Kinsale Sevens washed out but the weekend shows go on

DON’T be sad, ‘cause two out of three ain’t bad.

The amount of tears flowing at the cancellation of the third day of the Heineken Kinsale Sevens could not match the pouring rain yesterday.

The May Bank Holiday weekend enjoyed two days of rugby but the event had to be cancelled yesterday due to the poor weather conditions.

The international sevens rugby tournament was the most high-profile casualty of the downpours that affected much of the country.

Its cancellation yesterday, the first in its 15-year history, was due to unsafe playing conditions.

"There was an unprecedented level of rainfall at 6am and over 100 games had been played on the pitches on Saturday. We walked the pitches and quickly came to the conclusion that they were unsafe and unplayable," said tournament director Ronan Kett.

"We had two days of absolutely fabulous rugby and, as the Meatloaf song goes, 'two out of three ain't bad'," he added.

The Kinsale Sevens is worth €4 million to the area and attracts teams from as far away as Canada and Fiji. Mr Kett said it was inappropriate to comment on the financial impact of the cancellation but maintained the tournament would be back stronger than ever in 2004.

The Heineken Green Energy Festival in Dublin also got its share of rain but it didn't put off concert-goers. There were large crowds for the outdoor concerts in Dublin Castle by Moloko, Groove Armada and Craig David.

The other concerts took place at indoor venues like the Ambassador and the Templebar Music Centre.

The show went on in a variety of other local festivals.

Waterford hosted two the Hullabaloo children's festival and a festival about John Roberts, the 18th century architect responsible for much of Georgian Waterford.

The Bray Jazz Festival in Wicklow attracted Irish, Latin American and other international jazz and blues musicians.

Perhaps the luckiest festival was the Fleadh by the Feale in Abbeyfeale, Co Limerick.

More than 2,000 people attended the traditional music festival and enjoyed relatively good weather.

"We have a nun on our committee so we have direct contact with the man above," joked festival secretary Maureen Murphy.

The festival also hosted the All Ireland Bone Playing Championship with competitors from Britain, the US and Sweden.

Met Éireann said the bad weather is forecast to continue for the rest of the Bank Holiday, with a mixture of sunshine and heavy or thundery showers today.