THEY strip off to run across Croke Park, or to appear on page three of tabloid newspapers, but Irish people are reluctant to get their kit off for art students to draw.

One Dublin college has had to cancel a life-drawing class owing to a shortage of models. Ballsbridge College of Further Education needed only four volunteers, but when they could not be found, the life-drawing course had to be modified into a more general one.

“Getting models is a big problem,” said Peter Kehoe, assistant director of adult education. “We only needed three or four, but even that was too difficult. Female models are a particular problem. From previous experience, it tends to be people not from Ireland who are more inclined to do it. I suppose they’re less likely to meet people they know in art classes.”

The low rates of pay — as little as €12 an hour in Ballsbridge — is thought to be one reason why people are reluctant to disrobe. As an incentive, some colleges are now considering formal contracts, including holiday pay and a guaranteed number of hours work a week.

Niamh Daly, a life-drawing tutor at Ballyfermot college, said eight models were employed, mainly for animation classes, “but I can’t see us keeping them”.

She said: “The problem has to do with pay. Colleges are trying to increase the scale at the moment, because it last increased two years ago.”

Ballyfermot is about to offer €14 an hour, still less than the €14.48 paid by the National College of Art and Design (NCAD). Nor is it money for just sitting around — Daly says models need a lot of stamina as well as the self-confidence to appear in their birthday suits.

“It’s a physically demanding job,” she said. “It takes a particular type of person, including one with a trusting nature as to how they will be treated. Sometimes they have to pose for up to six hours, including continuous movement such as walking across a room very slowly.”

Ballyfermot has three life-drawing classes a day.

“We have eight models at present, but until either the pay increases or they get a decent part-time contract, I can’t see them staying,” Daly said.

Shane White, 37, is one of the few models who operate on a full-time basis in Dublin. He says it was his own interest in art that first prompted him to respond to an advertisement seeking models last year.

“The pay isn’t great, and it’s varied — depending on where you’re working, be it for a college or a private artist,” White said. “It goes from as little as €11.50 up to €24 an hour. I manage to work five days a week; there’s certainly no shortage of work. I know that colleges do struggle to get people.”

David Bramley, an official at NCAD, said the college had found a lot of interest in modelling among Spanish and French students. “Any time we run short we place an advertisement with the students’ union in Trinity College, and we get quite a good response from that,” he said.

“It’s not bad for people trying to earn a bit of extra money or students trying to make ends meet. It’s a bit better than working in McDonald’s.”

Apart from the money, there is always the possibility that a model will appear in a painting that eventually becomes famous. Nude models feature in some of the greatest artworks ever created, including The Grand Odalisque by Ingres, Goya’s Nude Maja, and Modigliani’s Reclining Nude (on Her Left Side), which is owned by the horse- racing tycoon John Magnier and is currently on loan to the National Gallery of Ireland.

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