Paula Hynes: Pride, perseverance and partnership — celebrating 25 years with a global win
Peter and Paula celebrated their 25th anniversary in Lanzarote.
The last week has been a week of celebrations, perhaps the biggest of them all being we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, and had we not got married all those years ago, then the other celebrations may not have ever taken place.
Becky kicked off the celebrations in style by winning the showmanship championship at the Royal Sydney Easter Show. Julia Paulger officiated as showmanship judge in Sydney. She has come up through the showmanship ranks and represented Australia at EYBS in Belgium, and judged the showmanship at IDW in 2023, the year before Becky began her three-in-a-row feat at IDW.
Becky won her hotly contested class after Julia really put the handlers through their paces, including swapping heifers, which rarely happens in Australia, with Chris Thompson taking second place and going on to stand reserve champion handler to Becky.
We were pinching ourselves when we woke up early and saw the results and were overwhelmed with an immense sense of pride. Huge thanks to Luke Randle for allowing Becky to use his Jersey heifer for the showmanship.
The following day she graced the cattle lawns of Olympic Park again for the junior heifer show, where she showed two junior Jersey heifers into 2nd and 4th placings, before taking Honorable Mention in the Junior Brown Swiss classes with Wootanga Park Aldo Lola for the McGrath family, and then clinched Reserve Junior Champion in the Holstein classes with Cherrylock Lambda Chassity for the McGrath family.
The final day of Royal Sydney is milkers' day, where all the cows were showing, and it coincided with Becky celebrating her 19th birthday. I still remember the day she was born — it was a Friday 13th, and she was in a rush to come out. We only arrived at CUMH at 9:30am, and she was born just over two hours later.
With all the success she has had, she has never been flamboyant. She takes the success in her stride, and even after winning the biggest of showmanship championships, she could be back in her work overalls a few minutes later washing cows.
She did celebrate her birthday in style, placing second and third with two Jersey milkers. Daphne, the Holstein yearling heifer in milk she owns a half share in, was placed 2nd and is also confirmed in-calf again, and the real highlight of the day was winning the overall champion Illawarra for the McGrath family.
Claiming a senior championship in the Illawarra classes allowed Becky to finish the show with an amazing memory of being in the ring until the final curtain of Royal Sydney 2026, experiencing the interbreed championship with all breed champions lined up while the judges gave their comments.
With showing completed, it was an afternoon of packing and chatting, meeting new people. Then the cows departed early the following morning before Becky made her way to Sydney Airport, flying back to Dubai and then London Heathrow, before the last leg of the journey from Heathrow to Cork — 36 hours of travel.
More Australian accolades in her suitcase, the opportunities for more international shows on her mind — when you compete at that level at such a young age, it grabs attention, as does being an Irish person so far from home. The Irish are known for their work ethic and stockmanship.
Working on the show circuit is never a holiday — long journeys, extremely long days, and weeks without a day’s rest — but it is a great way to see the world, meet amazing people, and make lifelong friends.
Mitch and Lyndsey Fleming, who own Impression Holsteins and Jerseys, are certainly considered great friends by Becky now and were an amazing team to work with in Sydney.
We sort of never twigged until late last year that this year was our 25th wedding anniversary. It seems like an age ago that we got married.
We started out as good friends, began dating over 30 years ago and very quickly became inseparable. Foot and Mouth struck the UK the year we got married.
It was a glorious, warm, sunny April, and we got married in Aghabullogue before heading to Blarney for our wedding reception, where we were lucky enough to get some wonderful photos in Blarney Castle.
To achieve 25 years of marriage, in many ways, you learn to adapt to each other. Life is never plain sailing — there are ups and downs, highs and lows — but I think we learn to enjoy the highs together and support each other through the lows.
Life has become an adventure together. We probably work harder than ever now, and although we work and live together, at times it can feel like we are ships passing in the wind.
However, that has made us appreciate quality time together even more, creating memories and adventures together.
We have been blessed with three daughters and now also a little granddaughter, and part of being married for so long is seeing them grow and follow their own dreams, making their way through life.
Of course, there had to be a date and a little celebration together to mark 25 years of being married — in some ways, a chance for us to catch our breath and look back at all the amazing memories we have created together.
No one ever knows what the future may bring, which has taught us, as we have grown together, that it is so important to celebrate the milestones.
