Ireland Birr Castle Game Fair 2013

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The town of Birr is located in County Offaly between Roscrea and Athlone. Nestleing on the edge of this midland town is Birr Castle, home to Lord and Lady Rosse and their family, and the oldest inhabited Castle in the county. This was the venue for the Irish Game Fair and Country Lifestyle Festival Saturday 31^st August and Sunday 1^st September 13. For weeks in advance, every country sports man and women were planning their life around this great event.

 

Well that big day arrived bright and early on Sunday morning at 4.00am with the tingling ring of the alarm clock, telling us it was time to head to Birr Castle and the Game Fair we have looked forward to all year. With car loaded up, dogs in tow, and Sat Nav set, we headed up the motorway to Newry to meet up with the rest of the good Canine folk from Lurgan and Belfast who were joining us for the journey down to Birr. Three hours and 10mins later we arrived in Birr, and the start of a great sporting day.

 

After letting the dogs stretch there legs from the long journey down, fed and watered, and comfortably back in trailer, we headed up to the show for a good browse around the stands and join in all the fun of the fair. We were not disappointed. Crowds of people were coming into the show in their droves, and the atmosphere was electric.

We visited the Barbour stand, and the Big Wellington stand, ( I am told “Bluebell” Deidre Mc Coy fell into the Wellington with Albert Titterington, and the fire brigade had to pull them out. Poor Irene was in an awful state) that will teach Bluebell not to be so nosy in the future. We dropped into “ Out Door Expierence “ from Portadown and spent some Euros there. Breakfast was had along the way in the restaurant on site, and very tasty it was. Some good bargains were picked up also along the way.

 

Stephen Mc Gonigle was one busy man with the ferret competition. Some fun with those little creatures. The Ferret competitions have become very popular at the Dog shows and Game fairs this year. Lets hope we will have same in 2014. I am told Jed Donagh has the fastest Ferret in the South. Well done Jed and your little furry friends, and well done to Stephen too.

We met up with some old friends along the way and also some new ones. It was nice to speak to Denis Couch, who came all the way up from Co Cork, and David Dickinson and his wife from Rathnew in Co Wicklow. Lovely friendly people, and a pleasure to speak to. I also made friends with Harry Cook, the resident camera man. What a nice man and a great conversationilst. On a sadder note, I met up with some very close friends of the late Thomas Mc Cormick. I knew by their facial expressions, they were hurting and missing desperately their best friend. You are always in our thoughts.

 

As digging time was getting closer we headed back down towards the Canine area , mindful of not missing the digging competition. The digging area was buzzing with the sound of shovels. pick axes and spades. Tango and Patsy Mc Coy with stop watches at the ready, the digging commenced with a flurry of cheers and excitement.

Soon tea shirts were flying in the air, muscles and tattoos exposed, and every man and woman digging for glory. As time passed quickly, the fog horne blew, and the digging was over. After Albert Titterington and Tango got the spirit level and measuring tape out, the winners was quickly declared as follows.

 

Shane Gilmartin & Keith Breen -117mm

Paddy Gilmore & Shane Larkin - 162m

Mark Riggs & Mark Smith - 220mm

William Simpson & Robert Mc Kay - 227m

Seamo & Pat - 265mm

Peter Morgan & Dessie Mackin - 277mm

Brian Crothers & Glen Doherty - 285mm

Brendan Coleman & Chris Angus - 320mm

Flower & JP - 333mm

Joanne Young & Sharon Reid - 556mm

Charlene Rafferty & leanne Hawthorne - 593mm

*Congratulations to Shane Gilmartin and Keith Breen, who are the proud winners of the Digging Competition Birr Castle 13 Also congratulations to all the other diggers who took part. You are all winners in my eyes, especially the 2 ladies teams. Good on you girls. We women are all very proud of you.

Showing commenced at approximately 1.30pm, followed at 5.00pm with the Five Nations. I had put up the showing results seperately on all sites as there are too many to include in this write up.

