper. She explained how she came up with the idea soon after she became unemployed. “I had put out a lot of CVs for jobs but there was nothing going on,” she recalled. “I heard that hundreds of people were sending in their CVs for the same job. Everyone was looking for work, so I thought I should really just try to come up with something myself. “The idea literally just popped into my head. I was trying to think about what tourists like about Ireland and it occurred to me that American women might like Irish men. I thought about a calendar with farmers because that hasn’t been done before, as far as I know anyway. “I sat on it for about a month and then registered a company name and advertised in regional papers, the Farmer’s Journal and agricultural colleges for the guys to appear in the calendar.” Some 20 per cent of the revenue generated from the calendar will go towards raising funds for Irish based Third World charity Bothar, which sends livestock and other items to Africa to alleviate hunger there. Ciara revealed that her personal revenue generating scheme has been a great success and she has already been inundated with orders for the calendar from all over the world. “I have been getting orders from America, Canada, Australia, UK, Spain, France and Denmark,” she revealed. “I got a credit union loan to pay for it and I pretty much paid that off after three weeks through the web sales.” Ciara is now considering doing a female farmer’s calendar next year. Those who buy a calendar can also enter a competition to win a date with either Mr March or Mr November. To find out more about the calendar log on to www.farmercalendar.com