“Embrace, engage and enjoy” – those three Es are just words until one meets the two enthusiastic people who have adopted them as their motto in the formation of the Midlands Youth Group whose aim is to have more young people involved in the planning, organisation and running of our traditional country agricultural shows.

Both Ray Brady and Paula Loughran have long been dedicated workers within their respective local shows.

Paula is now the chair of the Tydavnet Show in Co Monaghan. Ray has been steward, vice-chair and overall volunteer within the Co Cavan show at Arva.

Both now represent the 20 Midland Region Shows on the national board of the Irish Shows Association. In face-to-face conversation with them, I found that they do indeed embody those three words of embrace, engage and enjoy.

Forming a Group

Explaining the genesis of this youthful project they say: “From attending shows both in the Midland Region and nationally and speaking with people involved in those shows we identified a common trend – most people running long standing events were of an older generation. We were continuously told that the shows would like to get the younger generation involved but found it difficult to address the issue.”

So back in 2019, just before the COVID-19 cancellations took hold, Paula and Ray began a pilot project in their own region aimed at finding a solution.

They invited young people from numerous shows to join an informal meeting via Zoom. The fresh energy, adaptability and technical knowledge that they encountered gave them the encouragement to form the permanent group that now meets via Zoom on a regular basis. “They are smart, fun and capable,” says Ray. Paula adds that the language used is informal, fresh and honest but above all she found a willingness to pitch in and add their expertise to get things done.

Paula outlined one problem solving incident which demonstrates what can be done. “At Tydavnet Show we invested in a software package to help us run our event more efficiently. Up until 2018, like many other shows, we were all paper based. While this new package could put much more online, we had to ask the question ‘who is going to do this?’ Lucky enough we had a young member of our committee, who up until then had sat quietly at meetings, who volunteered to take it on. She worked with the company we had bought the package from and she is now showing me how to work it for online entries payments and other time-consuming tasks. She took up the challenge, enjoyed it and in the end was able to say, ‘that’s sorted!’ ”

The Midland group is willing to not only help their own shows, but to pitch in more nationally as well. Paula and Ray can be contacted on 087-226 3684 (Ray) or 086-873 6748 (Paula).