One of the organisers of the fair, Pat O'Shea explained the re-emergence of the fair and how it tied in with the horse racing at nearby Stradbally beach.

Listen to Pat in the podcast below.

Gerard McCarthy, Pat O'Shea and Colleen Bowler.

"A young fella by the name of Dylan Fitzgerald, a transition year student, decided it was time the horse racing returned to Castlegregory. He built a committee around him and we held the first horse race here since 1930 last year.

Then we decided while we were at that we’d restore the fair as well."

A bit of bargaining going on.

The committee wanted it to be a real life working fair and felt that while showing the tourists how it was done was important there needed to be some reality to the proceedings.

A good selection of stock changed hands at the fair.

Pat said: "Last year was a huge success with a lot of stock bought and sold here. Next year, we’d be looking for more stock and more buyers to come and if they do I think there could be a future for it. The cattle fair was always the second Saturday of the month so we said we’d stick with that and with the festival on in July. It’s now part of the summer festival."

Some of the stock on offer.

The coming of the marts meant the demise of the fair. Castegregory last held a fair in 1970. Prior to that it held 25 fairs a year. Cattle and pigs had separate fair days every month while there was a Turkey fair on the 8th of December.

"The pig fairs continued until about 1953 when the train stopped running between Castlegregory and Tralee," explained Pat.

"Buyers used to come out on the livestock train, each with their own carriage and pigs would be loaded into them and on to Tralee. With the marts getting busy that was the end of the fair."

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With stronger regulation regarding animal movements compared to the fair days of old those selling stock had their certificates of compliance at the ready for cattle while, sheep and pigs were tagged and had their own paper work.

A miniature pony and her filly foal turned up for a day out.