REVIVING an event that was once hugely popular is always daunting because past glories can’t always be relived. But Emily MacMahon’s decision to stage a renewal of the Lambertstown Derby Show, on this occasion in association with the Meath Hunt, proved an absolute triumph last Sunday.

It was the unexpected free time created by the countrywide lockdown in late spring/early summer that prompted Emily, and boyfriend Philip Guckian, to spruce up the Derby fences. And as they came back to life, so did the idea of re-running the event created by her late father, Lt. Col Ronnie MacMahon, whose course has always had a formidable reputation.