In 2015, Irvinestown, Ireland’s 37th Annual Lady of the Lake festival introduced a brand new competition— sheep dung spitting!
This bizarre contest requires participants to take sheep excrement into their mouths and attempt to spit it the furthest. Competition creator, organizer and participant, Joe Mahon was inspired by a few pints and similar spitting competitions in Africa, such as Bokdrol spoeg , kudu antelope dung spitting.
Remarkably, 48 daring competitors participated, including the festival queen, the Lady of The Lake, Eimear Donnelly. After a heated tiebreaker, Mark Leonard won first place with a 29.5 foot (9.83 yard) spit!
Organizers had 30 pieces of sheep dung ready for the competition, thinking it would be enough, but with so many entrants they had to recycle 18 pieces that had already been used!
Mahon regaled that during the competition, one entrant, Paddy McCann, spat his dung 12 feet with his dentures in, but when told to remove them and try again, he ended up swallowing the dung!
Proud of what he hopes to become a not-so-tasty tradition, Mahon relished in his role and even sourced dung directly from the sheep!
