Record 55,000 at farm trade show
It cost €600,000 to stage and was marshalled by 500 voluntary stewards in support of a large force of gardaí on traffic duty.
The show had €100 million worth of trade and machinery exhibits on 500 stands and arcades, which occupied some one million square feet of space.
One tractor was valued at €320,000.
Entries for 960 classes were up 4.5% on last year. They included almost 1,300 cattle, many of them competing for 42 titles, and almost 1,000 horses. A total of 100 judges officiated.
The show had 10,000 car-parking spaces available.
The organisers, headed by chairman Tom Maher, a retired Teagasc potato expert, took delight in their show being hailed as the best in the country.
“Our executive and volunteers have worked hard for many months past to put in place the structures to showcase the best of Irish farm produce,” he said.
Mr Maher paid particular tribute to the show’s 380 sponsors. “To me they are the kings and queens, the princes and princesses of our show,” he said.
Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan, who officially opened the event, was not the only woman in leadership positions present.
Others included Dorothea Lazenby, the first women president of the Irish Shows Association, ICA president Carmel Dawson, European Parliament member Mairéad McGuinness and local TD Olwyn Enright.
Finance Minister Brian Cowen, Minister of State Tom Parlon, also a TD for the constituency, Irish Farmers Association president Padraig Walshe, Macra na Feirme president Colm Markey and Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Denis Naughten were also among the platform party.
There was a champagne toast to the 15 years of the show, whre PRO Christy Maye had one of the six helicopters on site available to the media to observe the spread of the event from the air.
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