THE centenary launch of the Newcastlewest Agricultural Show took place on Thursday at the revamped Longcourt Hotel in Newcastlewest.

Members of the committee and local community joined guest speaker Minister of State Patrick O’Donovan to mark the 100th anniversary of the West Limerick show, which takes place on Sunday, July 15th.

It was only at last year’s show that an old show schedule was unearthed, dating back to September 17th 1918 and plans put in place to recognise the historic anniversary.

Minister O’Donovan stressed the importance of agriculture to the economy and underlined the importance of local events, such as summer shows. “If one was to look back on the minute books of the last 100 years of the Newcastlewest show, it would be obvious the contribution the show has made to the economic, social, political, cultural, agricultural and industrial landscape of West and indeed County Limerick,” said Minister O’Donovan.

The launch was opened by show public relations officer Griselda Williams and continued with acting chairman Liam Ruttle presenting long standing committee members Ned Lynch and Mary McCarthy with a token to mark the committee and community’s gratitude for their years of commitment to the Newcastlewest Agricultural Show. The pair have contributed a century of service to the show between them.

Local man Michael Healy recalled a piece he had written about the success of the 1954 Newcastlewest show, which attracted 4,000 people through the gates.

The current hardworking committee is striving to return the show to its former glory and in 2017, over 2,000 people attended show day, hosted on Terence Leonard’s farm.

Ronan Madigan, chairman of the Newcastlewest Chamber of Commerce, praised the committee show which also delivers a generous boost to the local economy.