Advocate Brent Pope Recalls a Tough Job

Brent Pope is a former rugby international, a rugby pundit, and the owner of the Pope fashion brand. The New Zealander is also a mental health advocate and is a co-founder of the Elephant in the Room project in aid of the Samaritans. Pope, 60, has teamed up with artists to design four-foot elephants that will be placed in workplaces to help people discuss the ‘elephant in the room’ topic of mental health. He speaks with the Irish Independent about personal finance for regular column, ‘My Money’.

“What did you learn about money when you were growing up?” the Independent’s Gabrielle Monaghan asks Ashburton-born Dublin-based Pope.

​“That you don’t need much to make you happy and that the most enjoyable money you’ll ever have is that which you have worked hardest for.”

His worst job ever?

“One season, at university, I worked in the local abattoir and had to stand in one place for eight hours a day in uncomfortable big white gumboots, and as the dead sheep came up the chain, I had the task of cleaning their tongues.”

Original article by Gabrielle Monaghan, Irish Independent, September 10, 2023.

Photo by Frank McGrath.