Ireland Trip To Ireland

[rob84 112]

 

 

RAYNARDMAN, You can see before you buy!

 

Three videos on the Great Game Fairs of Ireland:

 

Birr Castle 2012

Shanes Castle 2013

Shanes Castle Gundogs 2013

 

Apart from the range and quality of the stands at our shows we have the best competitions and prizes for terriers and lurchers: The Five Nations Championshps - the 27th Annual All Ireland Terrier & Lurcher Championships, the Mourne Digging Championship Final, and the Master McGrath lurcher Final.

 

And we consider the terriers & lurchers to be an integral part of the events and have them inside the fairs. The Irish Working Terrier Federation have chosen to exhibit at both fairs this year and taken their rightful place with all of the other sporting organisations.

 

Our next fair is the Irish Game & Country Fair at Birr Castle, Co Offaly on the 31st August and the 1st September www.irishgameandcountryfair.com

 

 

AND we have special rates for the ferries AND a special two day pass for terrier & lurcher owners. You can get the boat for under £200.

 

If its not a Fair but a good show there are many - and you will receive a warm welcome but my personal favourite is the Mourne one - beautiful site, innovative competitions and good organisation.

 

where do i go to look at the ferry deals?

Rob, Mail me at irishgamefair@btinternet.com and I will mail details. To be objective while Birr and Shanes are the largest fairs in their respective parts of Ireland all Irish fairs are substantially smaller than the major UK fairs. They would be somewhere between Galloway and Scone. But our prizes are equivalent to the best in the UK and we offer a very warm welcome to visitors.

Hi Albert,

 

I have just pm you with my email details.

 

Thanks Rob

[Irish Lurcher 1,013]

Hi Rob

 

Nice to see you showing an interest in our game shows. If I was to give my honest oipnion on which show you could attend, then it has to be the one at Moira. Its without any question the best racing and showing event in Ireland. Should you wish to visit for the purpose of attending a show then you would be more than welcome to visit us and be our guest. You and your dogs would be housed at my own home and you will travel with us to the show. There are so many shows in Ireland, you will be spoiled,lol, so what ever show you decide to attend I wish you the best of luck.

 

I have no connection to any of the shows, I am talking as a person thats attends such shows.

 

Please feel free to contact me.

 

John

[Bri 81]

The mourne show !!!

[danny300 2,240]

lads for working terriers the westmeath show is a must for lurcher and terriers moira and the mourne show are also ones to go to

[AlbertJ 569]

Hi Rob

 

Nice to see you showing an interest in our game shows. If I was to give my honest oipnion on which show you could attend, then it has to be the one at Moira. Its without any question the best racing and showing event in Ireland. Should you wish to visit for the purpose of attending a show then you would be more than welcome to visit us and be our guest. You and your dogs would be housed at my own home and you will travel with us to the show. There are so many shows in Ireland, you will be spoiled,lol, so what ever show you decide to attend I wish you the best of luck.

 

I have no connection to any of the shows, I am talking as a person thats attends such shows.

 

Please feel free to contact me.

 

John

Come on John - I know we have had a bit of a spat because I didn't immediately take you up on your offer to tell me how to run game fairs! While I am always willing to listen to advice and new ideas - I thought with 35 years experience and 52 fairs under my belt I might have little bit more experience than you - who as far as I am aware has only taken a recent interest in shows and I cannot recall seeing you show or race a dog recently. . Since then you have become something of a 'cheer leader' for the guys who run Moira and Borris including I believe being involved in Borris in various capacities - including apparently trying to create the impression the fair was a success! Now I know and like the guys who run the terriers & lurchers at Moira but I don't think even they would say 'It is without question the best racing and showing event in Ireland'. The guys do well to run a decent but different event to us with innovations such as the high jump but it is in a rough field outside the show and the facilities they have to work with totally militate against your claim. Compare the fact that we stage the terrier & lurcher events as an integral part of our fairs, provide an unrivalled prize fund and provide good physical conditions including well mown race tracks at Birr or Shanes Castle - compare this with the prizes and especially with the 'race track' at Moira. Also at Shanes Castle in 2014 we will celebrate the staging of the 27th All Ireland Game Fair Championships - racing & showing and the top lurcher race in Ireland - the Master McGrath Challenge! At Birr we have equally good racing and the two top show events the Five Nations Terrier Championships and the Five Nations Lurcher Championships. Objective facts like this should speak for themselves and should carry more weight than apparently very subjective opinion!

