It takes a colossal amount of work to organise an agricultural show, but willingness, workers and a family tradition of involvement are in great supply in south Co Wexford, where the Bannow & Rathangan Show is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
In their office in Killag, some of the main movers gather to look back on the history of their show.
Eamon Furlong is well versed in how it developed. That’s because his father, John Joe, was one of the founders. The first show was held in 1949, an offshoot of a ploughing society established in 1933. His father was chair of the show until he died in 1972.
While there have been a few difficult years, it has been a meteoric rise Eamon says.
“It began with four trade stands and 700 entries on 10 acres at home in Littlegraigue (eight miles from where it is held now in Killag), but this year there will be 350 trade stands and 3,500 entries on 110 acres.”
He pays tribute to site owners, James and Veronica White, who provide the site each year.
“They are three weeks without that land as we get ready for the show, so we’re deeply indebted to them.”
But why does Eamonn do this voluntary work?
“The way it was in our house, if you were born in the place you had to go work in the show and that was it,” he says. He also gets a lot of satisfaction from it.
“It’s lovely to be involved with something that is such a great success and is so popular amongst the people of Co Wexford and beyond. You’d be tired the evening of the show yes, but you’d look back and be glad when everything’s gone well after all the work.”
He admits, though, that running the show hasn’t always been easy.
“In 1980 we were struggling, but Eddie White and John Gore stepped in and brought the show to Killag and the rest is history. It started out just as a horse show, then home industry was brought in in 1983 and it really took off then.”
But why is it always held on a Thursday?
“Because it used to be a closed day in Wexford town so it was a good day to get a crowd. Some say now, ‘Why not have it on a Saturday?’ but why change when we’re going well?”
Betty Stafford
Chair
Betty Stafford has been chair since 2007 and considers the Bannow/Rathangan Show to be truly blessed.
“We have a core committee of 60 people and everyone has pride in the show and wants to see it succeed. Friends come together and the camaraderie on the field for the weeks beforehand is absolutely brilliant.”
Five hundred volunteers help out on show day and they don’t have to be asked, she says.
“They just turn up, they know exactly what corner of the field they are going to be working in. It’s like a well-oiled machine at present. Without those people we would not be able to run the show.”
Hospitality is something that the Bannow & Rathangan Show organisers have always been conscious of, she adds. “My father, Kevin Breen, also a founder, always said a cup of tea goes a long way.”
The committee have re-invested profits over the years too, she says, building their new office, a new entrance, bridge, catering shed and they upgraded the cattle section last year.
“Any money we make goes back in.” The committee are also very conscious of giving value for money.
Betty Stafford and Anne White of the Bannow & Rathangan Show committee.
“Our slogan is ‘A fun day out for all the family’ and we do our best to deliver on that. There is no entry fee in the home industry section and children under 16 are free in, with adults charged €10. We’ve lots of free children’s entertainment on site so we mean what we say about value.”
Betty pays tribute to exhibitors and sponsors who are very loyal to the show. “They’re all so important to our success.”
Anne White
Secretary
The two-storey office for the show was built behind Anne White’s house – daughter of Eddie and Cissie White, whose home was the show hub for many years. Anne took over the job of secretary when she was just 14 years old and held that role for 40 years.
“I’ll always remember that day in 1976. I went to Babs Quigley’s with my father to collect the timber box with all the show stuff in it and I carried it out of the house. I wouldn’t be able to carry all the stuff now! I didn’t know what I was getting myself into either,” she says, laughing.
Elizabeth Freeman is secretary now, but Anne is still involved. Anne remembers her father and Paddy Murphy, a previous chair, going to other shows and asking people to enter and sponsor and bring trade stands to Killag.
“Gymkhanas were run too, to raise money in the days before sponsorship.”
Tomás (Mossy) Cullen
Volunteer
Tomás’s father, Nick, is in charge of the car parking at the show and his mother, Eileen, is a treasurer, so show involvement runs in his family too.
“I’ve been coming down since I was a chap and parking cars since I was 16,” he says.
Tomás Cullen has been parking cars at the show since he was 16.
“I started doing the clean-up the evening after where everyone from seven to 70 makes a line across the field picking up the papers. That’s the way most people start.”
Work on the car parks starts a few days before the show with grass cut in straight lines to set the rows. On show day it’s a case of hi-vis jacket on for an 8am start.
“The competitors especially would be early, the horse lorries and all. There are two fields and a total of 60 acres for car parking so it’s a busy day.”
Olive Power
Competitor – home industry
Olive Power has been competing in the show since she was a child.
“I dressed my sheepdog up for the best dressed dog competition and my doll for the best dressed doll competition at the age of nine. Then when I was working in Johnstown making soil maps, I got into photography, so I started entering those competitions.
