Found this article about some creative guys who decided to sell DIRT from Ireland to people all over the globe. Pretty genius when you think about it. Like they said, 10 years ago people laughed about water being sold in a bottle!
In case this link doesn't work later I will post both it and the article:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/94103/official_irish_dirt_sending_the_aul.html?cat=3
Quoting:
Official Irish Dirt - Sending the Aul Sod Around the World:
Benjamin Franklin said: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes", and for millions of Irish-Americans around the world the thought of shuffling off this mortal coil would be easier if they could be laid to rest in their homeland - and now two Irishmen have come up with a unique way for this dream to come true.
"Where there's muck there's brass" the old saying goes, and Alan Jenkins, 65, originally from Dunmurry, County Antrim and agricultural scientist Pat Burke, 27, from Tipperary have built a thriving business out of selling pieces of Irish earth - or as they call it "Official Irish Dirt" - and sending it to America, as Burke explains:
"We've had calls from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA to do interviews, and the first shipment only went out last week - and then the website crashed the same day! It's been unbelievable!"
Also unbelievable is that fact that no-one had ever thought of it before, but their brainwave follows a rule that business people everywhere understand:
"It's such a simple idea - even the girl in the US Patents Office said so - and it was the first time it had ever been done. But then, everyone laughed at the idea of bottled water in Ireland ten years ago, and now it outsells almost everything."
It was Jenkins who first came up with the idea. He lived in Maine for many years, and on a visit to see friends in Florida he heard some Irish-Americans at a "Sons of Erin" meeting saying they would "give their left arm for a drop of the auld sod" to be placed on their funeral caskets.
Soon after that he met Burke, who worked at the Irish Department of Agriculture, and it grew from there:
"We met quite by chance at a dinner party, and I was intrigued by the idea. It was early in February 2006 when we found a solution to the problem of the dirt, and when we called the US Department of Agriculture about it, he was laughing down the phone".
The problem was that US Customs regulations insisted the "funeral use" dirt must be free of disease and insects - although they didn't have to worry about snakes, thanks to St. Patrick - and Burke put his Agricultural Science degree from UCD to good use, eventually finding a way of processing the soil so that it would pass these tests with flying colors.
Since then, Jenkins and Burke have been inundated with enquiries, and they've already shifted a $1,000,000 worth of pure Irish muck from West Cork direct to the States:
"This is our full-time job for both of us now. We first put the feelers out in July 2006, when we visited New York. The response everywhere was just overwhelming, and I thought: "Right, that's it", and I gave up my job at the Department of Agriculture. I'm a young man with no ties, and I thought "Why not?" I didn't want to look back in 20 years and think: "Why didn't we do it?""
Of course, many people feel that no piece of aul sod is complete without that most Irish of things, a shamrock, and for an extra $2 a packet of seeds will be added so you can grow your own luck - and that's just the beginning:
"People have said they want to plant a tree in the dirt to celebrate a child's birth, and at a trade fair in Chicago there was the suggestion to grow roses, and now real Irish roses can be grown anywhere in the world thanks to our dirt!"
There have been some unusual requests too, including one from an elderly New York businessman who wanted to be fully buried in Irish soil, deep in the heart of his beloved Manhattan:
"We wanted to be sure that was what he wanted but his son is an attorney, so everything was in order. They paid a deposit of $25,000, with the rest ($75,000) in an account for the day it's needed. Mind you, he's 87 and fit as a fiddle!"
It seems that many Irish-Americans still have a sentimental feeling for their roots, even if they have spent decades living abroad:
"I was talking to this other old guy in New York - he was in his 80's too. He had left Ireland when he was 15, worked in construction, and considered America to be his home. But then he suddenly started to cry, and told me about his family's farm in Dingle, County Kerry. It was still home for him, even after all those years. He even wanted some of the dirt for his wife: even though she was gone, he wanted to place a piece of Ireland on her grave."
Burke is expecting a very busy Christmas, and thinks that people will buy the dirt as stocking fillers:
"We're keeping the price at $15 so that everyone can afford it. Kids can buy for their parents and their grandparents".
The website has been updated to process the "phenomenal demand", and this innovative pair are so confident that the ¾ lb bags will be a long-term success that they have pledged to donate 80% of their profits to charity, especially children's hospitals around Ireland:
"Maybe it's something to do with Ireland being so rural - people just love the land - but the more you sit back and think about it, the more you realize where this could go. It's more than just St Patrick's Day and Christmas; it's all year round. Brides are looking to use the shamrocks for bouquets or buttonholes at weddings - even as center pieces on the table! We've been working 16 hours days, seven days a week, for months now, and it's only going to get busier!"
