School was not something he enjoyed. At the age of 15 he left school and began doing various rural jobs in the district, including for his father who paid him the princely sum of five dollars a week - most weeks. But it was in shearing that he found a career.
"At age 16 I started working for a local shearing contractor Russell Waite. I was just the boy in the gang; shearing, rousieing and then I did a couple of shearing courses," Herlihy told Rural News.
"When I was 17, Russell retired and handed the gang over to me as a business at no cost. I was sort of pushed into it and I was nervous as hell ringing up farmers and organising staff. Eventually the business grew and at one stage had a gang of about 22 people who worked around Taranaki."
By his own admission, Herlihy was never a gun shearer and says the best he could do was around 280 sheep a day. He has not been involved in competition and has never attended the Golden Shears in Masterton. But he did compete in the world shearing championships in France and Ireland. The call to Ireland was part of a grand plan to go to Kerry and see the town of Castle, Ireland, where his forebears came from.
Twenty years ago, Herlihy gave up shearing and he and his wide Pat sold their farm at Kaimata and bought their 900 acre property at Whangamōmona. It's a larger farm running 1,200 ewes, 400 hoggets, 80 cows and 120 weaners. His son Craig is his main helper and John is in the process of giving his sons more responsibility on the property.
"A lot of old buggers won't let go of the farm," he says. "You see them all around the country and they are still the boss at 80 and their kids are still working for them at age 50 and I don't want to be like that."
Helping Others
For John Herlihy, life has been one of hard work and determination to make the most of life, but in 2018 tragedy struck - his youngest son Michael committed suicide.
He says there were no obvious warning signs of anything being wrong with his boy. This has clearly affected both him, his wife and the remaining five sons.
"We will never know why," he says.
Herlihy says what he's found out is that suicide rates in rural areas are relatively high and that mental health care is often stretched or non-existent. Putting his shearing skills and those of his sons together, the Herlihy family stage an annual 'shearathon' at their woolshed at Whangamōmona to raise money for suicide prevention and awareness. So far, they have raised close to $100,000.
Locals says Herlihy has become the local 'go-to person' when it comes to mental health and say his willingness to talk openly to people and halp them has saved lives.
In the bar at the Whangamōmona pub, Herlihy is a friendly, talkative, interesting character who has a wealth experience of farming. A man who acts it up for the presidential election of the republic, but beneath is a man who still hurts and has dedicated himself to preventing what happened to him with the loss of his precious son.