“As my five children grew up they entered some of the baking competitions – we’d trek down with five lots of fairy cakes – and I started entering cakes then too. Nowadays my sons enter farm produce and my grand-daughter, Ella, has even started entering her Rice Krispie buns.”
Olive Power with her grandaughter Ella. Olive has been competing in the Bannow & Rathangan Show since she was a child.
Olive, who has won many prizes, says it’s not about what you win.
“While getting a prize is lovely, it’s the fun of entering and the anticipation of going to the tent after the judging to see how you’ve done. It adds to the day. I generally arrive around 10am and I don’t leave until the Hunt Chase is over at 8pm.” CL
Eamonn Crean of Greenhill Fruit Farm in Davidstown, Co Wexford has had a trade stand at the show for the past six years to showcase and sell his produce. He is very positive about the show.
“Even though it is very south of the county where you’d never imagine people would go, a huge population of people turn out for it,” he says.
“They have a super committee and it’s run really well and from a trade stand point of view; it’s very easy to get in and out of and there is a huge back-up of people there to help if you need it. Bannow/Rathangan is a talked-about show because of the people that are there. Another huge bonus is that it hardly ever rains there, so we always do well. It’s a very consistent show with a great name throughout Leinster.”
Horse breeder and judge Rosemary Connors from Waterford has been going to the show since she was a child.
“I loved it. It was a thrill to go across on the ferry and have the strawberries and ice cream. As I got older, I went there as a competitor and was then asked to judge, so now I judge some of the ridden classes and the National three-year-old championship final. The committee does their best to provide a platform to showcase the quality of horses that Ireland is famous for.
Horse breeder and judge, Rosemary Connors from Waterford, has been going to the show since she was a child.
“My father used to judge there and while all horses would have their manes plaited and so on now, he remembers farmers just pulling mares in out of the field to show them and one was as good as the next, he said. The three-year-old class brings qualifiers from all round the country.”
She is always impressed by the facilities in Killag.
“They are top class,” she says, “but the thing that always intrigues me is the tea tent. While the men are getting the rings ready, the farming women are also about the venue helping in whatever way they can. The banter and community effort in Bannow & Rathangan is great.”
Info:
Bannow & Rathangan Show takes place Thursday 11 July. Closing date for entries is 28 June. Visit www.bannowrathanganshow.com. The show won the Best Event Award (Tourism Section) at the 2019 South East Radio Hospitality Awards.
It takes a colossal amount of work to organise an agricultural show, but willingness, workers and a family tradition of involvement are in great supply in south Co Wexford, where the Bannow & Rathangan Show is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year.
In their office in Killag, some of the main movers gather to look back on the history of their show.
Eamon Furlong is well versed in how it developed. That’s because his father, John Joe, was one of the founders. The first show was held in 1949, an offshoot of a ploughing society established in 1933. His father was chair of the show until he died in 1972.
While there have been a few difficult years, it has been a meteoric rise Eamon says.
“It began with four trade stands and 700 entries on 10 acres at home in Littlegraigue (eight miles from where it is held now in Killag), but this year there will be 350 trade stands and 3,500 entries on 110 acres.”
He pays tribute to site owners, James and Veronica White, who provide the site each year.
“They are three weeks without that land as we get ready for the show, so we’re deeply indebted to them.”
But why does Eamonn do this voluntary work?
“The way it was in our house, if you were born in the place you had to go work in the show and that was it,” he says. He also gets a lot of satisfaction from it.
“It’s lovely to be involved with something that is such a great success and is so popular amongst the people of Co Wexford and beyond. You’d be tired the evening of the show yes, but you’d look back and be glad when everything’s gone well after all the work.”
He admits, though, that running the show hasn’t always been easy.
“In 1980 we were struggling, but Eddie White and John Gore stepped in and brought the show to Killag and the rest is history. It started out just as a horse show, then home industry was brought in in 1983 and it really took off then.”
But why is it always held on a Thursday?
“Because it used to be a closed day in Wexford town so it was a good day to get a crowd. Some say now, ‘Why not have it on a Saturday?’ but why change when we’re going well?”
Betty Stafford
Chair
Betty Stafford has been chair since 2007 and considers the Bannow/Rathangan Show to be truly blessed.
“We have a core committee of 60 people and everyone has pride in the show and wants to see it succeed. Friends come together and the camaraderie on the field for the weeks beforehand is absolutely brilliant.”
Five hundred volunteers help out on show day and they don’t have to be asked, she says.
“They just turn up, they know exactly what corner of the field they are going to be working in. It’s like a well-oiled machine at present. Without those people we would not be able to run the show.”
Hospitality is something that the Bannow & Rathangan Show organisers have always been conscious of, she adds. “My father, Kevin Breen, also a founder, always said a cup of tea goes a long way.”
