1. Financial footing
The most positive development for agricultural shows was the €2 million lifeline over the past three years in funding provided by the Department for Community and Rural Development.
Unveiled in 2017 by then-Minister Michael Ring T.D, the package was allocated to the 130 shows affiliated to the Irish Shows Association (ISA) and the financial boost it gave show committees simply cannot be underestimated.
Having 2020’s allocation of €5,000 per show ring-fenced by the Department has lessened the worry of planning post-Covid shows.
Likewise, the support of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) grant to offset vital insurance cover and Horse Sport Ireland’s showing championship series were other welcome boosts.
2. Goodbye, Michael
Another Michael to leave the agricultural show scene on a solid footing was the popular Michael Hughes, who retired from his role as ISA national secretary in 2018. No review would be complete without acknowledging the gift of his wisdom, commonsense approach and good humour to Irish shows.
Elm View, the three-time Dublin champion, with her owner Seamus Sloyan and his late father Seamus Snr \ Susan Finnerty
3. Balmoral’s Brave Move
Moving from its historic, yet outgrown, Kings Hall venue to a greenfield site at Balmoral Park in 2013 was a brave step for the Royal Ulster Agricultural Society (RUAS). Now firmly bedded in at its 65-acre home, Balmoral recently announced new dates for 2021 (September 22nd – 25th). Moving traditional dates was already a pre-Covid feature as shows tried to find an optimum date to maximise footfall.
Sealed with a kiss: 2019 Dublin Supreme Hunter Champion PJ Casey on Crown Star and his wife Sonya , Reserve Champion, on Greenhall Push Button \ Noel Mullins
4. And the supreme champion is ...
Balmoral was the setting last year for a Daphne Tierney and Jane Bradbury-produced treble with their latest supreme champion in Bloomfield Aristocrat (Kannan), bred by Enda Mulkere.
Daphne has also won the Dublin leading exhibitor title five times since 2010.
Another Banner County-bred champion hunter rounded off the ‘decade’ at Dublin last year, when following his 2018 win with Patrice Dorney’s Emperor Augustus gelding Somerville, PJ Casey won back-to-back titles.
Last year he was on board Crown Star (Shannonview Star. Laurence Culligan), while wife Sonya produced the reserve supreme; Derry Rothwell’s home-bred Greenhall Push Button (Financial Reward).
Coincidentally, Donal Goland’s 2011 Croker Cup champion Financial Reward is the sire too of Rosemary Connors’ Woodfield Xtra, the winning foal in the 2013 The Irish Field-sponsored Breeders Championship. His home-bred dam and dual Coote Cup champion Woodfield Valier (Lucky Valier) won the first of two Dublin supreme hunter titles this decade for Rosemary, as Woodfield Alight (Albano) also obliged in 2015.
Philip Scott leading Jim Tempany's Leader Star on her final lap of honour after retiring from the show ring at Dublin in 2012 \ Susan Finnerty
5. ‘The Holy Grail’
That’s how owners describe Thady Ryan’s brainchild – the mare and foal combination final known to all as the Breeders’ Championship.
Two families recorded doubles this decade. Derry Rothwell’s Millenium Cruise won with Carsonstown Calypso (Mermus R) in 2011 and her Cruising full-sister Greenhall Dot was champion the following year with her filly foal Greenhall Vivendi Cruz (Ars Vivendi).
The Roche family’s Assagart My Only Hope (Big Sink Hope) was the winning dam twice (2014, 2017) with Castleforbes Lord Lancer colts at foot.
Her 2014 foal, Assagart Lord Dancer, returned to Ring 1 three years later to win the Dublin young horse championship.
All Smiles - Ballard Eagle, Seamus Lehane's 2010 Laidlaw Cup champion \ Susan Finnerty
6. Youngsters
Seamus Lehane’s Ballard Eagle (Master Imp) swooped to win the Laidlaw Cup title in 2010, the same year as his Clonakilty owner won the leading exhibitor award. Gina Heaps’s Carrowgar Herald (Herald III) is the current titleholder and his handler Rebecca Monahan recorded her own Laidlaw Cup win in the middle of the decade with her all-conquering Notalot (Lancelot. Jim Wallace). She also became the first filly to take the always hard-won All Ireland three-year-old final at Bannow & Rathangan that July.
Dromara showman Dessie Gibson won the leading Dublin exhibitor award three times, most recently in 2018 after another Laidlaw Cup win with Greenhall Treasure Island (Island Commander).
7. Going Native
Along with a resurgence of racehorse to riding horse and side-saddle classes, the rising popularity of ridden Irish Draught classes was another positive note. Fort Knocks, Pat Loughlin and Pearl O’Rourke’s pure-bred Draught, became another breed advertisement after his Dublin supreme hunter champion win in 2016.
