Show volunteers, headaches and relaxation opportunities

OPINION Stand in the Gap with Kathleen Duffy.

Flicking through the Virginia Show’s 80th prize list, it makes one aware of the diversity of skills that are alive and well in rural Ireland with over 500 different classes. Many, who work with animals and poultry love to show them, while others have interest in the farm and garden produce, fruit and flowers, home industries such as baking, jam making, wine making, honey, needlework or craftwork. Others are more skilled in the arts, painting, photography, handwriting, short story writing, with special sections for social inclusion of all age groups and levels. There are confined classes in all sections as well. The children’s classes are very popular, as are the dog and pet classes.

When we look back in history, we see the value of farming throughout the ages. The Anglo-Celt records show that Virginia had agricultural shows in the late 1800s when Lord Headfort held annual events for over 20 years. The results published in the Celt on September 15 for the 1860 show tells us there were classes for cows, cattle, sheep, sows etc. but also crops in fields, poultry and butter. The show was confined to all of Lord Headfort’s lands.

In 1941 the first show took place under the auspices of Muintir Na Tire following a very successful rural week in 1940. Part of it was held in the Town Hall while other classes like “the best managed agricultural holding” received the Rev T A Finlay S J (pioneer of the Agricultural Co-operative movement) Perpetual Challenge Cup.

Wheat and oats, sugar beet were all exhibited. This show was confined to the Parish of Lurgan.

Virginia Show Society was set up in 1942 and now has 200-plus members. The membership is drawn primarily from the farming community in Virginia and the surrounding areas of Bailieborough, Ballyjamesduff, Billis, Carnaross, Castlerahan, Cross, Killinkere, Lurgan, Maghera, Mullagh, Munterconnaught, Oldcastle and is very much cross community in nature. The Society, whose stewards in some cases are fourth generation of the same family, has successfully run Virginia Agricultural Show for 80 Years. The show itself consists of almost 500 classes and 3,500 exhibits annually.

In the past, the Society through its member have successfully ensured the building of both the Farmers Hall and the original Virginia Vocational School, now further developed by Cavan ETB as Virginia College. The Society had organised very successful carnivals and dances in the ballroom for many years, usually for four nights a week creating good business for the local town. In 2014 we opened a rural resource centre on the Showgrounds, again with facilities for the whole community and operates under the company name of Virginia Show Centre Ltd.

All of these events took people to put their shoulder to the wheel to turn ambitious ideas into reality. We have had some great people on our committee over the last 80-plus years.

This year is going to be different as we have again lost key people. Last Show Day we were reeling from the sudden death of Sean Farrelly, our beloved former President, just days before. Since then, we have lost another former President, Brian Cahill, much loved for singing and entertaining and his work at the Show. We also have lost three Honorary Presidents, Jimmy Markey who was steward in the Horse section. PJ Keating who was first on the field the morning of the Show guiding people to their places and Patsy McEnroe who was pivotal in the running of the show alongside his wife Una a brilliant exhibitor who has also passed away.

However we had the shock deaths of two of the younger volunteers, firstly John Smith who videoed the shows for many years. John helped me despite not being a member when I was Press Officer with the new Facebook and twitter pages, getting videos snippets including of the visit to the Show Committee of President Mary McAleese just three weeks before Queen Elizabeth came to Ireland and many more historic memories.

The committee was again absolutely shocked last month at the death of one of our youngest members, David O'Connell. David's father, Eamonn has stewarded the New Street and has been in charge of all the entrances for years. David along with his brothers, Hugh, Ciaran and Brian all learned the ropes from their father, while Martina stewards in the Main Hall. David was exceptionally talented with new technologies and soon became wanted for all things technical. We will miss his pleasant smile, his generosity in sharing his time, talents and advice. Like the others, he extended endless kindness and patience towards all his fellow volunteers. We will miss them all this year.

On the farm there is no sign of dry weather, so it is great to have a diversion and something to look forward to towards the end of summer. The long summer days are scarce, but the real dry conditions in June meant slow growth of grass for dry farms. Now the rain is incessant and ground is waterlogged. The price we are paid is edging too close to the cost of production. Doing a cash flow budget is enough to give you a headache, and that’s without the cost of expansion. It was predicted, but cannot be cushioned with the costs of production so high.

Grassland management is becoming more crucial with the co-ops dropping the price of milk. The grass cover should be better but the weather is playing havoc. We had our Bord Bia inspection last week - that should be ok for another year.

Maybe we should change what we do on farms. Up the road here, Moynalty Yoga festival will take to the fields of Rahtinree located between Billywood Cross and Loughan Cross, next weekend. There are workshops in movement, meditation, Tai Chi, and lots of yoga and relaxation also talks on sustainable building to animal healing to social farming.

Now if only we could guarantee the weather, wouldn’t that be a lovely break from inspections and farming. Even the cows would enjoy looking out through a gap for a short time.