There’s a priceless black and white photo of a 10-year-old Eddie Macken pictured on a pony, being led by the late Harry Farrelly, also associated with Longford Dog Track.

That was at Longford Show in 1960. Over the 58 years the show has been running, it has been held at various locations around the county but is now well established on the outskirts of Longford town.

“I got a phonecall from the late Marcella Higgins asking me to join the committee - here I am 22 years later,” its secretary dynamo Bernie Whyte said back in 2018. And then a pandemic.

So what’s it like being back at the helm after a three-year-gap? “For the past number of years I was asked: ‘Do I miss the show?’ and my answer was ‘No’. To be honest, I couldn’t understand how I could fit it in.

"However, in 2022, we were given the green light and we were out of the traps like children on holidays from school, enthusiastic and ready for action.

"‘Where to begin?’ was the question we were asking. First thing was we needed to secure our showgrounds, chase our sponsors, meetings were back on, they’re great craic, we really enjoy them.

The sponsors and supporters and local government agencies are central to the show and the Dept. of Agriculture, without their support we wouldn’t make it.

“We’re a great committee,” said Bernie about her cohorts, headed by chairman Charlie Murphy. “We’re friends, we have each other’s backs. If something goes wrong, we share the stress, if we have success, we share the success.

"They’re a very enthusiastic lot, meetings are great craic. I have to say we have a lot of slagging and a lot of laughter.

"I’d swear some of them just come to meetings for Olive’s tea brack and chocolate buns, I’ll get the spares to bring home to ‘himself’, he waits up. Sometimes I’m very late in from a meeting and it’s good to see the lights on.

“The sponsors and supporters and local government agencies are central to the show and the Dept. of Agriculture, without their support we wouldn’t make it.

"The stewards are invaluable, they give up their Sunday year after year and don’t make a compliment of it. The show site owners, the Plunkett family, so agreeable and generous,” she continued, listing the cast members of show day.

“The judges are fantastic, they’re so accommodating. No matter what I ask them, they’re so helpful and understanding, I really appreciate their help.”

Countdown

What does show countdown entail? “Pulling the schedule together, there’s a lot of work in it trying to sort out the classes, the dreaded late entry date, the dreaded closing date, last minute entries – last minute Ireland!

"We send out our schedules six weeks in advance but still we have people ringing the week after we close, saying ‘I didn’t...”, “I forgot…”, “I meant to enter, can you take it now? I go every year.”

“Trying to explain to exhibitors the importance of being catalogued and the effect it has on our insurance is almost impossible.

"Things that have come to light particularly this year are the messages and entries people send on Messenger and on WhatsApp, I find that the most frustrating. The writing on some of the entry forms – oh my god, I’m wondering is it Chinese or Japanese!

“Anyway, here we are, a couple of days out from it. It’s such a relief to have the catalogue gone to the printers, then it’s the class cards, the ring boxes, the rosettes, prizes and the cups. I have those almost sorted now.”

Show day

“Show day itself, the field is well on the way, we’ve been working on it for the past three or four days, we’ve a great turnout of help. At the minute, as I’m talking to you, it’s pouring rain. The Children of Prague will be out everywhere! If we don’t have a dry day, it will be very, very difficult.

“Show day itself, I leave here just before 7am. I set up my tent, as well as checking around the other sections of the show, wishing everybody good luck. At the end of the day, hopefully we’ll have great satisfaction.

"We’re a great team, we’re very good friends on the committee, everybody will congratulate everybody else. I should be home between 7 and 8pm, tired but happy. Buíochas le Dia.”

Postscript

Bernie Whyte should well be happy with how that Sunday went with a bumper crowd back at Longford Agricultural Show and Country Fair. And the Children of Prague worked.

Best of all, was seeing her new granddaughter Isabelle at the show, along with her mum, equine vet Maureen Manning. “As someone said ‘Old traditions with new additions!’” Maureen commented.

She, like her three siblings, Alice, Joanne and Thomas, grew up around Longford Show day. “Coming down to the show field, putting up the jumps, putting up the tape around the rings and then the night before the show was a very interesting night in Ardagh!

"Everybody would be in the kitchen, filling envelopes and sorting rosettes, cleaning jodhpurs and boots because we’d be competing ourselves.”

The Whyte family are noted competitors in Pony Club and Riding Club circles.

Fifth child

And then there’s what Maureen laughingly describes as “Mum and Dad’s fifth child”: Ardagh Highlight (Puissance x Kings Servant), Sam Watson’s Irish team silver medal horse at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon.

“We’d always say ‘Ben’ was our fifth sibling! He won a lot and we all had a good time on him. I had him for two seasons, Alice brought him to Dublin and Dad [Tom] did a lot of Riding Club competitions.

"We bought him as a foal, directly from the breeder, Teresa Walsh and then we sold him the year I started vet school around 2009/2010.” No doubt that Longford, just like it was for Eddie Macken, will be one of Isabelle’s first shows on a future ‘Ben’.