Kildysart celebrates 70th annual show

LAST Monday morning Kildysart Community Centre buzzed with pre show activity. Mobiles were barely silenced before they lit up again, while a stream of people made brief visits to the show office, which was manned by general secretary Dan O’Connell and PRO Brigid Garry.

 

When this Saturday’s show starts at 10am in the field on the Cahercon Road and in the community centre, it will be the 70th instalment.

“The show would have grown as the decades went on. We’d have very big local support even in terms of local funding. It just shows the local goodwill towards the show,” Dan O’Connell told The Clare Champion.

The first show was held in 1942 and was expanded the following year. The committee secretary was the then local chemist Patrick McMahon.

“It was started, according to Patrick McMahon, to cheer people up during the war years,” Brigid Garry revealed.

Once she gets going, Bridget recounts several anecdotes from the show’s 70-year history. It’s not that she can remember all of them but her family has been involved in some capacity since year one.

“Peig McNamara was a former judge here and she married the secretary, Patrick McNamara. And they met at the show. She was judging the poultry,” Brigid said.

Years ago Kildysart came to a stand still, not just on show day but even in the build up. “Every local went to the show. You didn’t actually plan anything on show week because everyone was getting ready for the show. You’d have your hay and your corn done. Someone planning something like a wedding was unheard of and of course if a funeral happened during the show, it was nearly cancelled,” Brigid laughed.

Scanning the 1943 show programme she came across the winners of the best bunch of wild flowers – children’s class. The winner was Delia Keane while Tessie O’Sullivan featured, both of whom picked their flowers that morning.

“Tessie O’Sullivan is now in America. Delia Keane is living back in Labasheeda. This story was told to me by Susan Sullivan, who has been exhibiting here for 39 years. They picked the flowers on the way to the (first) show in Kildysart. They are lovely stories attached to the show. I have the first rosette that was won at the Kildysart Show. It was a horse bred by my father and shown by my uncle in my grandfather’s name,” Brigid added.

The outdoor section of the show is held on the lands of the Cleary, Finn and McMahon families. The show field has been on the Cahercon Road for 20 years and is the fifth show venue since the 1940s.
Although the show has established an excellent reputation, Brigid Garry says that the standard was excellent from its inception.

“When you’d look at what was in that catalogue back 70 years ago, that was a great start. So I can’t say the show went from strength to strength but there was an awful lot of new sections added. This year what we really want to stress is that we have free entertainment for kids. I think that’s a huge thing during recessionary times because some parents can’t bring children to the show because they say they’ll break them. They want €2 for this and €2 for that. We have free bouncy castles so that’s an example of what we’re giving back this year,” she explained.

Another feature this year will be the dog Agility Show. “That’s where little dogs go through obstacles and of course our dog show is huge as well,” Brigid said before saying that there will be other new events on show this Saturday.

“We will have live trashing here and Jackie Whelan is bringing over his trains from Moyasta,” she said.
Showing horses, working hunter ponies, show jumping and lunging will feature in the field on the Cahercon Road with the cattle events based across the road.

Classes run in the field from 10am until 7pm while the judging starts in the community centre at 10am. The community centre will be open to the public at 1pm.

“There are 143 shows around the country like it. Up to this year I was chairperson of the Munster region, which runs more than 40 shows. I think Kildysart makes a great effort in the indoor section especially. But the most important thing is the field. It’s a big responsibility but the land is most important,” Brigid Garry stressed.