 

The National Countrysports Fair at Moira is a decent fair which I enjoy visiting and the terrier & lurcher events are well run with some innovations to make them different to the events run at the Great Game Fairs of Ireland. As I have said above we think terriers & lurchers should be an integral part of the fair not put outside of it; we feel they should have equivalent prizes to that which are on offer at our fairs to clay shooters and gundog handlers and we feel we should provide the best physical conditions possible for enthusiasts to show and race their dogs as close to the main action of the fair. You obviously disagree with this focus.

 

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and you obviously have the right to voice yours - all I can say if that is what you genuinely feel then I am very glad I didn't take up your offer of advice!

Edited August 18, 2013 by AlbertJ

[king lurcher 78]

All shows are good big or small....though in MY opinion a much friendlier atmosphere at the smaller shows. I personally don't think anyone should be running down any other show, just because they have leaser prizes or turn out. All shows take a lot of hard work and money to put on....but this is a lot harder for the smaller shows as they often don't have free ground or big sponsors to support them so it is paid for out of their own pocket and most of them give their money to charity...therefore they put more effort in to get a good return.

No one can state to you which show is the best...just the one they enjoyed the most.

 

You are far better finding out for yourself as there are far to many 'spats' on here. Hope you do come over and have an enjoyable time, which i'm sure you will at whatever show you decide to attend.

yours in sport Ian

[AlbertJ 569]

KL,

 

I wasn't running down any show just pointing out that John 's assertion about Moira 'Its without any question the best racing and showing event in Ireland' was an opinion without a lot of factual foundation. I am as entitled to my opinion that it isn't and I gave reasons why I consider Shanes & Birr provide better shows and racing. I have to say any of the shows that I have attended have been well run, including Moira, and are a credit to their organisers and we have been delighted to support a number of these shows with prizes and qualifiers to help them maximise the money they can give to charity. In fact I cannot think that we have ever refused support when it has been requested. We are of course always willing to publicise these charity presentations in Irish Countrysports and Country Life magazine as it is not only good PR for terriers & lurchers but also encourages others to be equally generous to charity fund raising. . Unlike most of the smaller shows who often get FREE ground , including I presume your show at Florencecourt, we certainly have to pay a substantial rental for our sites at Shanes Castle and Birr and I'd love to know where to find the big sponsors you mention! We are delighted to have support sponsorship in these hard economic times but the reason why we have this is that we put an economic case to sponsors about what they get in return for their sponsorship ( always more than they put in) AND the main reason we have a large prize fund is that we put our hands in our pockets to provide it!

 

I am sure that any visitor coming to any of the fairs in Ireland North or South or to any of the smaller shows will receive a very warm welcome and I hope they will take away the impression that we are not always having spats!

[Irish Lurcher 1,013]

All shows are good big or small....though in MY opinion a much friendlier atmosphere at the smaller shows. I personally don't think anyone should be running down any other show, just because they have leaser prizes or turn out. All shows take a lot of hard work and money to put on....but this is a lot harder for the smaller shows as they often don't have free ground or big sponsors to support them so it is paid for out of their own pocket and most of them give their money to charity...therefore they put more effort in to get a good return.

No one can state to you which show is the best...just the one they enjoyed the most.

 

You are far better finding out for yourself as there are far to many 'spats' on here. Hope you do come over and have an enjoyable time, which i'm sure you will at whatever show you decide to attend.

yours in sport Ian

Could'en agree with you more Ian.

 

Your right as usual Albert.

