‘More than two centuries of history’: Rural life showcased as Cork Summer Show draws crowds
Albert de Cogan with his Aberdeen Angus at the Cork Summer Show that was held at the showgrounds in Curraheen, Cork. Picture: David Creedon
With a promising forecast and a packed line-up of events, the Cork Summer Show drew crowds this weekend to the showgrounds in Curraheen.
As the event comes to a close for 2024, the Cork Summer Show’s organiser the Munster Agricultural Society (MAS) is confident in there being a “better-than-ever” turnout across the two days.
Last year, around 43,000 people attended the event.
The popularity of the show continues to grow and yet according to the MAS, those involved always keep in mind the “more than two centuries of history” that the show is steeped in.
Speaking with the , Gerard Murphy of the MAS said that the committee is delighted with not only Corkonians both rural and urban coming out to support the annual event, but those from all over the country and even abroad.
“We’re going to put 40,000 people through here over the two days and there are quite a number of people who travelled back from overseas - Australia, America, Great Britain, and central Europe," Mr Murphy said, adding that people have scheduled their holidays to Ireland to coincide with attending the event.
“We’d expect from overseas visitors, it could be coming up to 5% of the population coming into the show and that’s a growing figure.”
The overall impact of a show of this scale for the local economy is “hard for me to judge", Mr Murphy said, but it is certainly significant, he feels.
On Saturday, there was a busy schedule at the cattle show rings with competitions including the young showmanship, pedigree Holstein Friesians, commercial beef cattle, rare breeds, and the Breeder’s Choice.
The Cork Summer Show is a “massive event” for those involved in showing animals, Mr Murphy said, “because here is a culmination” of their hard work, and it is also a large “marketplace”.
“We may not have the population of some of the bigger shows up the country but we are well ahead in the stakes,” Mr Murphy added.
Competitions have also been taking place across the weekend in sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, equestrian, vintage vehicles, baking, and more.
The competitions drive an “awful lot of people” to the show, with the poultry section being one of the most unexpected events that has really taken off, according to Mr Murphy.
Seeing what the show had to offer on Sunday was Tánaiste Micheál Martin who said that events like this are "absolutely vital", offering an "opportunity to showcase the very best of Irish agriculture, food production, and the rural way of life".
"It brings urban and rural together. Many people come here for a day out to see the animals, stands, competitions. It personifies community."
Mr Martin said that the agriculture industry faces "huge challenges" when it comes to meeting climate targets while also maintaining food production, "but I think if we manage and adapt appropriately, we can maintain that food production system".
"We are committed to maintaining our system and we have to because food security is vital. The big challenge of the modern era is to reconcile food security with climate security," he said.
In terms of the nitrates derogation, "we're full on to try and retain" it, Mr Martin said. "We'll do everything we possibly can as Government and indeed the [agriculture] minister has recently pulled together all of the stakeholders to make sure we're in a good position to retain that.
"We are a grass-based system and we've got to work very hard to achieve this extension and it will have to be a national effort - everybody will have to pull their weight here in terms of making sure we get the right outcome."
Sustainability was one of the key focuses of this year's Cork Summer Show and a significant feature of the event was the grassland display by University College Cork.
At last year’s show, the Tánaiste announced the collaboration between the MAS and UCC, with the MAS providing a philanthropic gift of €375,000 to the Cork University Foundation for the development of a Farmland Biodiversity Education and Research Programme within Agricultural Science at UCC.
MAS is loaning a two-acre research site to UCC for plot-based research in soil and grassland science.
UCC’s Deirdre Hennessy explained that the display shows the “different types of grassland that we see on farms in Ireland”, in the hope of furthering people's understanding in this area.
“When we think of grassland, we think of green, but we don't really think about what's in the grassland. So in our demonstration, we have a whole range of paddock, or sward types,” Ms Hennessy said.
She said it is important farmers can "farm in a productive way", while also working with nature - "taking cognisance of the environment and the ecosystem in which we farm, managing our ditches and field margins, allowing habitats".
"Little areas within the farm" where wildlife and biodiversity can thrive will lead to big things, according to Ms Hennessy.
"Farmers all across the country are making huge strides to increase the biodiversity on their farms, to manage what they have, to enhance what they have, and make their living and their income from their business," she added.
