Cows from leading herds on show as Virginia settles for weekend date
It follows detailed discussion within the organising society and with exhibitors, trade stand exhibitors and patrons.
Show press officer Kathleen Duffy said the option of moving the show to a weekend date from its usual midweek slot had been contemplated for many years.
Traditionally, Virginia Show was held on the first Wednesday in September and then some years ago it moved back to an August date just before the schools reopened after the summer holidays.
“Because of changes to work practices in rural Ireland we found that people who wished to attend the show as exhibitors or as patrons could no longer get the day off work,” she said.
Virginia is a member of the Irish Shows Association (ISA) and needed to wait on a date that was vacant from the showing calendar.
That arose when the organisers of another show switched the date of their event from the first weekend in August to a later date. This gave Virginia an opportunity to change and to develop its programme.
This will mark the 68th year of the show, which will again feature the Baileys Irish Champion Dairy Cow competition with €8,000 in prize money.
Cows from the country’s leading dairy herds have competed for coveted awards in the Baileys over the past 27 years.
The countrywide showing season begins over the May bank holiday weekend with events in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co Clare, and Leap, Co Cork.
A total of 135 ISA affiliated shows will be held north and south over the next five months. All will be hoping for better weather than many of them experienced over the past two years when heavy rain caused several events to be called off.
ISA president John O’Hara, Baonniconlon, Co Mayo, writing in the just published association’s yearbook, wished all exhibitors a safe and enjoyable showing season and thanked sponsors, local and national, for their loyal support.