[Irish Lurcher 1,013]

I am at a loss as to the attack on myself for furnishing RYNADEMAN with info regarding shows in Ireland. The man in question received information regarging a number of shows that he could attend and I am sure he would enjoy everyone of them. I am entitled to my own opinion on shows in Ireland and if people dont like it then please dont comment. Albert my reply to this man has nothing to do with you whats so ever, no more than your reply to him has nothing to do with me, I am at a loss at your reply, you made a fair and robust answer regarding your shows, to which you are entitled too, but please dont try force your opinion on me regarding which show I should suggest to people. I made the same kind gesture to another HL member some time ago(JIGSAW), and he along with his son were made very welcome at my home and really enjoyed the westmeath show that year. So Albert this is not a stab at you, I am been genuine regarding this offer to REYNARDMAN.

 

Just to add from what I hear from others lads the mourne show is one not to miss, I have never been, but plan to rectify this next year.

 

All the best at Birr.

[AlbertJ 569]

John,

 

You did not give an opinion you stated an absolute - you stated ''It is without question the best racing and showing event in Ireland'. By doing so you invited someone to question your statement - I did so with facts. . I am not trying to force my opinion on you I was merely giving some factual information to rebut what you declared as a fact not an opinion.

 

You did make a kind gesture to this chap and I genuinely applaud you for it - I took it as a kind gesture not a 'stab at me'.

 

As I said I have been at several terrier and lurcher shows over the years and I have admired the manner in which they have been organised, and in many cases what they do for charity. Unfortunately with fairs and magazines to run and chairing a gundog club I don't get to as many as I would like. I understand you have recently started to attend and report on quite a few shows and again I applaud you for doing this. In fact I think I actually congratulated you on at least one particularly good write up. So in many ways we are 'singing from the same hymn sheet.'

 

I do make an effort to get to Mourne as I have many fond memories of the area where it is held, the site is beautiful, usually gets great weather, the show is well organised with lots of little innovations and has raised substantial sums for charity. As a focused terrier & lurcher show I think it does a superb job and could arguably claim to be 'without question the best racing and showing event in Ireland'. The fairs also have terrier & lurcher shows - Moira and Borris organisers approach them in a different fashion - to our fairs and specialist terrier & lurcher shows. I think that is right because we are appealing to very different audiences. Mourne and other shows mainly cater for the enthusiast - the fairs have to cater for both enthusiasts and the public - as such, I see that we should concentrate on trying to attract competition of an all Ireland and international standard ( as we do with our gundogs and clay shooting) and have a prize structure equivalent to those sports AND I think we should demonstrate that terriers & lurchers are very much part of the country sports community. We should not compete with shows such as Mourne but complement them and help them where we can.

 

Thank you for your good wishes for Birr. I do hope we bump in to each other at some event where we can sort out whatever perceived differences you may have with me.

 

Albertj

[Sonny2009 33]

For f**k sake the man only asked could some recommend a good show to visit in my opinion any show without all the bitching and were there is a bit of craic is a good show

[gedro8888 77]

For f**k sake the man only asked could some recommend a good show to visit in my opinion any show without all the bitching and were there is a bit of craic is a good show

Well said greg ,unfortunately as you can see here them shows are becoming scarce.

[Irish Lurcher 1,013]

Albert I will state what I want and when I want. End off. I have no great interest in continuing this pointless bull shit with you.

 

Its my honest opinion and I stand by that.

[Sonny2009 33]

Yes gedro8888 there are becoming a thing of the past too many arse holes with there own agendas a man came on here to ask a fair question and it turns into this and this site is to promote shows in the country.thats why all the genuine lurcher guys are given up the shows I was chatting to a man who has been going to shows for the last forty odd years and says he will support a few of the good charity shows after that he is finished with shows and game fairs here now to me that says a lot about what's happened to the shows here

[gedro8888 77]

dead right sonny killing it off , (my shows better than your show) use to listen to this sort of s--t forty odd years ago ,(in a playground lol , roll on sunday see whos next to kick off, maybe we might just get lucky and everyone will enjoy it for what it is.