The committee have re-invested profits over the years too, she says, building their new office, a new entrance, bridge, catering shed and they upgraded the cattle section last year.
“Any money we make goes back in.” The committee are also very conscious of giving value for money.
Betty Stafford and Anne White of the Bannow & Rathangan Show committee.
“Our slogan is ‘A fun day out for all the family’ and we do our best to deliver on that. There is no entry fee in the home industry section and children under 16 are free in, with adults charged €10. We’ve lots of free children’s entertainment on site so we mean what we say about value.”
Betty pays tribute to exhibitors and sponsors who are very loyal to the show. “They’re all so important to our success.”
Anne White
Secretary
The two-storey office for the show was built behind Anne White’s house – daughter of Eddie and Cissie White, whose home was the show hub for many years. Anne took over the job of secretary when she was just 14 years old and held that role for 40 years.
“I’ll always remember that day in 1976. I went to Babs Quigley’s with my father to collect the timber box with all the show stuff in it and I carried it out of the house. I wouldn’t be able to carry all the stuff now! I didn’t know what I was getting myself into either,” she says, laughing.
Elizabeth Freeman is secretary now, but Anne is still involved. Anne remembers her father and Paddy Murphy, a previous chair, going to other shows and asking people to enter and sponsor and bring trade stands to Killag.
“Gymkhanas were run too, to raise money in the days before sponsorship.”
Tomás (Mossy) Cullen
Volunteer
Tomás’s father, Nick, is in charge of the car parking at the show and his mother, Eileen, is a treasurer, so show involvement runs in his family too.
“I’ve been coming down since I was a chap and parking cars since I was 16,” he says.
Tomás Cullen has been parking cars at the show since he was 16.
“I started doing the clean-up the evening after where everyone from seven to 70 makes a line across the field picking up the papers. That’s the way most people start.”
Work on the car parks starts a few days before the show with grass cut in straight lines to set the rows. On show day it’s a case of hi-vis jacket on for an 8am start.
“The competitors especially would be early, the horse lorries and all. There are two fields and a total of 60 acres for car parking so it’s a busy day.”
Olive Power
Competitor – home industry
Olive Power has been competing in the show since she was a child.
“I dressed my sheepdog up for the best dressed dog competition and my doll for the best dressed doll competition at the age of nine. Then when I was working in Johnstown making soil maps, I got into photography, so I started entering those competitions.
“As my five children grew up they entered some of the baking competitions – we’d trek down with five lots of fairy cakes – and I started entering cakes then too. Nowadays my sons enter farm produce and my grand-daughter, Ella, has even started entering her Rice Krispie buns.”
Olive Power with her grandaughter Ella. Olive has been competing in the Bannow & Rathangan Show since she was a child.
Olive, who has won many prizes, says it’s not about what you win.
“While getting a prize is lovely, it’s the fun of entering and the anticipation of going to the tent after the judging to see how you’ve done. It adds to the day. I generally arrive around 10am and I don’t leave until the Hunt Chase is over at 8pm.” CL
Eamonn Crean of Greenhill Fruit Farm in Davidstown, Co Wexford has had a trade stand at the show for the past six years to showcase and sell his produce. He is very positive about the show.
“Even though it is very south of the county where you’d never imagine people would go, a huge population of people turn out for it,” he says.
“They have a super committee and it’s run really well and from a trade stand point of view; it’s very easy to get in and out of and there is a huge back-up of people there to help if you need it. Bannow/Rathangan is a talked-about show because of the people that are there. Another huge bonus is that it hardly ever rains there, so we always do well. It’s a very consistent show with a great name throughout Leinster.”
Horse breeder and judge Rosemary Connors from Waterford has been going to the show since she was a child.
“I loved it. It was a thrill to go across on the ferry and have the strawberries and ice cream. As I got older, I went there as a competitor and was then asked to judge, so now I judge some of the ridden classes and the National three-year-old championship final. The committee does their best to provide a platform to showcase the quality of horses that Ireland is famous for.
Horse breeder and judge, Rosemary Connors from Waterford, has been going to the show since she was a child.
“My father used to judge there and while all horses would have their manes plaited and so on now, he remembers farmers just pulling mares in out of the field to show them and one was as good as the next, he said. The three-year-old class brings qualifiers from all round the country.”
She is always impressed by the facilities in Killag.
“They are top class,” she says, “but the thing that always intrigues me is the tea tent. While the men are getting the rings ready, the farming women are also about the venue helping in whatever way they can. The banter and community effort in Bannow & Rathangan is great.”
Info:
Bannow & Rathangan Show takes place Thursday 11 July. Closing date for entries is 28 June. Visit www.bannowrathanganshow.com. The show won the Best Event Award (Tourism Section) at the 2019 South East Radio Hospitality Awards.
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: