October 05, 2003
Horse Sense
County councils around Ireland have allocated three million euros to round up stray horses around the country this year. The nags are kept in a stables in Urlingford, a sort of Stalag 17 for equines. Well, it's more like a pawn-shop actually, since the strays can be reclaimed for two weeks before…well… you don't want to know.
No doubt a few future residents of the Urlingford facility will be on show in Ballinasloe this weekend, where the horse fair is taking place.
This is the weekend that the other 'horse set' in Ireland comes out to play - not the people you'll see at the Galway races, Leopardstown, or the stud farms of Kildare. No, the people buying and selling in Ballinasloe hail from halting sites or farms across the land and the ponies and horses on sale are the sort only their owners could love. Christy Moore really needs to write a song about this festival - every chancer, dealer, dodger, knacker and mickey-scratcher in the country - and beyond - turn up to wheel and deal, have a few pints, down plenty of burgers and chips and enjoy the delights of Ballinasloe.
They must have got Pudsy Ryan to write the signs.
I paid a visit on Friday (it really kicks off on Saturday). The real action was on the Fair Green. Many Travellers had parked their caravans under St. John's Church at the Fair Green. They had a ringside view of the tarmac track that was being used to race buggies. There were four horse-and-buggy riders tearing up and down the tarmac strip, surrounded by a crowd cheering them on. None sparing the rod to encourage their charge - any hesitation on the part of the pony was met with a swift cut of the whip. The horses would be raced full-tilt up the track, slowing to turn and race back down the track, before skidding to a halt at the gravel run off at the end of the track, to be surrounded by both admirers and buyers.
The experience of Irish horse fairs, in the eyes of a Traveller, can be found here.(Traveller homepage here)
Posted by Monasette at October 5, 2003 10:37 PM | TrackBack