Good weather draws sighs of relief and 60,000 revellers

ALARM clocks and wake-up telephone calls had people jumping out of their beds at dawn around Tullamore yesterday.

Instinctively, they rushed to their bedroom windows and anxiously peered out from behind the curtains to see what kind of day it was.

There was a huge sigh of relief, especially among the 32 members of Tullamore Show executive when they saw the weather was good.

For they had gone through the heartbreak experience of having to call off the event at the last moment on each of the previous two years due to wet weather.

A third cancellation in a row would have been a killer blow for what is now the country’s premier one-day agri event which incorporates the AIB national livestock show.

The bright day put a smile on the faces and a spring in the steps of the organisers. Their work was fully rewarded when up to 60,000 people flocked to the event.

Such was the sheer joy over the show being back in business, the officials would have been forgiven if they had danced an Offaly jig. There was delight too among the exhibitors of more than 1,800 livestock competitors, 650 trade exhibitors and other participants, including those in a horticulture and flower show that was hailed as the best in Ireland.

A new 250 acre free-draining sandy site on the Butterfield Estate, made available by Anne Marie Butterfield and her husband Stephen McQuade, was turned into a vibrant town for the day with specially laid roads, marquees, retail and catering outlets. They were all supported by a range of services ranging from electricity and water to high-tech communications.

An army of 500 volunteer workers was on duty and the show catalogue alone was a whopping 400 page tome.

“You have a choice of chopper travel or go-kart,” press officer Christy Maye told the media – and he wasn’t joking because the show laid on a helicopter and a fleet of golf buggies to facilitate the media’s coverage of the event.

Retail therapy abounded with people looking for bargains from clothing to kitchen furniture. Some parents took a keen interest in children’s toys with a forward planner’s eye to Christmas and Santa Claus.

“Come down here and we’ll have a gander at the country wear,” one young man said to another as they headed towards a sale in jackets, Wellington boots and even large umbrellas which were going for a fiver each.

Elsewhere, a sales man delivered a lively sales patter about kitchen utensils, but a couple who engaged him with queries were slow to open the purse strings and moved away without buying.

The gifted gabber was undaunted. “Come back for a rasher sandwich later,” he shouted, as he focused on other potential customers.

But behind the good humoured banter of those present, the economic woes facing rural people in particular were never far from the surface.

“Dial M for Failure” might have been the sub-text of the speech delivered by Mairead McGuinness, who officially opened the show with a snip and a sip.

She cut a pink tape and raised a glass of bubbly to toast the occasion with show secretary Freda Kinnarney and guests at the opening ceremony.

But on a serious note she warned that farming will contract and rural Ireland will suffer unless “Ministers, Multiples and Markets” are tackled head-on.

Ms McGuinness, Ireland East member of the European Parliament, said “The Three Ms” had failed farmers, who are resilient people but in need of support at a challenging time for their industry.

She accused Minister Brendan Smith of not defending farming at the cabinet table and claimed Tánaiste Mary Coughlan had also failed to fight cuts in schemes she herself had introduced when she held the agriculture portfolio.

Ms McGuinness, who called for a more forensic look at how the agriculture markets operate, said the supermarket elites repeatedly refuse to open themselves to scrutiny.

“They hide behind the skirts of consumers. It is time that they were held to account,” she said.

But what did she think of the enlarged show site? “It is like a new supermarket,” she said. “You have to get used to the aisles.”

The show was held in Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s home place but he is on holiday and was not seen on site by a press corps armed with a litany of questions to ask him on issues far removed from the Tullamore Show.

IFA deputy president Derek Deane said the event highlighted the significance to the economy of the country’s €2 billion beef and livestock sector, comprised of 90,000 farmers, 200 processing companies as well as livestock marts and support services.

Mr Deane said the Government must back indigenous production and support jobs and exports. The beef and livestock sector is the best example, with 90% of output exported to over 80 markets around the world.

Michael Dowling, head of agri-strategy with AIB, the show’s title sponsor, said the predictions are that commodity prices in dairying and cereals will be better over the next decade than they have been in the past one, leaving out the peak year of 2007.

Show chairman Tom Maher said in these hardening economic times, the show had hopefully put an extra bit of fun and enjoyment into the lives of all who attended.

It certainly did that yesterday, with the help of sponsors, old and new, including those who remained loyal to the event despite the cancellations of the past two years.

“That’s the Faithful County for you,” said one proud Offaly man on what was a truly great day out for rural Ireland.