Sunday 21 May saw the Belclare breed return to its roots. Corofin, Co Galway, was the venue for the Belclare’s 35th anniversary Bimeda National Championships. The show, which also hosted the Connacht sheep-shearing championships, saw a huge turnout and the good weather only added to the atmosphere.

The opening class was the senior ram, which, after a lot of deliberation, went the way of Liam and Eoin Dunne of Tubber pedigrees. They produced a John Renehan-bred ram to take the prize, followed in second place by the Rathkenty pedigrees ram of Richard and John Lalor. Claiming third place in the class were Jimmy and Christina Hannon from the Hollymount Flock, Co Mayo.

Following on from this was the hogget ram class, which in the end proved to be a very close-run contest. In the end, it went the way of the Knockcroghery homebred ram of Declan and Joe Miley. This was the first of many winners for the Miley outfit.

Following in second was local breeder Sonny Jennings, displaying last year’s champion ram lamb Rathkenty Beethoven. Very close in third place was Eunan and Mark Bannon’s entry .

The next class, the aged ewe, quickly provided the Mileys with a double by supplying them with both first and second places. First in this class was taken by their many-time champion hogget ewe of last year (it secured overall breed champion on more than one occasion). The yellow ribbon for third prize went the way of Liam and Eoin Dunne.

The hogget ewe class followed and was a repeat performance for the Knockcroghery flock, which took top honours and also secured second prize, while third place again went the way of the Tubber flock.

A large display of quality ram lambs were next to enter the show ring and after a lot of tough decisions, judge Tom Flannigan placed them in order. First prize again went the way of the Knockroghery flock, which produced a super lamb with great conformation to hold off stiff competition from the second-placed Rathkenty Chopin, a lamb with tremendous length and scope. Competition was extremely tough in this class and third prize was awarded to local breeder Jimmy Hannon.

The final class was the ewe lamb class where the Mileys rose to the top once again to take the red rosette. The blue ribbon in this class was awarded to Liam and Eoin Dunne, with third place going the way of the Rathkenty pedigrees’ ewe lamb.

Judge Tom Flannigan had one remaining task when all the first-prize winners entered the ring for the championship. It was the senior ram of Liam and Eoin Dunne which was crowned overall champion, with the hogget ewe from Knockcroghery being tapped forward as reserve champion.