Five Nations Championship Winners

Terriers

Rushill Dodge with Martin Hume

Lurchers

Fiona Devlin with Maverick

A Big congratulations to you both. A great achievement with your loyal Canine friends.

And congratulations to all the other winners on the day.

 

And Finally, I would like to thank the judges for a job well done. As there were a large number of dogs in every class, you carried out your duties with efficiency and accuracy. Judges were : Margaret Mc Stay – Pets / Patsy Mc Coy – Whippets/ Roy Nixon – Lurchers / Kevin Maguire – Terriers. Five Nations/ Dessie Mackin/John Hendricks/Pat Daniels/ Tommy Cullen/Pat Mc Grath/ Shane Gimartin. Many thanks for a job well done. Bluebell and Billy Harpur were there with their Hi Tek camera, recording our every moment of glory. What would we do without both of you.

 

The Roscrea team, what a professional bunch of people. You seem to have the knack of making things run smoothly and efficently. Many thanks for a weekend of great sportsmanship and results. As a team I rate you highly, and hopefully we will see more of same next year. Thanks for your friendship.

 

And Finally, Finally, as the saying goes, I always leave the best to last, and I mean that quite literally. May I take this opportunity to thank Albertj Titterington, his beautiful wife Irene, and his Co Directors and team of helpers for another great weekend and Game Fair at Birr Castle. Albert, please do not think of retiring, as you are irreplaceable. There is nobody on this earth can fill your shoes.Your kind, caring and courteous to all our Canine folk at all times. You listen and advise, and above all, you have a heart of gold.Albert, behind every good man is a good woman, and you certainly are blessed with Irene at your back. Albert and Irene, heart felt thanks for your friendship and loyality, and your Game Fairs. You send us away with lovely happy memories of a summer gone by, to mull around in our minds at our firesides in the long cold snowy winters nights. Thanks for everything, and look forward to same in 2014.

 

 

 

Margaret Mc Stay

[AlbertJ 569]

Margaret, Thanks for the compliments particularly to the Roscrea lads for their organisation of two days of top class events; Kieran Young for delivering another great digging championship and to my wife Irene who already covered a great deal of the work associated with the fairs also taking on most of the late Philip Lawton's workload as well as her own. She says if I hadn't wanted her looking after the gate receipts I would have had her doing the commentary as well!

[shane-1 31]

lovely stuff Margaret and thanks very much for judging for us job very well done.Thank you all for being so helpful over the wk end it was a pleasure working wit you all great to see such a big croud wit some smashing dogs being showing.Thank you to albert and the team for having US take a big part in the game fair i must say albert is cool as a breeze and is a top top man at his

job a very successful man who delivers what he says wit the game fairs in Ireland well done.

 

hope everyone had a good week end and got home safe until the next time take care. Shane lee Roscrea working dog social club

[AlbertJ 569]

Thanks Shane but apart from experience what makes me be able to relax is that Paul Pringle and I know that we have put together a good professional and creative marketing campaign; my team on the ground building the fair work hard and know what they are doing; the estate team for their input; our fellow director David Wilkinson looking after postering, horse and hounds and the Mount Palmer and car park areas; Edwin - exhibitor liaison and site at night; AND the undoubted 'STAR' of the team Irene - who looks after administration, finances, main gate and still found time to take over Philip's HQ communications role. It is also reassuring to know events are in the capable hands of a good organising team like your own and that during the event we can call on some of our other event organisers to 'lend a hand'. For example just before and during the Five Nations I was literally required to be in three places at the one time and was able to involve the excellent organising skills of Kieran Young and Steven McGonagle to ensure that the top Irish Terrier & Lurcher showing events ran very smoothly. I hope I didn't hear them muttering that this deserved a Five Nations Whippet Championship next year!

[one 2 ground 0]

Great day allround fair play to me mate shameo was not supposed to be diggin but jumped in to make up the numbers hard luck to paddy and shane great diggin by all can't wait for next year..