The two Irish entrepreneurs - Jenkins hails from Lisburn, Co Antrim; Burke from Cahir, Co Tipperary - will begin shipping the 0.75 lb (0.34 kg) bags of dirt, along with shamrock seeds, in container-loads of 80,000 bags each, to the US this month.

In order to begin selling their little bit of Eireann to the Yanks, the pair had to get the approval of the US Department of Agriculture and US Customs before beginning imports. The US had a strict, decades-old ban on any imports of soil for fear of parasites, or something.

Burke, a UCD graduate in agricultural sciences, told the New York-based Irish Echo newspaper last week that he had patented a special mix of Irish dirt including milled peat.

The target market for these bundles of Ireland is, of course, the 40m Americans who claim Irish ancestry.

"The idea of was suggested to me years ago by a doctor in Flordia, " said Jenkins, who told the Echo he had sourced the dirt from his new base in West Cork. "He said that many Irish and Irish Americans wanted to throw a bit of the auld sod on the caskets of loved ones but simply couldn't get their hands on any."

In a move that may allow you to keep down some of your pint and not eat your flat cap after reading this, begorrah, the two lads also say they will divert some of the profits to a mission in Tanzania to help purchase drilling equipment for a well.

Bless.