His sire Gortfree Hero (Castana) not only became a triple Dublin champion himself with his third win in 2018 but also produced Gortfree Lakeside Lad. Also owned by Sean Barker, he won two Irish Draught performance titles (2017, 2018) and then the working hunter title (2019) at Dublin.
With two wins (2017, 2019), Jimmy and Edel Quinn’s Cappa Aristocrat (Star Kingdom) closed in on stable companion Cappa Cassanova’s Dublin triple crown record.
Seamus Sloyan’s Elm View (Elm Hill) recorded her own Dublin champion treble and national supreme titles, a record which also resulted in her breeder Raymond Sloyan receiving a matching collection of Horse Sport Ireland breeders awards.
Eddie Murphy’s Holycross Grace (Holycross) and Sean Ruane’s Strictly Come Bouncing (Moylough Bouncer) were two more big winners to receive HSI awards. Pat and James Hoare enjoyed a run of Dublin successes, from Pat’s 2012 mare champion Moylough Pearl (Agherlow) to James most recent win with last year’s champion foal Dowdstown Finn (Moylough Legacy).
The late Ruth Rogers took this picture of Joe Burke and his 2014 Roundstone supreme champion Banks Timber. The stallion went on to win the Mountain & Moorland ridden title at Olympia in 2018
8. To Connemara
Connemara ponies were always the domain of the late Ruth Rogers. She and Mary Davison, who passed away last January, photographed countless champions and their work takes pride of place in many Irish homes.
Ruth’s Midland Connemara Pony Breeders flagship show, the CPBS presentation to Connemara stalwarts Ado Kenny, Mairtin Nee and the late Miceál Higgins at Clifden in 2017, Niamh O’Dochartaigh’s tireless work documenting Connemara class results, Joe Burke’s Banks Timber (Teglstrup Duke) landing the overall Mountain & Moorland ridden title at Olympia in 2018, Robbie Fallon’s Cashel Bay Rocket (Cashel Bay Prince) completing a HOYS, Dublin and Clifden ridden champion grand slam the following year, Katie Curran’s Glencarrig Princess Katie (Glencarrig Prince) leading the parade of champions through Clifden as its 2019 supreme champion and the same showgrounds hosting the inaugural Foal of the Year Show that September when Cathy Snow’s Moorland Silver River, (Moorland Snowy River) was its first champion are some highlights.
9. The Crown
Ghareeb’s daughters reigned in broodmare classes and HSI Breeders Awards this decade with two winning Breeders’ Championship dams in Patrick Wafer’s Parkmore Evita (2019) and Paula Howard’s Slatequarry Sasha (2016). Both mares won the Coote Cup championship in the same week. Maurice and Seamus Wafer’s Miss Conci and Stephen Culliney’s Kilkeany Mystic were two more big winners for Jay Bowe’s stallion while P.J Lehane’s P.J’s Delight (Lux Z), Kieran Fahey’s Madam Noir (Kings Master) and Julia Crosbie’s Hankalaine (Hankalo) were consistently in the results.
2010 was the year the exquisite Leader Star (I’m A Star) retired. Owner Jim Tempany made this wise decision for her to bow out at the top following a fourth Coote Cup championship victory to add to various All Ireland and Breeders’ Championship wins. Of the many champions that have graced the showring, the Luke Morley-bred regal grey just had that something extra.
10. Telling a thousand words
From a kaleidoscope of show scenes of beribboned champions, two special ones were taken minutes apart during the 2010 Dublin parade of champions; a sombre Philip Scott with Leader Star on her last lap of honour, and a beaming Seamus Lehane with his Laidlaw Cup-winning two-year-old Ballard Eagle.
‘Heavenwards’, the fluke shot of John Roche’s upwards glance after hearing his name called as the winner of the 2014 Breeders Championship, is priceless.
There are dozens more telling their own unique story; the late Colm Costello pictured stepping out at Mohill with his dun stallion Killaneen Boy, Jarlath Grogan and granddaughter Darcy holding Hillside Rose at Athenry, stone wall jumping champion John McGoldrick at Kildysart, Tara Oliver’s delightful reaction shot from Charleville and the rare sight of vet Philip McManus taking a day off to lead Silver Shadow at Dublin.
The favourite sequence of photos is of Jane Gibbons and Sianlee Picasso caught on Carrowmore’s Blue Flag beach at Louisburgh in 2015. A wise old pony, ‘hair down’, watching the Wild Atlantic Way waves with his smiling owner – what a way to end a show day and image to end a bizarre year and highlight-filled decade.
Jane Gibbons and Sianlee Picasso paddle on idyllic Carrowmore beach after the Louisburg Horse Show in 2015 \ Susan Finnerty