Brendan Shine

Well-known Irish folk and country singer Brendan Shine is also a Certified Irish Angus beef farmer based outside Athlone in County Roscommon. Brendan is married to Kathleen and they have two daughters.

Brendan started singing at the age of 16 with a Ceilidh Band and in 1968 started his own band and had his first Number 1 in 1970 with “O’Brien has no place to go”. Brendan has achieved 40 chart singles in Ireland and 5 Irish number one singles including “Do You Want Your Old Lobby Washed Down”.

Before farming Certified Irish Angus, Brendan was a market gardener growing carrots for the Dublin vegetable market. Speaking about combining his music career with farming, Brendan said, “I’ve been farming all my life. As my music career developed, I got into beef and then around 20 years ago I got into the Angus cattle.

I looked at the positives of Angus – easy rearing, easy calving, no de-horning – another job that I didn’t have to do! It’s lovely to have been born and reared and work in the open spaces of a farm. It brings a great balance to my music career which has a lot of indoor work and nights. It’s a great life to bring up a family in nature and people learning about growth and the earth and the animals.”

Brendan is proud to be one of 10,000 Certified Irish Angus beef farmers around the country. Commenting on the Angus breed, he said, “I think they are a beautiful animal. They are a quiet animal. If you get to know them, they get to know you, they get to know your voice and if a stranger comes into the yard, you’ll know all about it!”