Sean, John and Claire Doyle, Killcullen, Ballindaggin pictured with their Texel cross ewe who gave birth to 5 healthy lambs on Friday morning last. Pic: John Walsh

AN ENNISCORTHY farmer was stunned on Friday morning when one of his ewes gave birth to five healthy lambs – beating odds of one in a million.

At first count, John Doyle thought that an impressive litter of four had been delivered, until he spotted another leg sticking out.

Against all odds, it was a fifth lamb – an event regarded as happening only about one in a million times.

Speaking to The Echo from the family farm in Kilcullen, Ballindaggin, Mr. Doyle said he had never experienced anything like it before during his work and the multiple birth caused great excitement.

“We’ve had a couple of fours before, but never this,” he said. “Nobody around here has ever saw it before.”

His wife Sarah added: “The ewe was scanned to have four lambs so we were expecting that. But then John said ‘I think another is on the way’ and I just thought he had to be joking! We couldn’t believe it, it’s a very unusual thing to happen.”

Ewes usually give birth to between one and three lambs at a time. Four are a rarity but five almost never happens.

Mr. Doyle added that what makes the births even more remarkable is that mother and babies are all doing so well.

“There’s not a bother on the mother, she’s currently lying down in the shed with all the lambs running around her! They’re all flying it – they’re so healthy and all a similar size. They’re almost triplet-sized.”

Full story in this week’s Echo.